Siblings in foster care in California forced to eat their own vomit, agencies in Colorado reporting difficulties in placing LGBT+ youth and a priest in Kansas charged with wire fraud and money laundering while running a foster care nonprofit are some of the recent headlines of a child welfare system in disarray across the country.
Here in northern Nevada, current and former therapists, social workers and Department of Health and Human Services Division of Child and Family Services whistleblowers point to non nurturing group homes where a 10-year-old is still in diapers, there’s allegedly racial abuse directed at Black kids, and eating often consists of reheated pizza.
Those who reached out to Our Town Reno to describe their work experiences within our foster care system wanted to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. They said they are frustrated with a model that has children constantly being shifted from one group home to another, carrying around trashbags with their clothes, suffering from repetitive trauma, ignored until they hurt themselves or another child in varying degrees of severity, overmedicated and treated like young criminals, with cops called on them when they fight, steal from each other and try to run away.
Some of the kids in the group homes then spiral further downward into youth detention centers.
The whistleblowers pointed to Three Angels, JC Family Services and Call to Compassion as local for profit “specialized foster homes” they have worked with. These typically deal with more difficult children and also provide training and licensing to individual families.
Messages to the three companies for interviews about their practices went unanswered.
Local child and family advocates say the lack of family foster homes is creating an over reliance on these group homes. One of our interviewees who went several times to a Three Angels group home described it as “cold and sterile,” with the adult on site acting more like a “guard than a foster parent.” This account was not independently verified.
A positive media report about Three Angels recently described the company as “a therapeutic foster agency [which] nurtures children ages 3 to 17, trains foster families, and works in partnership with the Washoe County Human Services Agency.”
Washoe County has been pointing prospective foster families to the above website.
“We have seen a pretty significant decrease in foster homes throughout the pandemic,” Amy Sandvik, the program coordinator for Washoe County’s Human Services Agency, confirmed in a phone interview on the need for more homes.
According to county released figures, there are currently 201 licensed foster homes in our area, including the group homes, compared to 239 before the pandemic, with 175 fewer beds.
“They provide care for children with more significant behavioral or emotional mental health needs,” Sandvik said of the group homes. “If there’s any complaint of quality of care, just like in a family foster home, we would investigate that complaint and make any corrections as needed.”
When asked if there have been any investigations or concerns of the local group homes, Sandvik answered “Nothing significant.”
Trish Prestigiacomo, the clinical director for WC Health Northern Nevada, which provides additional therapeutic support for kids in local foster care, stressed the importance of communication.
“Whether that's communication between the clinician, the foster family, the child, if they're old enough to have a say, in what happens to them, as well as really just what we call the multidisciplinary team,” Prestigiacomo said. “So it's kind of everyone coming together and talking about how we can best help the child. So the therapist, the foster care worker, the social worker, sometimes the biological parents, as well as the foster parents…. So just making sure that that communication is happening and that everybody feels that they are a part of making sure that everything that's happening is in the child's best interest.”
Typically in our region there are 600 to 800 children in and coming into foster care, with nearly 40% under the age of 5. A shortage of local childcare spots has prevented some potential foster families from signing up, while current families have complained of ever increasing requirements such as having to go to the time consuming Safe Babies Court established in 2019, which some say is too “mom-focussed”, or not having access to the MyChart medical records of the kids they are fostering.
The whistleblowers we interviewed called for more efforts to keep kids within their original families and to loosen rules preventing safe relatives from taking in a child. They also said having higher pay for social workers and therapists could create better quality care. One of them suggested having more former foster kids brought into the system to guide current foster kids, and more resources and support for parents to keep their kids.
Recent academic research has pointed to the systemic racism of our foster care system.
The whistleblowers also singled out “over reporting” and “blind reporting” by police and schools, which leads to what they view as kids unnecessarily being separated from their families.
Recent state level data indicates 89% of children placed into Nevada’s foster care system are removed from their homes because of neglect, such as being dirty or not having enough to eat, rather than abuse.
One of our interviewees wanted to see more of what’s called “differential response” to check in on families, without any reporting as is the case with a visit from Child Protective Services.
Recent academic research (including in screengrab above) points to systemic racism and classism, a foster to prison pipeline, and our child welfare as a “family regulation system.”
“Like the criminal legal system, the family regulation system serves as another way for the state to police, surveil and traumatize Black, Indigenous, Latinx and poor families,” Ava Cilia wrote recently in the Harvard Civil Rights - Civil Liberties Law Review.
“In fact, the majority of allegations that result in the removal of Black children from their homes do not involve abuse, but concern neglect arising from conditions of poverty or discriminatory welfare practices. Empty fridges and pantries, children left unsupervised during work hours due to a lack of childcare, and the finding of multiple family members sharing one room are all reasons frequently cited for involving the family policing system,” her article indicated.
The above article in The Nation focused on a Washoe County adoption.
The whistleblowers we spoke to would like to see more individual foster families, while encouraging them to have as their goals getting kids to be reunited with their family, and still be there in case of relapse.
Whistleblowers also pointed to a recent case before the Supreme Court, involving a Washoe County adoption, which was outlined in detail in a recent article in The Nation (screengrab above). The decision expected in 2023 could gut a 1978 federal law known as the Indian Child Welfare Act, which has as its aim preventing family separations in Native communities. The adoption of a baby who was eligible for citizenship in a tribe in Texas by a local white family fits a trend of families turning to the foster care system to adopt, with diminishing foreign adoptions. The mom who adopted “Baby O” Heather Libretti indicates on her LinkedIn she started working for the Washoe County Human Services Agency this year.
Another Washoe County official is quoted as saying the “foster to adopt” trend is a positive development.
Sandvik encouraged those interested in becoming a foster family to reach out. “I think in general, there’s a lack of awareness about really what the need is for foster care and foster homes,” she said in her interview with Our Town Reno. “I would say that anybody who is thinking about it or has questions about it, we have informational videos on our website at https://www.haveaheartwashoe.us/.”
Prestigiacomo, the clinical director for WC Health Northern Nevada, stressed the earlier additional help arrives for children the better.
“Our goal is to be able to assist them in living successfully and independently, in the least restrictive environment by the time that, you know, they are aging out,” Prestigiacomo said. “It's very important. It can be difficult. A lot of foster children come with trauma and that's why they're no longer in their own families, is because of trauma. And so that is very difficult work, however, important work, because it's much easier to treat a child with trauma than seeing an adult for the first time with trauma and having to go back and having to help resolve some of that.”
Drop-in cots at the Eddy House above in 2020.
Locally, aging out foster youth have felt the brunt of rising rents and the Eddy House has stepped in to help this population as well as other at-risk youths in the 18 to 24 age range. Some local advocates would like to see lower barriers for some of their programs.
Trevor Macaluso, the Eddy House CEO, said the facility at 888 Willow Street is open 24/7 for intake, and that there are no barriers or limits to the length of stay at their emergency shelter.
“As long as they’re not a harm to themselves or others,” he said. “If they start to have acts of violence where it’s not safe for them or other people, then we would help them find other accommodations.”
The nonprofit is preparing to open up an independent living home for aged out foster youth, “so that they don’t have to experience life in our shelter, but can receive support and be able to transition successfully into adulthood.” The program is already operational and will soon add offsite living arrangements. The requirements to move beyond the emergency shelter at the Eddy House include sobriety and participating in classes.
“Increased services for foster youths is important,” Macaluso concluded. “It’s unfortunate that they represent a third of the clients we serve.”