Social workers demand solutions for horrific conditions for kids in Fresno County CPS care
Several dozen social workers and other county employees on Thursday publicly blamed deficiencies in management in Fresno County for the conditions that foster children have faced for years.
The Fresno Bee first reported the conditions on Wednesday inside the office building known to social workers as the CWS Office on L Street in Fresno. The building is the main hub for Fresno County’s Child Protective Services.
Employees and management at a news conference said the poor conditions have gone on for many years, possibly even two decades. The news conference drew Fresno County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau, who showed up unannounced.
Social worker Lorraine Ramirez said inside that office space children sleep on yoga mats, cannot shower and are fed fast food. She said children have been known to urinate in bottles and sleep on tables with lights that don’t turn off.
“I wish the child welfare crisis was an exaggeration, but unfortunately it’s exactly what children ages zero to 17 sleep and live in,” the 20-year veteran of the department said.
The children are also the county’s most vulnerable, who may have mental health or others issues that make them difficult to house.
The social workers said they are paid the lowest in the state for the county job, and are overworked. The department hemorrhages workers after they are trained, because they can work for more under better conditions in surrounding counties, they said.
The department has 136 social workers, according to their union, Service Employees International (SEIU). The union also says there has been a turnover of 146 workers in the past four years.
Fresno County CAO speaks on crisis
During the social workers’ public news conference, Fresno County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau arrived with Department of Social Services Child Welfare Deputy Director Tricia Gonzalez and Chief Operating Officer Paul Nerland, who will take over as CAO in December.
Rousseau apologized while speaking to the media, saying sorry to the children who have faced poor conditions and the workers who oversee them.
He said starting Saturday those young people will be housed at a building on the the old University Medical Center campus, often called UMC, and then will go to a new Clovis location after that is complete in about a month.
Rousseau said he first was made aware of the conditions on Wednesday.
“The reality is at the UMC campus facility, it’s against the law. It’s not a licensed facility,” he said. “It’s not licensed by the state, but we have no choice. We have no place to take these young folks.”
Assemblymember Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, spoke to reporters virtually on Thursday, saying the first priority should be to get the children in beds immediately.
“I think it was unintended but here we are, because we have policies and bureaucracies that are making it more difficult to care for these who are the most needy,” he said.
State bureaucracy has been a roadblock to getting the children placed, Patterson said. The state does not allow the children to be moved across the border to a neighboring state nor does it allow social workers to place beds in the offices where the children have slept.
He said the state Department of Health Care Services has the most direct oversight of the bureaucracy holding up the placement of the children.
State response
Scott Murray, a spokesman for the California Department of Social Services, said while it’s ultimately the responsibility of counties to find proper placements for youth, the department has contacted officials at the Fresno County Department of Social Services, including its director Delfino Neira.
“We will be offering technical assistance and support to ensure that county officials are able to identify appropriate placements for these youth as quickly as possible,” he said in an email to The Bee.
According to a July 2002 letter to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, a Foster Care Standards and Oversight Committee was formed after a scandal that became known as the “motel kids.” That situation was similar to what the county’s child welfare agency is experiencing now with children staying in an office space while they await permanent placement.
“The Department was placing its hardest-to-place foster care children in unlicensed motel facilities until a suitable placement could be found,” the letter reads.
After the formation of the oversight committee, it began to advise the county supervisors on reforms to improve the child welfare system. For example, in the 2002 letter, the committee made several recommendations for improvements.
Today, however, the committee has almost half of its positions unfilled with seven current vacancies.
Each supervisor appoints three people to the committee. The only district that has all of its required appointments is District 5, represented by Supervisor Nathan Magsig.
Supervisor Sal Quintero is the chairman for the committee. He didn’t return requests for comment on Thursday.
According to the June and August meeting minutes from the committee, members were made aware of several issues outlined in a Fresno Bee story, including placements for high needs youth, and problems with social workers’ turnover.
“It’s very hard to have a sustained effort of advocacy for child welfare,” said Nancy Richardson, who was involved with the committee when it was first established, and has done consulting work for the county’s child welfare system.
Richardson said she has concerns for the lack of advocacy for child welfare, overall. “There’s no red wave for child welfare,” she told The Bee.
Social worker morale
Rousseau said a lack of communication in the county allowed for the conditions to get so dire. He said Thursday he has not ruled out disciplinary action for department heads.
As he spoke to the media Thursday, Rousseau was also pelted by questions from the county employees gathered at L and Tuolomne streets asking him what went wrong for the children in the county’s care.
“We could’ve, should’ve and will do better taking care of them,” he said.
Rousseau could not immediately say what the cost will be to prepare UMC to hold the children, nor where the money will come from. He did not rule out using general fund dollars.
The county has been moving many of its scattered offices to a new Clovis campus on Willow Avenue north of Shields Avenue, where Pelco Inc. once was. Offices are also going into the old Costco building on the same block.
Social workers speak out
A social worker in Fresno County for four years, Hector Cerda said workers appreciate a new building but the facilities don’t make him better at doing his job.
“Reasonable caseloads at a job where I’m happy, and I’m invested in, and I’m listened to, and earning a decent salary for the hard work I produce — that would make me a better social worker,” he said.
Social workers say Fresno County’s child welfare system is understaffed, leaving social workers overwhelmed with work and not feeling appreciated. It’s so bad, they say, that non-crisis referrals have begun to pile up on social workers’ shelves.
The county has also not supplied the department with many of its daily needs for the children, they say. Workers take it upon themselves to collect clean clothes for the children, and will bring food from home to offer the kids something other than fast food.
The problem is homegrown and a longstanding issue in Fresno, and has nothing to do with immigration or the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Yolanda Reyes, a social worker and the local bargaining leader for the union.
“It’s the county’s responsibility,” she said. “It’s not a question of if something horrible is going to happen. It’s a matter of asking management ‘when does this end?’”
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 3:04 PM.
