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Reason Children are Removed
Children are often removed from their homes and placed in out-of-home care for multiple reasons. However, if the most serious reason were identified for each of the children removed, the following profile would characterize children entering care between 1991 and 1993.
Level of Vulnerability
State Office for Services to Children and Families has formalized a child welfare priority system known as the level of vulnerability. This system, which replaces an informal prioritization system in each branch office, assures workers provide services to the more vulnerable children and recognizes the level of service provided in each branch office. SOSCF administration, program managers, and researchers created the level of vulnerability system in 1990. There are seven levels in the system. Level 1 includes the most severe abuse and neglect cases: life threatening neglect, abandoned or orphaned children, siblings of children who have died from abuse or neglect, severe familial sexual abuse, and severe physical abuse. The least vulnerable children are identified as Level 7: chronic acting-out teenagers, adolescents exposed to chronic neglect, teenage victims of mild physical abuse, court ordered services where no abuse has occurred, and voluntary requests for services where abuse, neglect, and threat of harm are not apparent. Younger and more vulnerable children are in the higher levels of vulnerability (levels 1-3); older children, better able to protect themselves from moderate and mild abuse, are assigned to the lower levels of the system (levels 4-7).
Child's Problems
Children and youth entering the foster care system exhibit a variety of troubling behaviors and suffer from myriad of physical and mental problems. The following table contains a list of the child's problems most often cited by case workers.
Family Factors
Parents who abuse or neglect their children are themselves often burdened by a host of problems known as family factors. The table below contains the 10 most prevalent problems exhibited by parents in the community who have their children in Foster Care.
Most Prevalent Barriers in Deschutes County
Barriers are problems or conditions that a caseworker identifies as requiring some resolution before a child can be returned home.
Services Provided to Children and Families in Deschutes County
Deschutes County Summary
There are approximately 60 children who enter out-of-home care in Deschutes County each year. Forty six cases of children entering out-of home care between 1991 and mid-1993 were reviewed by researchers from the Child Welfare Partnership at Portland State University. Reasons children enter care, the severity of the abuse/neglect, problems exhibited by the children and parents, services offered to the families, resolution of the problems, and the percentage of children returning home were all gleaned from case records. Data was gathered on each case for period extending to one year after the child's removal. The most common reason children entered care in Deschutes County was the treatment need for the child. These are children with physical limitations or problems, emotional needs, or medical conditions and require a structured residential setting or extensive medical treatment. In addition to the treatment needs of the child, threat of harm is more common in Deschutes County than elsewhere in Oregon. Threat of harm is recognized for situations where the child has not been abused but an adult perpetrator has access to the child. Both physical abuse and neglect are less prevalent reasons for children entering care in Deschutes County than elsewhere in Oregon. The level of vulnerability system recognizes numerous characteristics including the severity of abuse and the child's age. The system consists of 7 levels -- the higher levels (levels 1-3) consist of severe abuse to younger children while the lower levels (levels 6-7) consist primarily of milder abuse to adolescents. One third of the children entering out-of-home care in Deschutes are identified as level one. The Deschutes County SOSCF removes slightly fewer level 2-7 children than other branch offices. Thus one-third of the children entering care are identified as level 1 in Deschutes County -- the most severe instances of maltreatment or threats to a child; the other six levels parallel state estimates but are slightly lower. The most common problems being exhibited by children entering care in Deschutes County are academic delays, beyond parental control, drug/alcohol involvement, and being a victim of sexual abuse. The high percentages for academic delays (34%), drug/alcohol involvement (30%), behavioral problems (21%), victims of sexual abuse (30%), sexual offenders (15%), and emotional disturbance (15%) are associated with the high proportions of children entering out-of -home care for treatment needs. Academic delay, drug/alcohol involvement and depression in Deschutes is twice the state estimate. In addition, child sexual offenders are three times more common in Deschutes County as elsewhere in Oregon. Child sexual offenders are generally not placed with non-offenders, they require constant adult supervision when interacting with other children. These children who cannot be kept in a family setting require a structured institution until their perpetrator behaviors are controlled. Deschutes County has many drug affected children entering care (13%). Many of these children have physical and medical problems at birth requiring extensive medical treatment. Later these children will often experience physical and mental delays related to the mothers drug addiction during pregnancy. Parents with children entering out-of-home care are often afflicted with many stressors that affect their ability to parent. Parents with children placed in out-of-home care in Deschutes County tend to have fewer family factors than families served elsewhere in Oregon. Considering the high percentage of children classified in the higher levels of vulnerability, more family factors would be expected. Generally, parents of level 1 children tend to be identified with more factors than parents of lower level cases. Family factors profile the problems and conditions impacting the parents. Barriers are problems or conditions of the family which require some resolution before the family can be reunited. The most common barriers for families in Deschutes County include drug/alcohol involvement, domestic violence, overwhelming child care, perpetrators with access to the child, and sexual offenders residing in the home. These barriers are more prevalent in Deschutes County than elsewhere in Oregon. Although fewer parents are identified with poor parenting skills as a barrier to returning children home in Deschutes County, many parents relinquish their parental rights or are having them terminated in the year after the removal. Services are intended to improve parenting skills, alleviate family dysfunction, and moderate the effects of child maltreatment. The most common services provided by SOSCF and community partners include visitation, residential treatment for the child, drug/alcohol treatment for the parent, and child counseling. Visitation, child residential treatment, head start, and independent living are offered more in Deschutes County than in other Oregon counties. Counseling, child counseling and parent training are offered less often in Deschutes County. In general the services offered to families reflect the types of problems or conditions that prompted the removal. SOSCF attempts to reunite families and ensure the safety of the child. Deschutes County SOSCF returns 32% of the children in the year after their removal -- this is similar to other SOSCF branches serving a similar client population. In Oregon and in Deschutes County, the proportion of children reabused within one year and proportion abused in the year after returning home approximated 10%. Thus, Deschutes County SOSCF returns the same proportion of children home as other branches in Oregon and the same proportion of children are re-abused. The Deschutes County SOSCF branch office strives to balance child safety with efforts to preserve families. This delicate balance weighs the potential for reabuse with the emotional needs of the children to remain with their parents. Services to Children and Families attempts to moderate the effects of child abuse and neglect and ensure the most vulnerable children are protected from abuse/neglect. |
