900069
"Alcatraz for Foster Kids" to Be Shut Down
"Unfortunately, what we have seen is a county orphanage that almost turned into an asylum," said Supervisor Gloria Molina at a news conference announcing the county’s settlement of a lawsuit brought by a consortium of public advocacy groups. "I hate to say it, but that’s the reality. The lawsuit really moved us to start thinking differently about Mac Laren."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, along with a number of organizations, including the Western Center on Law and Poverty, the Children’s Law Center, Center for Law in the Public Interest, Youth Law Center, Protection & Advocacy, Inc., the Bazalon Center for Mental Health Law and the law firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, reached a landmark settlement with the County of Los Angeles in March in a case seeking improved mental health services for foster children throughout Los Angeles.
"Kids with mental health and other issues are going to get the services they deserve," said County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky at a news conference announcing the settlement.
The lawsuit was filed in July, 2002. Advocacy groups sought to ensure delivery of appropriate mental health services for children in or at risk of being placed in Department of Children and Family Services custody. Significant numbers of children in the County’s foster care system were not being screened, much less treated for mental health problems.
Advocates hailed the settlement as a giant step forward in ensuring proper delivery of mental health services to foster children in Los Angeles.
"This historic agreement, the most far-reaching and progressive of its kind in the history of the nation, assures that all children in the custody of the County Department of Children and Family Services will receive all medically necessary mental health, behavioral support and case management services in community settings," said Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the ACLU/SC.
For years the county’s foster care system relied mostly on institutional settings and so-called group homes to treat children with emotional and psychiatric problems. These placements proved to be emotionally disruptive to children who had been taken out of their homes and were forced to adjust to new, often multiple, settings, all the while without receiving adequate mental health services. In addition to the emotional costs, housing children in institutional settings rather than providing them with individually tailored mental health services proved extremely expensive for a system that was already strapped for funds.
As part of the agreement, the county will provide individually tailored mental health services to each child in a family setting.
The county also agrees to give up its license to operate Mac Laren’s Children Center, described by some as the county’s own version of Alcatraz for foster children.
"This was an example of the different parties coming together to do what was best for the children in the system," said Robert Newman, staff attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. "Almost immediately after the suit was filed, the county came to the negotiation table eager to work something out, rather than dragging it out in litigation. Everyone involved recognized that this was an important chance to make a change in the lives of thousands of foster children in Los Angeles."
In order to fulfill the objectives outlined in the settlement, the county will agree to:
—Expand intensive, family-based “Wraparound Services” that utilize flexible funding to meet the individual needs of children and families.
—Enhance permanency planning, increase placement stability and provide more individualized, community-based emergency and other foster care services.
—Address the service and permanence needs of the five named plaintiffs in the lawsuit immediately.
—Set up an advisory panel consisting of child welfare experts who will monitor the county’s compliance and implementation of the agreed upon reforms.
"The overarching philosophy of this agreement may be simply stated: The role of the government is to preserve families, not replace them...children belong in loving families, not institutions," said Rosenbaum.
MAY 2003
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