Legislators OK Hiring 113 Child Welfare Workers At DHS

Oregon legislators on Friday approved hiring 113 child welfare workers, an effort they said is needed to help prevent abuses such as those that recently came to light."What is going on there is a direct result of a lack of funding,” said Sen. Alan Bates, D-Medford."There were such huge caseloads that there was no way in the world they could follow what is going on properly in some areas.” Bates was referirng to recent lawsuits filed against the Department of Human Services for negligence. The state budget includes $10.7 million more from the tax-supported general fund, and $20.4 million more overall, for 113 more child-welfare positions. That’s about 85 full-time workers, according to a budget report. Erin Kelly-Siel from the DHS did not respond to a request for comment on those numbers Friday.
There are approximately 8,700 Oregon children in foster care and each one spends about 457 days in foster care, according to DHS’ website.
www.opb.org/news/article/legislators-ok-hiring-113...t-dhs

Programs Aim At Keeping Kids In Stable Homes

The reason most of these children are in foster care is because their parents are drug addicts. I like to try the simplest solution first. Let's keep these illegal drugs out of Oregon which is actually easy to do and costs a whole lot less than to keep expanding the Department of Human Services (DHS). First step is to keep from giving these cartel members Oregon Drivers Licenses. Kids in Oregon are twice as likely as children nationwide to be placed in foster care. And child advocates say that’s a problem. Mainly because national statistics on the success of foster kids aren’t good — a quarter have been homeless at least once by age 23, and almost half have been on food stamps by the same age. This spring, there was an opening celebration at Bridge Meadows in Portland. It’s a new housing complex where families pay less rent if they agree to adopt three children. And older people, like Linda Komanecky, also move in nearby. They also get a reduction in rent if they agree to volunteer at least 10 hours a week helping adoptive families.
www.opb.org/news/article/programs-aim-keeping-kids...homes