Difficult for me to understand is why The Tribune relied almost exclusively on the opinion of out-of-state "expert" Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, who accused DCFS of "bureaucratic child abuse" and called the "forced institutionalization" of Utah's foster children an "outrage."
The Tribune editorialized that DCFS' interpretation of the Adam Walsh Act "has put thousands of foster children into overcrowded shelters for weeks at a time" and concluded by accusing the state of "heaping abuse on these imperiled children" and suggesting to Gov. Jon Huntsman that the situation was a cause for "heads to roll."
Well, DCFS Executive Director Duane Betournay is probably thankful the governor is not Marie Antoinette. But Betournay and his agency's caseworkers, who every day face the difficult task of removing abused and neglected children from their homes and finding safe placement alternatives, can only feel wounded by accusations that they are abusing the very children they are mandated to protect.
It is my understanding that DCFS identified criminal background checks as a problem for kinship placements well before Congress passed the Adam Walsh Act, even asking for a rule change that would allow temporary placement with kin, pending these checks.
But DCFS was informed by both federal and state authorities that the agency was required to do the background checks. Doing otherwise would be a violation of federal law and DCFS would stand to lose federal funding. This story angle received short shrift in The Tribune's coverage.
To hear The Tribune tell it, you would think there are numerous shelters throughout the state, packed to the rafters with children waiting to be placed with loving relatives. The situation on the ground is actually quite different.
Currently, DCFS utilizes just four shelters for temporary placement of children in state custody: the Ogden Christmas Box House, operated by DCFS, and three facilities operated by Salt Lake County - the Salt Lake Christmas Box House, the Boys Group Home and the Girls Group Home.
If all four facilities were at full capacity, they would be caring for 100 children. As for "thousands of foster children" in "overcrowded shelters," on Sept. 10, the day The Tribune editorial ran, there were only 76 children in these four shelters. Statewide on that same day, there were 2,640 children in state custody, most of them already placed in foster or kinship homes.
Over the years, I have studied and written about shelter care and, as volunteer chair of DCFS' Out-of-Home Care Advisory Council in the mid 1990s, was involved in developing the Christmas Box House shelter model, which strives, through architectural design, rich programing and professional staffing, to ease - not compound - the trauma of children suffering from abuse and neglect.
The child welfare field in general has moved away from shelters, believing - and on this I think we can all agree - that children belong, first and foremost, in loving homes. To his credit, Betournay recently formed a work group, on which I serve, to assess the use of shelters in Utah and study other states' approaches to initial foster-care placements.
If there's a better model, we will find it and, I believe, emulate it to the best of our ability. May cool heads prevail, not roll, as we move forward.
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* HANK LIESE is associate professor and director of doctoral studies, College of Social Work, University of Utah.
