Tag Archives: Foster Care

Oregon pilot program aims to increase graduation rates for kids in foster care

Three schools across Oregon will receive funding in the upcoming school year to run a pilot program helping kids placed in foster care graduate from high school. Oregon started tracking graduation rates for kids in foster care in the 2016-17 school year — and less than 50% of kids in foster care graduate on time. […]
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Story of Salem teen who died in police shootout reveals gaps in juvenile justice system – OPB’s Think Out Loud

Salem resident Bobby Brown was killed in a shootout with city police in 2022 when he was just 16 years old. As reported in a recent three-part profile published by the Salem Reporter, Brown’s birth mother used methamphetamines. When he was born he went into withdrawals and was immediately placed into foster care. He was […]
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After settlement, Disability Rights Oregon and DHS wait for neutral expert pick

The Oregon Department of Human Services and child advocacy groups who sued the state agency over its poor management of foster care are unable to agree on who should oversee a historic settlement that requires the state to overhaul its child welfare system. Both sides proposed a neutral expert, and federal Judge  Ann Aiken will […]
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How Oregon must change foster care to satisfy a lawsuit settlement

The problems in Oregon’s foster care system for children are numerous and long-running. Too many children are taken from their homes and placed into a foster care system that has too few available foster homes. The situation has led to children being taken out of state to be housed, children being put up in motels […]
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What an Oregon class action foster care settlement means for children and youth in care – OPB’s Think Out Loud

Five years ago, the national advocacy group A Better Childhood teamed up with local nonprofit Disability Rights Oregon to file a class action lawsuit against Oregon’s Department of Human Services. The state’s child welfare system had been sued individually many times over the years over horrific outcomes in individual cases. But this class action was […]
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Oregon settles class action lawsuit over foster care failures

In a deal intended to improve the lives of Oregon foster children, the state and advocates for vulnerable children settled a long-running federal class action lawsuit on Thursday over failures in the state foster care system. Lawyers for the child plaintiffs argued state practices caused further trauma to many children the state was supposed to […]
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Oregon DHS and Disability Rights Oregon settle long-running class-action foster care lawsuit

The Oregon Department of Human Services agrees to improve its child welfare system with guidance from an outside neutral expert. The Oregon Department of Human Services agreed to a historic settlement in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of the state’s foster children that will hold the state agency more accountable to improve its […]
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Oregon child welfare worker accused of child sex abuse

A child welfare caseworker with the Oregon Department of Human Services has been accused of sex abuse against a foster child. Wilbur Morris, 47, pleaded not guilty in Columbia County Circuit Court on Tuesday to the charges of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, luring a minor and official misconduct in […]
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Oregon Honors Foster Care Month

This month, Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) honors the vital role of resource families in creating safe and stable environments for children and young adults. In Oregon, adults who care for children in foster care are called resource parents, emphasizing the many important roles they play in supporting children and their parents, creating safe […]
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Advocates push states to save foster children’s federal benefits, not spend them

By the time Jesse Fernandez turned 18, the federal government had paid out thousands of dollars in Social Security survivor’s benefits because of the death of his mother. But Jesse’s bank account was empty. The money had all been used by Missouri’s foster care system or relatives responsible for his care. “I was shocked,” said […]
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