Judge's support should help fix foster system

• Published July 08, 2008

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Has the state of Washington done enough to turn its troubled child welfare system around?

That's the central question as the state Department of Social and Health Services and advocates for children in the state foster care system square off in court.

The so-called Braam lawsuit threatens to turn the state foster care system upside down. In fact, taken to its extreme, the courts could take over management of the state's child welfare system, stripping state officials in Children's Administration of their responsibilities. Maybe that's not such a bad idea.

Bureaucracy run amok

The lawsuit that now is a decade old is named after 12-year-old Jessica Braam, who had been shuttled among 34 different foster homes in the first years of her life. The lawsuit filed on her behalf said Braam was merely one victim of a state bureaucracy run amok.

After six years of litigation and a judge's ruling against the state, DSHS officials entered into an agreement with attorneys for foster children to make drastic improvements in the way the state handles foster care children. An independent, five-member Braam Oversight Panel was appointed to monitor the state's progress.

That panel issued its first report in the spring of 2004. The news was not good for the foster care system.

The Braam Panel said Children's Administration director Cheryl Stephani and her employees had completed 13 improvement steps but had yet to achieve 32 others.

Stephani disagreed with the report card, saying her agency had not been credited for progress in specific areas. Stephani argued for more time.

Attorneys for foster children rightfully stated that the progress report showed a lack of urgency in addressing the multiple problems faced within the foster care system.

To their credit, Gov. Chris Gregoire and Robin Arnolds-Williams, director of DSHS, were able to set new standards for home visitations and the length of time between the report of child abuse and the first visit by a caseworker. They also were successful in convincing the Legislature to hire 490 additional social workers and to spend millions of dollars on improved services.