The lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by Disability Rights Oregon and A Better Childhood against the Oregon foster care system are 10 youths currently in foster care.
The federal class-action suit was filed April 16 on behalf of all current and future foster children in Oregon. It demands the governor and leaders of the Oregon Department of Human Services be held accountable for problems within the state’s foster care system.
These stories are some of the testimonies presented in the lawsuit:
Three-year-old Wyatt and 1-year old Noah have been in DHS custody off and on since September 2018 due to allegations of domestic violence and drug abuse in their home. Wyatt was born with a congenital heart defect and takes medications three times a day. Despite having entered foster care with no special needs, other than Wyatt’s medical condition, the children have moved constantly until they were finally separated, and Wyatt faces another move imminently.
While the boys were placed in foster care together, there were at least two mix-ups concerning Wyatt’s medication, with Wyatt’s medications being given to Noah, a situation that has been described as “a potentially life-threatening mistake.” The boys have now been separated.
The trauma of being removed from his mother and cycled through a dozen homes has left Wyatt with significant behavioral issues, including fits where he flails, hits, kicks, screams and throws things. Noah has night terrors, screaming loudly in the middle of the night while appearing to remain asleep. His foster parent tries to soothe him until he wakens but the cycle begins again. Noah needs be held constantly and throws a tantrum if he is put down or if focus is moved away from him.
Kylie, age 7, and Alec, age 8, are sister and brother in DHS custody since late January after being removed from their mother due to allegations of neglect and substance abuse. Although the children have only been in foster care for two months, Kylie has already had five different placements and Alec has had four. Kylie has run away from two foster homes to try to find her mother, and has had worsening tantrums while in placement, though none of her foster parents have been told about the trantrums or given any help in dealing with them.
At one foster home, Kylie and Alec were were dropped off on a Friday afternoon and the foster parents were not even provided with their last name or their Oregon Health cards. Those foster parents took Kylie to a hospital, concerned she might hurt herself, but were unable to complete the intake process because they didn’t know the children’s last name and were unable to reach DHS.
The children entered foster care with a severe lice infestation in their hair but received no treatment for that because none of the foster parents had Oregon Health numbers and could not therefore get appropriate treatment for the lice. Kylie has finally been treated for lice six weeks after she entered foster care, when her shoulder length hair had to be shaved off, and now refers to herself as a boy. Kylie has been placed in a residential psychiatric center, separated from her brother, who is in a temporary foster home.
Unique is 9 years old and has been in the custody of DHS for two and a half years. When Unique came into foster care, her mother experienced mental health issues, was verbally abusive to her children, and kept them out of school. Unique’s stepfather was sent to prison for sexually abusing Unique’s sibling and it was suspected he also sexually abused Unique. Unique’s mother has a long history with child welfare including having her parental rights terminated with respect to two older children.
Unique has changed placements a number of times and cycled through Jasper Mountain’s SAFE Center, a short-term 30- to 90-day program designed to help stabilize residents. However, because of DHS’ lack of therapeutic placements, Unique spent months at the SAFE Center well past her scheduled discharge dates.
In June 2017, Unique was moved to a therapeutic placement but when her behavior in her foster home began to decline after visiting with her mother, the foster family notified DHS that they could no longer provide care for her. Although Unique’s therapist informed DHS that her mother was unable to have Unique in her care, and because DHS did not have any therapeutic placements available, DHS returned Unique to her mother.
Shortly thereafter, Unique’s mother locked her outside on the porch and left messages with multiple professionals involved in the case demanding that Unique be removed from her home. In one voicemail message, the mother stated: “…it’s time for us to have someone come and intervene and get this little bitch out of my house, ‘cause I’m fucking done now, she can’t come back in, she’s on the porch, she ain’t allowed in my fucking house. All her shit is packed. . . .She gotta fucking go. She ain’t sleeping in here tonight. So, unless I need to call 911, somebody needs to fucking come and get her.” In a second voicemail message, Unique can be heard crying and screaming, “Mommy, please don’t do this.”
Unique was placed at the SAFE Center for a 72-hour stay, then moved to a temporary foster home, before being placed in an Oregon Community Program (OCP) therapeutic foster home.
On July 17, 2018, Unique received a psychiatric assessment, with an assessment that “Placement in a BRS (Behavior Rehabilitation Services) Treatment Foster Care home seems an appropriate level of care at this time to evaluate and stabilize her.” No such placement was found for her.
After Unique verbally and physically acted out and was destroying property. OCP requested an immediate discharge and Unique was again moved the SAFE Center for a short stay.
Between Aug. 16 and Oct. 23, Unique was placed at Albertina Kerr’s sub-acute facility in Portland, in a regular foster home in Veneta, and at least twice in the emergency department of a hospital. On Sept. 27, Unique walked into the street, yelling obscenities. She also stated she did not want to be alive and tried multiple times to walk into traffic.
In October, Unique was placed in Acadia Montana, a 108-bed residential treatment center for young people ages 5-18 in Butte, Montana, where the average stay lasts three to six months. Unique had behavioral health outbursts that resulted in her being placed in 4-person holds, 2-person holds, and seclusion by staff. In Oregon, these adversive responses by staff require a doctor’s order and can only be considered when all other options have been considered and found ineffective. Unique weighs approximately 90 pounds. She is also on multiple anti-psychotic and anti-convulsant medications.
No one from any child welfare agency has visited Unique since she was initially placed at Acadia Montana in October 2018, and DHS has no plan or timeline to bring Unique back to Oregon. Just last week, an Acadia facility in New Mexico was shut down to allegations that staff abused children in that facility.
