Oops! Audit Reveals 1,000 CA Foster Care Homes Match Sex Offender Addresses
A new audit of the California foster care system has revealed that over 1,000 foster homes and facilities in the state match addresses on the state sex offender registry. This means that sex offenders are living and/or working in said foster care establishments.
Child welfare officials apparently failed to check the sex offender registry, despite the advice to do so in 2008 by the office of State Auditor Elaine M. Howle. Whoops! Just a minor overlooked detail...
Nearly 600 of the sex offenders were considered high risk. State regulators and local child welfare agencies were alerted of the matches in July. Since then, eight licenses have been revoked or suspended and regulators issued 36 orders banning individuals from licensed facilities. Counties have individually taken action to remove children from homes or bar offenders from them.
State Assemblyman Henry Perea (D-Fresno) ordered the audit earlier this year, which was, in addition to uncovering said major system flaws, also intended to compile data on deaths of children while under the supervision of child protective services. Among Sacramento, Fresno and Alameda counties, L.A. County was also an area of focus in the audit. L.A. County officials refused to provide information requested by the auditor.
"This is appalling," Perea said of the audit findings, reports the Sacramento Bee.
Despite the lack of cooperation by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, the auditor's office plans to continue pressing the county for records and to issue a second report in the near future.
