‘A Bloody Scab On The Psyche’: Grand Jury Report Slams Orange County’s Foster System Shortcomings
The grand jury, serving in its role as a government watchdog, chronicled a shortage of foster families in Orange County, “insufficient and unsuccessful” efforts to recruit more foster families and make them better, and an over-dependence on private foster family agencies, which cost more and receive “an alarming lack of oversight” from county social workers.
The Orange County Register:
Grand Jury: Orange County Is Failing Foster Children With 'Insufficient And Unsuccessful' Efforts
Separating children from their families and placing them in the care of strangers “leaves a bloody scab on the psyche that may never quite heal,” wrote researcher Waln Brown, once a foster child, in a work poignantly quoted by the Orange County grand jury in a new report. And Orange County’s most vulnerable children may fare worse, according to the highly critical probe released Wednesday. The grand jury found the county’s child welfare agency fails “to provide safe, nurturing and permanent homes for those children who are considered ‘hard to place,’” including teens and children with serious medical and psychological needs. (Sforza, 5/12)