Experts monitoring Oklahoma’s progress instituting court-ordered foster-care reforms report the state is still not doing enough to provide homes to children who need therapeutic care.
In their latest commentary on the settlement agreement known as the Pinnacle Plan, experts known as co-neutrals report the Oklahoma Department of Human Services has seen an 82% net decline in therapeutic foster homes since 2013.
Attorney Marcia Robinson Lowry represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to the Pinnacle Plan. She said the drop comes after officials’ assurances they’ve had meeting after meeting each year to develop more such homes.
"It really beggars the imagination why they can’t do it. They are not doing it. The report this time almost looks like the Keystone Kops because they are not — they simply aren’t doing it," Lowry said.
The co-neutrals reported DHS developed just 16 new therapeutic foster homes out of a goal of 139 from July 2018 to June 2019.
Lowry said the lack of homes for kids with trauma and other needs hinders Oklahoma’s overall progress.
"For example, the stability of placements, the permanency issues, all of those issues are affected by the fact that children are not in the first instance being matched with appropriate foster homes," Lowry said.
Having enough therapeutic foster homes is one of 23 targets Oklahoma has not met since the Pinnacle Plan was put in place in February 2012.
"This is a court order that has been in effect for eight years, and the state initially had predicted that it would take them five years to meet the terms of the agreement. We are distressed that it is now year eight and they still haven’t met so many of the target outcomes," Lowry said.
DHS officials said it’s harder to recruit families for therapeutic foster care, but they’re trying. Child Welfare Director Dr. Deb Shropshire said rates recently went up for agencies that work with DHS so they can recruit more families and offer them better support.
There’s also a new emphasis on supporting grandparents, aunts and uncles, or other relatives who may want to care for a child but doubt they can handle their behavioral or development needs.
"That kind of an effort allows us to leave those children who maybe have higher-level needs with their family, their kinship foster family, as opposed to having to move them to a therapeutic foster home," Shropshire said.
Shropshire said DHS has already seen more therapeutic foster homes but did not have an exact number. She expects improvement in the next co-neutrals commentary.
"We’ll kind of get a better idea of if they feel comfortable with the efforts, but I feel good about the strategies that we’re using and not just the effort, but the actual outcomes we’re seeing in terms of having more of those therapeutic homes and more therapeutic support," Shropshire said.
Current DHS Director Justin Brown took charge about two weeks after the period the latest report covers ended. Lowry said she and other attorneys are meeting with DHS officials Thursday.
Under the settlement agreement, the co-neutrals must find the state has made two years of continuous, good faith efforts to achieve all target outcomes before monitoring can end.
