YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

March 18, 2003

Report No. 2003-25

More effective foster care possible with improvements of: in-home visits, family support team meetings, terminating parental rights, and parent background checks

This audit is the first of two reports on the effectiveness of Missouri's foster care system, which served 19,000 children during fiscal year 2002.  This first report focuses on elements of foster care aimed to keep children safe.  The analyses included on-site reviews of 288 foster care cases from 8 counties and 1 city and 88 foster parent case files.

Child abuse deaths rare in foster care

Of the 147 children who died from abuse or neglect between 1998 and 2002, 5 deaths involved foster care children.  In addition, about 70 percent of the abuse deaths had calls logged to the Child Abuse Hotline or had other contact with the division before the child died.  For example, in the St. Louis area, 35 of the 48 child deaths had 119 contacts, ranging from 1 to 11 contacts per household.  (See page 6)

Required in-home visits did not always occur

Social workers are required to visit foster care children in their foster homes twice a month. But audit tests showed these required visits occurred in 4 of the 170 cases reviewed.  In addition, case files on 24 children showed no in-home visit had been recorded and three children had not been seen at home for nearly a year or more.  Routine visits to the foster home ensure the home meets state standards and allow workers to assess a child's adjustment.  (See page 7)

No process existed to show number and location of foster children

A highly publicized missing child case prompted Florida officials to inventory or account for all foster children.  Several other states followed suit, but Missouri foster care officials said the family support team meetings could account for all children and did not see the need for an "inventory."  Audit tests at local offices showed 66 percent of these team meetings did not occur as often as policy required.  In addition, the meetings did not always involve all parties, including the foster child.  After learning this audit report would recommend an "inventory," officials directed local offices in October 2002 to have face-to-face contact with all foster children.  Their results showed 142 foster children had not been seen as of January 24, 2003.  During one search, a local office found social workers had not visited a small child for a year, and still did not start regular visits until auditors asked about this case again.  (See page 9)

Parental right not terminated timely

During fiscal year 2001, children remained in foster care an average of 24.6 months and audit tests showed division personnel do not always start terminating parental rights as promptly as required when reunification is not possible.  Federal law requires division officials to begin terminating parental rights if the child has been in division custody 15 of the last 22 months.  Audit tests of 144 cases showed division personnel had not started terminating rights for 53 percent of the children in care 15 of the last 22 months.  In 40 percent of these cases, the files did not include a compelling reason for not starting the termination process. (See page 12)

Available foster homes received no placements, others are overloaded

Audit tests of 8 local foster care offices showed 16 percent of available foster homes are not used.  For example, in Miller County, 41 percent of the foster homes did not have placements.  In addition, two of the county's foster homes house more children than policy allows.  Overall, seven of the eight locations had homes with no placements, while also having homes with too many children.  Division officials said reasons for no placements included older foster children as hard to place, but audit tests showed half of the 41 parents interviewed by auditors would take children up to age 18.  (See page 13)

Foster parent background checks could be expanded

Audit tests showed 34 percent of the 44 foster parent case files reviewed did not have the required current (within the last 2 years) criminal and child abuse and neglect record checks.  State law requires a limited background check of criminal convictions and abuse and neglect histories.  But the division does not regularly require a fingerprint check, or checks for out-of-state criminal records.  In addition, the division does not search available circuit court records, which show convictions as well as orders of protection issued against an individual.  This search could have been helpful in the recent death of a child near Springfield, whose foster parent's domestic violence history appeared evident in an order of protection.  An audit match against these court records found two other active licensed foster parents with orders of protection against them.  (See page 17)

Complete Audit Report