Simon is a 13-year-old boy, who with his younger sister was first referred to DHS in 2010. To date, more than 35 reports have been made to DHS about Simon, detailing physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. Most of the complaints were screened out. He was initially placed in foster care for 10 months in 2012, but DHS returned him to his parents, despite his having accused his father of abusing him.
In 2015, Simon was removed from his home again, after several reports to DHS about his being abused by a relative, another student at the same school, and after repeatedly coming to school with feces in his clothes in order to try to ward off continuing abuse by this relative. However, rather than provide services and treat and protect Simon, DHS staff imposed “safety plan” restrictions on Simon’s presence in his family household, on the grounds that Simon could pose a threat of a sexual nature to his younger sister due to the abuse he had suffered. DHS maintained legal custody over Simon.
In December 2017, Simon was removed from the parents’ home and placed in a high-level therapeutic treatment center called SAFE Center at the Jasper Mountain facility in Springfield. According to Jasper Mountain’s website, it is intended to be a 30-day to 90-day program. Simon remained at the program for 15 months.
Jasper Mountain determined Simon was ready for release in October because he no longer required the high level of care they provided. In addition, the court issued an order that Simon be placed in a therapeutic placement close to home. However, DHS failed to locate an appropriate therapeutic foster home for him.
After a number of extensions, Jasper Mountain finally discharged Simon on March 8. Despite having known that his grandmother was willing to have Simon live with her as early as February, DHS delayed certifying her as a foster parent and he lived with her in a hotel on a “visit” for a week and then at her home for a week until she could be certified as a foster parent on March 20.
As of March 2019, Simon has been in either foster care or a therapeutic residential facility for a total of 38 months, in eight settings, and removed from his home on three occasions. Simon has been almost 5 years under DHS supervision and care and is currently living with his grandmother who has been certified as a foster parent.
Fifteen-year-old Ruth and her younger brother entered foster care in spring 2017 after their mother died of an accidental overdose of drugs while Ruth was in the home.
DHS suspected Ruth had been sexually abused, she had grown up in a chaotic household, but did not have a psychological evaluation for six months after entering placement, despite DHS policy that require a child to be evaluated within 60 days after entering placement. They recommended long-term therapeutic foster care for her, but DHS did not implement the recommendations.
Ruth was placed with her grandmother but DHS removed Ruth from school because of her untreated mental health issues and she was instead given home-schooling through a web-based program. An evaluation in March 2018 recommended behavioral therapy for her but DHS did not implement the recommendations.
After Ruth reported that her maternal grandmother had hit her, she was sent first to a foster home, and then to Creekside, a refurbished delinquency facility in Douglas County. Creekside quickly decided that they could not keep her long term, set a deadline for DHS to pick her up, and advised: “She is very much spiraling out of control…. “Ruth’s attorney was informed: “DHS has NO one and NO place at this moment who will agree to care for her.”
DHS has now placed Ruth in a residential facility in Iowa called Forest Ridge, where Ruth’s care costs DHS $330.00 per day, $120,450 per year. The program provides Gender Responsive Services for adolescent girls in the juvenile justice system. Ruth has never been in the juvenile justice system.
Fifteen-year-old Bernard first entered foster care at the age of three and was adopted with his sister by his great-grandparents in 2008. The children re-entered foster care in 2013, following the death of his great-grandparents, when Bernard was approximately 10 years old, after DHS received reports of physical abuse by Bernard’s mother, sexual abuse by his brother, and substance use and domestic violence in the home.
Bernard identifies as transgender and his permanency goal since placement has been Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangment or APPLA. APPLA is a plan for children in foster care that, on paper, is allowable only in the rare exceptions where states can make a compelling case as to why a child could never return home or be adopted.
Despite the fact that Bernard had identified as transgender, DHS placed him in an all-girls facility called Wildflowers through Whiteshield. In the past five years, Bernard has been placed in more than a dozen different foster homes and more than seven residential facilities. He has experienced rejection from some short-term foster families because of his gender identity.
Bernard is currently placed at River Rock, a shelter facility in a section of the Douglas County juvenile detention center. The cells and furnishings in the dependency facility at River Rock are the same as those in the delinquency facility, children take daily cold showers and, at night, children are secured in old delinquency cells where the doors are closed remotely and simultaneously. The doors are locked preventing children from using the bathroom at night and are controlled from the delinquency control center.
In addition to placements and therapy, Bernard’s education has been significantly disrupted. Currently, Bernard attends an alternative school for three hours per day which includes physical education, gardening and shop.
As a transgender male, Bernard has been taking prescription testosterone for more than two years. His hormone injections should be administered weekly. In the month since he has been placed at River Rock, he has only had one testosterone injection. This may lead to the start of female puberty and shows a lack of regard for his gender identity. He has already started to experience hot flashes.
Bernard does not have any clothing except what has been provided by the facility which is “jailhouse” garb consisting of a sweatpants and t-shirts. Although he been provided with binders for his chest he only has been provided with two pairs of underwear.
Bernard has also not been receiving his anti-depressant medication while at River Rock. Bernard has a history of suicidal thoughts and engaging in self-harming behaviors such as cutting when he is depressed. He has not received appropriate therapeutic support since he was placed at River Rock.
Bernard currently struggles with living in a rural, less tolerant environment, as well as in an institution where he has been harassed due to his gender identity. Placement disruptions have also led to delays in Bernard getting gender conforming surgery.
– Compiled by Libby Dowsett, taken from the testimony in the lawsuit against the Oregon foster care system. The children’s names are psuedonyms.