Weeks after a Fresno County Department of Social Services employee said the department’s practices were putting foster youth at risk, supervisors ordered an audit Tuesday to investigate claims that the county’s reunification policies were putting children in danger.
When social services worker Lorraine Ramirez went before supervisors in February to talk about the county’s foster family program, she did so nearly alone, telling county leadership about the department’s reunification practices and lack of communication between administration and workers.
On Tuesday, however, when Ramirez again went before supervisors to discuss the audit proposed by Supervisor Luis Chavez and Board Chair Garry Bredefeld, she was joined by other county workers, a foster parent, representatives from foster care agencies, and several members of the county’s oversight committee. All talked about shortcomings they’ve seen in the program.
“A lot of the issues that we were seeing were children going home too soon, families not provided with the appropriate services to have the children back in their care,” Ramirez told GV Wire Tuesday. “Therefore, when the children don’t have the services that they need, when they’re returned home, then we get the neglect and abuse again because they haven’t learned yet how to be home or the parents haven’t learned how to (care for) their children.”
Ordering the audit marks the first step in what many hope will be a comprehensive change to a system rife with internal and external issues threatening the foster program. Among them: families needing services, foster agencies crippled by insurance costs and fewer referrals, social workers’ concerns going unheeded, and a department trying to keep vulnerable children and parents safe.
Audit to Be As Comprehensive As Possible: Bredefeld
The supervisors unanimously ordered the audit.
Chavez, who has been a foster parent for the past seven years, said he wanted to learn two things from the audit.
“One is, is our model producing the best safety net to ensure that children are in a safe and healthy environment?” Chavez said. “Then, two, does our system really deal with the parent and the family after the child leaves our foster care system?”
Bredefeld said he wanted as comprehensive an audit as possible, including hearing from schools. This came after a member of the county’s oversight committee said teachers and district liaisons have unique perspectives on the problem.
“I want to ensure no child is ever returned to an unsafe home, that there’s meaningful and effective oversight,” Bredefeld said.
County Administrative Officer Paul Nerland said he would work with the California Department of Social Services to find an auditing organization.
Social Worker Caseload Decreases: Bugay
Bredefeld and Chavez said after Ramirez raised the issues, they met with her, along with foster agencies and social services department director Sanja Bugay, who took the lead role in 2022.
Ramirez says under Bugay, the department shifted priorities from the top-down to put children back with families regardless of whether they were ready. She and other county workers said their complaints and concerns could take months to reach leadership when issues with children were pressing.
Bugay told GV Wire on Tuesday that she welcomed the audit because it would give the department an outside perspective on how to improve.
“When the audits are done well, we actually hear the good stuff we’re doing, and there will be plenty that we’re doing well,” Bugay said. “They’re going to show us challenges, and we have challenges. Nothing in our system is 100%.”
She said in recent years, caseloads for social workers have gone down significantly. The county approved pay raises for social workers and authorized hiring 35 more workers.
Bugay told supervisors it’s when caseloads get above 25 that work becomes a problem. The average now is in the mid-teens.
She disagreed with claims that the county prioritizes reunification at the cost of safety. She said Fresno County beats state averages when it comes to maltreatment and re-entry to foster care.
“I absolutely do not believe that we prioritize anything over safety. Child safety and well-being are at the heart of what we do,” Bugay said.
Reduced Caseloads Come from Premature Reunification: Ramirez
Ramirez said the reduced caseloads result from the administration ignoring recommendations from workers opposed to putting children back with unprepared families.
“A child can be sexually abused, physically abused, or mentally abused, but the goal was ‘send the kids home or place them with a family member,’” Ramirez said. “Which is fine if the family member is going to be protective and they’re going to meet all the requirements. But they were finding a lot of loopholes, and this placed children at risk.”
One foster parent said at the meeting the two children he cared for had regressed so much after unsupervised visits that they were acting more like toddlers, forgetting their potty training and urinating at school and in bed.
Another county worker in the in-home supportive services program said at Tuesday’s meeting that it could take months to get a response on pressing concerns.
Bugay said she maintains an open-door policy and encourages employee input.
“It’s always kind of disheartening that sometimes it takes a long time, and I’d want to really look at the situations,” Bugay said.
The county hired an ombudsman in an independent position, but Ramirez said that often, the ombudsman pushes the county’s priorities.
Social Workers Are Hard to Contact
Multiple agencies told GV Wire and the Board of Supervisors about concerns with the social services department.
Denise Wyatt, executive director with the Family Healing Center, supported the audit, saying high social worker turnover due to overwork and changing priorities has harmed children.
“I have worked with many social workers who have spoken their minds on the protection of children and how we are no longer focusing on the protection of children but the prevention aspect of it,” Wyatt said.
Danielle Dela Torre, operations manager with North Star Family Center, told GV Wire she’s seen referrals drop significantly recently because of the push for reunification.
She said parents have to do only the bare minimum to get children back and that after three months, the cycle starts again.
Echoing the concerns of the foster parent who spoke at the meeting, Dela Torre said she hears often from parents who can’t reach their social worker or their supervisor.
“When you have every single parent saying that they can’t get a hold of their social worker or they can’t get a hold of their social work supervisor, it starts to seem like maybe these workers are actually as hard to get a hold of as they are saying they are.”
County Cutting Out Foster Agencies: Dela Torre
While representations in movies and TV portray foster agencies in a negative light, Dela Torre said most vigilantly watch after children. The state in recent years added national accreditation requirements going beyond state requirements.
Agencies check in nearly daily with foster parents and respond at all times of day to find homes for children in need. This comes as changes have shut down agencies statewide.
For children that have extra behavioral needs, foster agencies can make sure homes are equipped to deal with those challenges.
Dela Torre said insurance costs for foster agencies have tripled after California relaxed the statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits and broadened what organizations and agencies can be held liable for. The state now requires malpractice insurance for foster agencies.
Insurance costs have displaced salaries and benefits as the highest cost of doing business, and some local agencies have shut down because of it, Dela Torre said.
As this happens, the county has been recruiting families directly that the foster agencies have taken time and resources to train. Meanwhile, families have told Dela Torre that the county doesn’t provide as much oversight as private agencies.
Bugay told GV Wire that the county only contracts with families after they receive necessary training and go through background checks. She said once a child is placed in a home, social workers check in at least once a month on the child’s safety and well-being.
Past Controversy
Bugay succeeded Delfino Neira, who resigned in November 2021 after the department was found to be housing minors under the care of Fresno County Child Protective Services in unsafe and unsanitary living conditions.
Ramirez at that time also alerted the county about those issues.
Before her hiring, Bugay spent six-plus years heading Kings County’s Human Services Agency.
During that time, she overhauled Child Welfare Services, resulting in a reduction of foster care placement cases and eliminating emergency response backlogs. Bugay also led the Kings County Whole Person Care Pilot, which addressed high emergency room use and jail recidivism rates.