Weeks after a Fresno County Department of Social Services employee said the department’s practices were putting foster youth at risk, supervisors ordered an audit Tuesday to investigate claims that the county’s reunification policies were putting children in danger.
When social services worker Lorraine Ramirez went before supervisors in February to talk about the county’s foster family program, she did so nearly alone, telling county leadership about the department’s reunification practices and lack of communication between administration and workers.
On Tuesday, however, when Ramirez again went before supervisors to discuss the audit proposed by Supervisor Luis Chavez and Board Chair Garry Bredefeld, she was joined by other county workers, a foster parent, representatives from foster care agencies, and several members of the county’s oversight committee. All talked about shortcomings they’ve seen in the program.
“A lot of the issues that we were seeing were children going home too soon, families not provided with the appropriate services to have the children back in their care,” Ramirez told GV Wire Tuesday. “Therefore, when the children don’t have the services that they need, when they’re returned home, then we get the neglect and abuse again because they haven’t learned yet how to be home or the parents haven’t learned how to (care for) their children.”
Ordering the audit marks the first step in what many hope will be a comprehensive change to a system rife with...
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