OFCO responded directly to inquiries and complaints and referred all non-related inquiries to other agencies. Significantly, complaints requesting an intervention or investigation arrived at the rate of about one per day. These complaints provide the mechanism through which OFCO is able to identify children and families at risk of harm and in need of assistance due to an agency's act or omission, and to pinpoint recurring and systemic problems that adversely affect children and families. The following chart shows OFCO's screening process.

Case Study #3 Three young foster children were returned to their mother after 32 months in the same foster home. Within two months, the mother began to abuse drugs again, and the children were returned to their foster mother, who had an unblemished 23-year record as a foster parent and wished to adopt the children if they became available. However, during the two months the DSHS Division of Licensed Resources (DLR) had determined that the foster mother should only be licensed for one child, not three, due to the number of other children residing in her home. Although the renewed license for this foster parent was so restricted, the children's caseworker returned the children to the foster mother under a waiver she wrote with her supervisor's approval, which - if approved by DLR - would permit the children to remain in their long-time placement despite the restriction. However, the DLR licenser refused the waiver, and his supervisor concurred. Because a change in placement was imminent, OFCO responded immediately to the complaint it received, and an investigation quickly ensued. Following the investigation, OFCO suggested that DLR re-evaluate its refusal in light of the clear harm that would result from not allowing the children to remain in their long-time, stable foster home and the lack of any identified risk of harm resulting from their continued placement there. However, DLR continued to refuse the waiver. Strongly believing that DLR's decision was harmful to the children's best interests, OFCO contacted the director of DLR, and formally recommended that the children be allowed to remain in their current placement. The DLR director inquired into the matter and granted the waiver with the approval of the Assistant Secretary for the Children's Administration.

Case Study #4 A 14-year-old foster child called OFCO to complain that the DSHS Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) was not providing enough counseling and other services to her and her mother under the terms of a voluntary foster placement agreement. She wanted to be reunited with her mother, but understood that counseling was necessary before that could safely occur. The girl told OFCO she felt her caseworker was not listening to her or seriously considering her request for increased services. OFCO contacted the caseworker and supervisor to advise them of the girl's frustration and suggest that services be increased as she had requested. As a result, the caseworker became more attentive to the girl and reunification services were increased.

OFCO's Screening Process

Source of Complaints

Complaints arriving at OFCO were made mostly by parents who were directly affected by an agency's act or omission, or by family, relatives, or foster parents. Contacts made by community professionals or service providers accounted for 19 percent of complaints.

Complaints were evenly balanced with the state population as a whole; 78 percent of the state's population resides in western Washington, and - coincidentally - 78 percent of the contacts were from western regions. All of those contacting OFCO spoke English as their primary language.

The profile of OFCO's clientele is provided in the following tables and charts.

Affected Children

Complaints received by OFCO involved 176 children. Children were typically young, over half were age seven or younger. About one child in four was from an ethnic or racial minority group. One in four also had some type of physical, mental, developmental, and/or other disability.

TOTAL = 176 (7 unknown) * African American (16), Native American (10), Asian American (7), or Hispanic (7). Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman January 1998

Types of Disabilities Among Children Total Children = 176, Disabled = 47 (NOTE: Some children had multiple disabilities)

*ADD = Attention Deficit Disorder, ADHD = Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder **FAS = Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, FAE = Fetal Alcohol Effect

Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman, January 1998

Issues Identified by Those Who Contacted OFCO

The most frequently identified complaint issue regarded child protection and safety; the next most frequent complaint issue was of unnecessary family separation and failure to reunify, followed by issues relating to children's foster placements.

Frequently Identified Issues

Number of complaints that raised the issue*

Child Protection and Safety		36
Child in need of protection due to suspected sexual abuse	10
Child in need of protection due to suspected physical abuse	8
Child safety at risk due to recommendation to return home	8
Child in need of protection due to suspected neglect	6
Foster child at risk of abuse or neglect	4
Family Separation and Reunification		35
Child unnecessarily removed from the home	14
Child not placed with a relative	9
Failure to provide appropriate family-child contact	6
Failure to make reasonable efforts to reunify family	6
Foster Placement Issues		20
Child's foster placement changed unnecessarily	11
Child's medical, dental, mental health needs not met	9
Adoption Issues		9
Foster parent adoption	5
Relative adoption	4
*Some complaints raised more than one issue.

Complainants most frequently alleged agency conduct that was lawfully within the agency's discretion, but which, if true, had resulted in a harmful outcome. However, many complainants alleged conduct which, if true, constituted a violation of law or policy.

Allegations

Number of complaints that made the allegation

Alleged Harmful Outcomes		48
Agency act, decision, or recommendation was consistent with law, policy or procedure, but led to harmful result	25
Agency conducted an inadequate or incomplete investigation	12
Agency failed to investigate a child abuse or neglect referral	6
Agency act, decision, or recommendation was allegedly too slow	5
Alleged Conduct Violations		36
Agency act, decision, or recommendation was contrary to law, policy or procedure	19
Agency failed to act, decide or recommend as required by law, policy or procedure	13
Agency's investigation was contrary to law, policy or procedure	4
Other Acts or Omissions		17
Non-OFCO Agency Actions		11

Where Complaints Were Directed June 17 to December 1, 1997
* Other includes school administrator, attorney, county juvenile detention official, private agency.
Office of Family and Children's Ombudsman	January 1998

DSHS Complaints by Region, Office

The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) was the subject of 80 percent of complaints received by OFCO. Of these, the vast majority, 93 percent, were directed at the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS, which includes Child Protective Services), while seven percent were directed at the newly established Division of Licensed Resources (DLR). The information below shows the distribution of complaints across the state.

