Wasco-Sherman County, Oregon

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 11 most prevelant problems exhibited by parents in the community who have their children in Foster Care.

Most Prevelent Barriers in Wasco 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 Wasco County

Wasco County Summary

Between 40 and 50 children from Wasco County enter substitute care and stay in care for at least two weeks in the year after their removal. Forty-three cases where children entered 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 Wasco County is compared to the state profile for the following: the reason children enter care, severity of the abuse or neglect, problems of the children, problems of the parents, 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, neglect, treatment issues of the child, parental absence, and sexual abuse. The most common reasons children enter care in Wasco County include the child's behavior, treatment issues of the child, neglect, and short term care due to a parental condition. Fewer children enter care in Wasco County for physical abuse and sexual abuse than elsewhere in Oregon. Child's behavior, treatment issues, and short-term care for a parental condition are more common is Wasco county than other Oregon counties.

To ensure Oregon's most needy children receive services, Oregon's child welfare system has developed a seven-level priority system known as the level of vulnerability. Level 1 includes the most severe types of abuse and neglect cases and level 7 includes the least severe. A higher percentage of level 7 children are often identified in counties where child behaviors prompt removals. Twenty-three percent of the children entering substitute care in Wasco County are identified as level 7; Wasco county SOSCF serves twice as many level 7 children as other branch offices. Non-adjudicated acting out children and children court ordered into care comprise the level 7 population in Wasco County.

Many children entering foster care in Oregon are afflicted with problems. Wasco County SOSCF serves a greater proportion of level 7 children who by definition, manifest problems indicative of being beyond parental control -- out of control behavior, delinquency, and drug/alcohol involvement. These behaviors are more common in Wasco county than in other Oregon counties. In addition, thirty percent of the children from Wasco County are victims of sexual abuse and 14% are sexually active/aggressive; these percentages are similar to other counties in Oregon. Children diagnosed as failure to thrive are more common in Wasco county (7%) than in Oregon (2%).

Parents with children entering care often manifest problems known as family factors. Poor parenting skills, single parenthood, drug/alcohol use, teen parenthood, unemployment, overwhelming child care, parent abused as a child and inadequate income are the most prevalent family factors in Wasco County. All of these factors, are identified with 25% to 50% of the families being served. Drug/alcohol involvement, unemployment, and inadequate income are considered family factors associated with risk of removal. Teen parenthood, unemployment, and parent abused as a child are considered factors associated with risk of serious abuse or neglect.

Barriers are parental problems that must be addressed before a child is returned home. Thirty-nine percent of the parents from Wasco County have poor parenting skills identified as a barrier. Drug /alcohol involvement (26%), physical or emotional condition (22%), angry/aggressive behavior (17%), and parent-child conflict (17%) are common barriers in Wasco county. Compared with the state profile, custody disputes, psychological examinations that indicate a person cannot adequately parent, and parents with physical or emotional conditions are more common in Wasco county. Currently, drug/alcohol involvement and inadequate housing are less prevalent in Wasco county than elsewhere in Oregon.

Resolving family barriers improves the chances of a child returning home. Services are designed to help families resolve barriers, minimize the potential for subsequent abuse, and lessen the impact of child maltreatment. The most common services offered to children from Wasco County include residential treatment, drug/alcohol treatment, drug/alcohol evaluations, shelter care and sexual abuse treatment. Both the drug/alcohol evaluations and drug/alcohol treatment are more common in Wasco county than other branch offices. The most common services provided to parents from Wasco county include visitation, day care, non-SOSCF family counseling, and homemaker services. Day care is the only service provided to parents in Wasco county that is much more common than elsewhere in Oregon.

Barrier resolution and service completion often influences return home rates. Return home rate is the percentage of children returned home to the same parents in the year after removal. Sixty-eight percent of the children return home in Wasco County; counties serving a similar clientele return home about 50%. Although more children are returned home in Wasco county, more children are reabused in Wasco County (15%) than elsewhere in Oregon (11%). The reabuse rate considers children returned home and abused children who remain with their parents.

The Wasco 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.