Woodburn Area, 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 Woodburn Branch

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 Woodburn Branch

Woodburn Branch Summary

About 60-70 children per year from Woodburn enter substitute care and stay in care for at least two weeks in the year after their removal. Thirty-nine 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 these children entering substitute care in Woodburn 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.

Children are often removed from their homes and placed in substitute care for multiple reasons, however, only the most serious types of abuse/neglect are recognized here. The most common reasons children enter care in Woodburn are parental absence (19%), neglect (16%), physical abuse (13%), threat of harm (13%), and treatment issues of the child. Although the reason for removal profiles are similar for Woodburn and Oregon, there tends to be slightly less physical abuse, threat of harm, and sexual abuse but more parental absence in Woodburn. Parental absence is primarily parental incarceration resulting in the children entering foster care.

Services to Children and Families has formalized a client priority system known as the "Level of Vulnerability Scale." This vulnerability scale recognizes the severity of abuse/neglect and age of the child. Level 1 cases are the most severe types of abuse/neglect, while level 7 are the least severe. The Woodburn and Oregon profiles are similar for the level of vulnerability. Fewer level 1 children but more level 5 children tend to enter care in Woodburn than elsewhere in Oregon. The level 3 population, which is the largest level in the vulnerability system (43%), is composed primarily of short term absence due to parental incarceration, chronic neglect to younger children, and care due to a child's severe handicap.

Maltreated children and children from dysfunctional families often exhibit problems. The Woodburn and Oregon profiles are similar for the problems being exhibited by children entering care. There tends to be higher proportions of child sexual offenders, destructive children, and children beyond parental control served by the Woodburn SOSCF branch office; however, there tends to be fewer victims of sexual abuse when compared to the Oregon profile.

Most children enter care after parental abuse. These same parents are often burdened by conditions or problems known as family factors. The profile of parental problems in Woodburn is similar to the Oregon profile. Single parenthood (50%), parental drug/alcohol involvement (44%), and poor parenting skills (44%) are the most common family factors in Woodburn. Parents with children entering care in Woodburn tend to be less drug/alcohol involved, more criminally involved, have more marital problems and fewer were teen parents when compared to other Oregon Counties.

Barriers are the family problems or conditions that should be resolved or partially resolved before a child is returned home. Failure to complete treatment (24%), drug/alcohol involvement (24%), chronic family dysfunction (19%), and parent-child conflict (19%) are the most prevalent barriers in Woodburn. When compared with other SOSCF branch offices, there tends to be less parental drug/alcohol involvement but more chronic family dysfunction, more parent-child conflict, and many more situations where the parent relocates away from the Woodburn area. In general, the profile of barriers which prevent a child from returning home in Woodburn are similar to the barriers preventing children from returning home in Oregon.

The State Office for Services to Children and Families provides services to families to minimize the number of children entering out-of-home care and to encourage the return home of children in care. Successful participation in services facilitates barrier resolution and increases the chances of children being returned to their biological families. Services most utilized and provided to parents in Woodburn include parent training (57%), visitations (57%), and drug/alcohol evaluations (33%). These services are offered more often to parents in Woodburn than to parents being served in other parts of Oregon. The individualized education plan (IEP) and residential treatment are the most common services offered to children from Woodburn; these services are offered to a higher proportion of children in Woodburn than elsewhere in Oregon. Parental drug/alcohol treatment and child counseling are the services offered more often in other parts of Oregon.

SOSCF attempts to reunite families and ensure the safety of the child. Woodburn SOSCF returns 42% of the children in the year after their removal -- this is similar to other SOSCF branches serving similar client populations. The proportions of children reabused within one year and proportion abused in the year after returning a child home approximated 10% in Oregon. In Woodburn, 8% of the children are reabused. Thus, Woodburn SOSCF returns the same proportion of children home as other branches in Oregon, yet fewer are reabused.

The Woodburn 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.