Serious shortcomings in Oregon’s child welfare system are revealed by two recent articles involving children’s welfare. One is about Grace, a young lady who was abused, neglected, and sex-trafficked while in foster care as a kid (Oregon teen sex-trafficked twice). How she was let down by the foster system, Nov. 11. The other describes how our state, Oregon, spent $23 million on legal fees to defend the state foster care system before reaching a settlement on November 13 after defending and then settling a class action lawsuit over the protection of children in foster care.
There is a reasonably priced solution that would make things better.Every child entering foster care must have a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), as required by ORS 419B.112, but the Legislature has never allotted sufficient funds to enable statewide compliance. At the moment, the state only contributes roughly $2.9 million annually to all CASA programs in Oregon. According to CASA, this represents merely 20% of the expenses required to provide an advocate for each and every kid.
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