Editorial: Bring back group homes

Monday, April 11, 2005 | 9:15 a.m.

It was just a year ago that a team of federal officials released a report highly critical of the way that abused and neglected children are cared for in Nevada. A finding that children spend too much time in temporary shelters before being placed in foster care was among the criticisms. Now a California-based nonprofit law firm has made a similar finding and is considering a lawsuit against the Clark County Department of Family Services. The firm, the National Center for Youth Law, spent three months investigating foster-care services in the county.

One of its major concerns is overcrowding at Child Haven, the county's temporary home for children rescued from abusive or dysfunctional families. The county has acknowledged the problem, saying that children are coming into the county's care at record numbers. The law firm was appalled that 33 infants were living at Child Haven. "This is not the appropriate setting for raising infants," said William Grimm, senior attorney with the law firm.

Another problem citied by the law firm was the county's management of the foster-care system, in which children from temporary shelters are placed in longer-term arrangements with foster families. Grimm said the county was not doing a good enough job in matching children with foster families with whom they would be compatible. This creates a "revolving door," he said, with children moving from foster home to foster home.

County Manager Thom Reilly and Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the Department of Family Services, agree there are problems, largely attributable to limited funds amid a rapidly growing influx of children who need temporary shelter and placement in foster homes. Although the county has stepped up its recruitment of foster families in response to the increasing numbers of children, it can only go so fast, as home inspections, interviews, background checks and necessary paperwork cannot be rushed without endangering the children. The result is too many children in temporary shelters, and, as Grim found, too many children not being "matched with the correct living situation."

Both the state and county believe the answer lies in bigger budgets and larger staffs. We believe that's one answer. But we also see another solution. In the 1990s the state closed two group homes for displaced children -- one in Carson City and one in Boulder City -- on the grounds that switching entirely to foster care was cheaper. We believe it's more than coincidence that now the foster-care system is overburdened and failing. We believe the children's homes, championed by the late Mike O'Callaghan (former two-term governor and longtime Sun executive editor) should be reopened. With the homes operating again, siblings could remain together and the burden on the foster-care system would be greatly lessened.