More than a third of the children in Maryland's foster care system were not attending school last year, and nearly as many did not meet at least once a month with caseworkers, according to a report released yesterday by the state's Office of Legislative Audits.
The report, part of an ongoing review of the state's troubled social services agency, documents many areas of improvement in the foster care network, which is responsible for the state's orphaned, abused or neglected children. The proportion of youngsters receiving annual health exams and psychiatric therapy, for instance, has increased steadily since 2002, the report found.
But the percentage of foster children attending school dropped from nearly 80 percent in 2003 to 65 percent last year -- a number that child advocates described as deeply troubling.
The report also said the state Social Services Administration failed to ensure that federal money for foster care reached 232 of the nearly 9,000 children eligible for the aid from March 2001 to May 2004.
About 31 percent of the children had not had met face to face with a social worker on a monthly basis, as required.
The report comes as political heat on Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) is increasing over his administration's handling of foster children. Lawmakers and child advocates have called for an investigation into allegations of avoidable child deaths and other systemic failings contained in e-mails and memorandums written by Michelle Lane, a former Ehrlich loyalist who was fired last June.
Lane alleged in memos, written to top administration officials and later released to reporters, that the state was violating a court decree requiring it to limit the number of foster children assigned to each social worker.
An Ehrlich spokesman has said that Lane is part of an "orchestrated anti-Ehrlich establishment."
Norris West, spokesman for the Department of Human Resources, which oversees the state's foster care program, yesterday acknowledged that the Office of Legislative Audits report highlights "a number of challenges in improving our foster care system."
"We've made significant progress, we think, over the past two years, but we have a number of long-standing issues that don't lend themselves to easy and quick solutions," West said.
The report did not clarify whether the 35 percent of children not attending school failed to go to school during the entire audit period, or whether the numbers reflected a spot check. Calls to the auditors who wrote the report were not returned, and West said that he did not know enough to elaborate and that he could not reach staff members who did.
The department is "moving in the right direction," said West, who added that the recent hiring of more than 200 social workers would help alleviate some problems.
"We're not satisfied with the areas where we have improved, because we know that there's much more to do," West said. "We are optimistic that we are going to achieve some significant improvements."
Maryland's foster care system has been under a consent decree since 1988, after a federal court ruled that the state was not ensuring the constitutional rights of foster children.
The consent decree requires, among other things, that the state ensure sufficient medical and psychological treatment, as well as education, for foster children.
Over the past three years, the state conducted fire and heath inspections at far more foster homes, but it still fails to conduct criminal background checks or similar reviews on one-third of foster parents.
Yesterday's report "indicates that little has changed," said Mitchell Y. Mirviss, a lawyer representing the foster children in the class-action suit that led to the consent decree. "We still see children at grave risk. . . . If a drastically different approach isn't taken by the Department of Human Resources, this pattern will continue unabated."
