'Devastating' state report highlights major health and safety problems in Virginia's foster care

‘Devastating’ state report highlights major health and safety problems in Virginia’s foster care system


Virginia’s foster care system is failing to meet the basic health and safety needs of the children under its care, according to state auditors, who released a scathing report Monday that found 98 cases in which basic safety protocols weren’t met.

In one, a child was placed in a home for nearly three weeks even though no background check had been run on the parent.

“Problematic cases were not isolated to one or two departments — they were spread across 34 departments,” said Drew Dickinson, who led the review on behalf of the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee, which was tasked with studying the state’s foster care system last year.

Overall, the report faulted limited oversight of a far-flung system of 120 local departments of social services, which are each independently responsible for the services they provide. The state, meanwhile, has limited power to intervene when things go wrong.

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2018/12/11/its-very-unfortunate-for-these-children-state-report-highlights-health-and-safety-problems-in-virginias-foster-care-system/