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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 Families and Children 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 14 most prevelant problems exhibited by parents in the community who have their children in Foster Care.
Most Prevelent Barriers in Hood River 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 Hood River County
Hood River County Summary
About 30 children per year from Hood River County enter substitute care and stay in care for two weeks in the year after their removal. Forty-three cases where children entered foster care between 1991 and mid-1993 were randomly selected and reviewed by researchers from the Child Welfare Partnership at Portland State University. A profile of children entering substitute care in Hood River County is compared to the state profile for the following: the reason children enter care, severity of the abuse, problems of the children, parental problems, barriers to returning children home, and services offered to the parents and children. The most common reasons children enter foster care in Oregon are physical abuse (18%), neglect (17%), treatment issues of the child (16%), parental absence (13%), and sexual abuse (12%). In Hood River County, the most common reasons for children entering care are treatment issues of the child (21%), parental absence (18%), and physical abuse (16%). When compared to the state, Hood River County tends to have slightly higher proportions of children entering foster care for treatment issues of the child and parental absence, but slightly lower proportions for neglect and threat of harm. In general, the reason children enter care in Hood River County are similar to reasons children enter elsewhere in Oregon. To ensure that Oregon's most needy children are served, Oregon's child welfare system has developed a seven-level priority system known as the level of vulnerability. Level 1 cases involve the most severe types of abuse and neglect cases while level 7 involve the least severe. When compared to the state profile, Hood River County has lower proportions of level 1-4 children entering care but higher proportions of level 5 and level 7 children. For Hood River County, the following types of cases exist for the most common levels of vulnerability.
Many children entering foster care in Oregon are afflicted with problems associated with maltreatment or family dysfunction. Often these problems can lead to more serious physical or mental conditions as well. The most common problems exhibited by children entering care in Hood River County include behavioral problems, beyond parental control, victim of sexual abuse, angry/aggressive, criminally involved, and sexually active. Most problems exhibited by children in Hood River County tend to be more pervasive elsewhere in Oregon. Parents who abuse or neglect their children are themselves often burdened by a number of problems. These problems are known as family factors. Poor parenting skills, domestic violence, drug/alcohol involvement, teen parenthood, unemployment, overwhelming child care, sexual offenders, and emotionally/mentally unstable are the most common family factors in Hood River County; with the exception of parental drug/alcohol involvement, these family factors are more pervasive in Hood River County than in other Oregon counties. Parental sexual offenders living in the home and domestic violence are much more common for families with children in foster care in Hood River County than elsewhere in Oregon. Single parenthood tends to be less common in Hood River County when compared to the Oregon profile. Barriers are family problems that should be addressed before a child is returned home. As with family factors, the most common barriers in Hood River County tend to be more prevalent than elsewhere in Oregon. The most common barriers in Hood River County include parents with poor parenting skills, angry/aggressive behaviors, sexual offenders, chronic neglect, and parental incarceration. Parental drug/alcohol involvement is less common in Hood River County (15%) than in other Oregon Counties (38%). There are many services provided by the community and SOSCF to help families resolve problems and improve family functioning. With very few exceptions, SOSCF attempts to reunite families while minimizing the potential for subsequent reabuse. Visitation, family counseling provided by community partners and psychological examinations for the parent(s) are the most common services in Hood River County. The most common services provided to children in Hood River County include sexual abuse treatment, shelter evaluations, individualized education plans (IEP), drug/alcohol treatment, and independent living. Family counseling and child sexual abuse treatment are offered more often in Hood River County than elsewhere in Oregon; parent training and child counseling tend to be offered less often. Returning children home and reuniting families is the agency goal whenever possible. The Hood River SOSCF returns home more children to their families (76%) in the year after their removal than other branch offices serving a similar client population (54%). Reabuse rate, which acknowledges the children returned home who are reabused and those left in their homes after an assessment who are reabused, is slightly higher in Hood River County (16%) than in other Oregon counties (10%). Generally offices returning more children home tend to have more children who are reabused. The Hood River 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 attempt to moderate the effects of child abuse and neglect and ensure the most vulnerable children are protected from abuse/neglect. |
