For nearly a decade, Oregon’s approach to child welfare has amounted to a pathetic game of whack-a-mole. The “solution” to one crisis begets another, while everyone ignores the issue at the root of it all: Oregon tears apart families needlessly at a rate well above the national average.
This sick game began in earnest when news accounts exposed horrific abuse at one private agency’s group homes. They also revealed that the Oregon Department of Human Services knew about the abuse and did nothing. That investigation whacked the state into raising standards for foster homes. It wound up warehousing foster children in offices and jails.
So — whack — a child advocacy group brought a lawsuit to prohibit the practice. DHS settled. And children promptly wound up warehoused in hotels. Whack — there was another lawsuit and another settlement.
Then DHS shipped children to horrible out-of-state institutions. That was exposed, so DHS went back to warehousing children in what they called “repurposed juvenile jails.”
Now, the game of whack-a-mole may come full circle: …