Children's Administration Headquarters		1		Region 4		25
				King South DCFS	8
Region 1		22		King Eastside DCFS	1
Spokane DCFS	10			Seattle Central DCFS	10
Wenatchee DCFS	8			Seattle South DCFS	1
Moses Lake DCFS	3			Seattle North DCFS	3
Spokane DLR	1			Seattle Central DLR	1
				Seattle North DLR	1
Region 2		6
Tri-Cities DCFS	3			Region 5		12
Yakima DCFS	2			Tacoma DCFS	8
Yakima DLR	1			Kitsap DCFS	3
				Tacoma DLR	1
Region 3		14
Everett DCFS	3			Region 6		10
Sky Valley DCFS	3			Kelso DCFS	3
Lynnwood DCFS	3			Centralia DCFS	2
Bellingham DCFS	2			Olympia DCFS	2
Smokey Point DCFS	1			Vancouver DCFS	2
Mt. Vernon DCFS	1			Aberdeen DCFS	1
Everett DLR	1
				TOTAL COMPLAINTS		90
DCFS = Division of Children and Family Services DLR = Division of Licensed Resources
DSHS Regions

OFCO's Response

OFCO's decisions to intervene in or investigate a case are grounded in its unique role as an independent voice for children and families. Consistent with this role, OFCO acts only on those complaints in which the well-being or interests of children or families appear to be in jeopardy. Moreover, irrespective of the particular outcome sought by the complainant, OFCO's interventions are aimed at preventing or mitigating harm to a child or family. Its investigations are aimed at addressing recurring or system-wide problems that adversely affect children's safety, well-being or permanence, or that affect appropriate family preservation or reunification.

Interventions

OFCO intervened in 63 cases for the purpose of preventing or mitigating possible harm resulting from an agency's act or omission. Slightly over half of OFCO's interventions were conducted on an emergent basis, where there was reason to believe that children or families might be in imminent peril without immediate action. Most interventions consisted of OFCO informally contacting an agency front-line worker or supervisor to inquire about the alleged act or omission, provide information, express concerns, explore other possible responses by the agency, and/or advise the agency that OFCO is monitoring the situation.

OFCO found it necessary to issue a formal recommendation to DSHS Children's Administration in two cases. These included:

• A recommendation to an area manager that CPS conduct face-to-face interviews with children who were possible abuse victims.
• A recommendation to an area manager that the department reconvene a community child protection team to ensure child safety issues are thoroughly addressed before the department recommends dismissal of dependency petition.

OFCO Intervention Type Categories not mutually exclusive.	Highest Level of DSHS Contact
* Court Appointed Special Advocate, Guardian ad Litem, Assistant Attorney General, local law enforcement, hospital, public school administrator.
Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman	January 1998

Issues that Prompted an Intervention June 17 to December 1, 1997
Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman	January 1998

Results of Interventions

Although OFCO does not have authority to impose its recommendations directly on an agency, OFCO's interventions resulted in an agency changing its position to address OFCO's concerns in 26, or 53 percent, of the 49 cases that were closed as of December 1. Over half of the issues OFCO gets involved in result in changes in an agency's position.

Some changes - including new or more thorough investigations by CPS, police child welfare checks, increased family monitoring and support services, and appointment of attorneys or guardians ad litem - have resulted in greater protection for children. Other changes, which have resulted in greater responsiveness to the needs of families, include allowances for appropriate parental visitation, provision of family reunification services and change in a child's foster placement to provide closer proximity to the child's mother.

In addition, OFCO helped to facilitate reversals of decisions to move children from long-standing foster placements, re-enrollment and development of an appropriate educational plan for a foster child who had been expelled from school, and finalized adoptions of legally-free children. These actions have resulted in greater child well-being and permanence.

In the 23 instances where the agency did not change its position, OFCO concluded that the agency's initial position was appropriate in 18 cases, and in five cases the agency's position was consistent with existing law or policy, but the result was nevertheless problematic.

Declines

In cases where OFCO declined an intervention, it was because OFCO found:

• No clear evidence that a family or child was at risk of harm (12 cases);
• Follow-up determined issue was outside OFCO jurisdiction (9 cases);
• OFCO could not achieve the requested outcome (6 cases);
• The issue was either too vague, or was resolved (6 cases).

After announcing it would conduct a targeted review of the Wenatchee investigations for the purpose of evaluating the need for new statewide policies and protocols designed to protect children, OFCO submitted a supplemental budget request for one-time investigation costs and requested the appointment of independent legal counsel. OFCO expects to issue a report with findings and recommendations in late 1998.