Children left in unsafe homes by Oregon social workers nearly half the time, report says

[TexasTowelie]

An alarming report arrived at an Oregon child protective services office in February 2016. A mother was hallucinating. She was getting a gun.

Two months passed before a social worker checked in on her kids, a new review showed.

Oregon's child welfare system leaves children in danger because workers routinely miss or ignore threats to kids' safety, according to an internal state report made public Monday.

The Oregon Department of Human Services reviewed a random sample of 101 case decisions, after the death of a foster child last year raised questions about agency decision-making. The teen died after a medical condition went untreated.

Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/03/children_left_in_unsafe_homes_by_oregon_social_workers_nearly_half_the_time_report_says.html

[Phoenix61]

1. Funding, funding, funding

Money doesn't fix everything but this is a situation where inadequate funding is truly the source of the problem. Not enough workers, abysmal pay for those they have, limited places to put children to keep them safe. I was a CPS investigator for a year and a half in Alabama. My hair started falling out from the stress.

[LWolf]

2. This is no surprise to teachers.

It's commonly understood that while we report, nothing is ever going to happen until it's too late, and harm, often drastic harm, has been done.

Funding would help, I'm sure.

So would some clarity walking that fine knife's edge balance between the rights of children and the rights of their parents.