A recent audit of the state agency responsible for the foster care system and protecting children from abuse found widespread deficiencies — from kids in foster care going without medical services to abuse allegations going unchecked.
WYPR reporter Rachel Baye joined Nathan Sterner to discuss some of these findings.
Sterner:
The focus of this audit is the Social Services Administration, which is part of the state Department of Human Services and oversees all of local social services agencies. I understand this audit is a follow up from an audit done last year?
Baye:
Actually, the problems go back even further. The Office of Legislative Audits, which reports to the General Assembly, looked at the Social Services Administration back in 2017 and found 14 different problems. These ranged from inadequate monitoring of foster care providers to not making sure local social services departments were investigating allegations of child abuse in a timely fashion.
When the auditors went back last year, eight of those 14 problems still existed.
So this week, they released yet another audit looking at the six most significant remaining issues. Of those, the agency has still not fixed three, including the two you referenced: They are not making sure local social services agencies are following up on abuse allegations or are providing children in the foster care system with legally required services.
Read more (and listen) at WYPR.
