1,000 California Foster Care Homes Match Sex Offender Addresses: Report

A new audit of the California foster care system has revealed that over 1,000 foster home addresses match those of registered sex offenders, according to the Los Angeles Times.

It seems that child welfare official failed to compare the addresses even after they were told to do so in 2008. According to the Sacramento Bee, about 600 of the highlighted offenders were considered high risk.

The matching addresses involved both foster care facilities and homes, according to the Sacramento Bee. At this point eight licenses have been revoked or suspended, and an additional 36 orders have been issued barring individuals from facilities.

According to the Fresno Bee, the investigation was spurred by the killing of a young boy in the foster care system.

Assembly Member Henry T. Perea requested the audit after children's deaths in Fresno County, including 10-year-old Seth Ireland who was beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend in 2008.

According to SacBee, the locations of the sex offenders have not been disclosed, but Sacramento, Fresno and Alameda counties were all targeted for the audit.

Los Angeles County was also selected for investigation, according to the LA Times, but the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors said no to subpoenas and later hired outside lawyers to fight the investigation. However, the auditor's office continues to press the county for information.

Last year, Kentucky performed a similar audit, but didn't find quite as many overlapping instances, according to The ChildLaw blog. In that case the audit only found 12 instances of sex offenders living with or caring for foster children.

UPDATE: The L.A. Times has since clarified that the matching addresses included more than just foster care homes and group facilities, but other state-run facilities as well.

In reality, the sex offender matches included a wider group of state-licensed facilities, including day-care facilities for children and providers for the elderly and adults with special needs. Additionally, the state auditor said that regulators issued 36 orders barring individuals from licensed facilities. The true number is 31, according to the California Department of Social Services.

Comments

[Kevin Arthus]

11:39 AM on 11/11/2011

over 1,000 foster home addresses match those of registered sex offenders... At this point eight licenses have been revoked or suspended

for some reason those numbers don't quite match up

[RedWolfe70]

08:10 PM on 10/30/2011

Unfortunately, licensed facilities are always targets for sex offenders for obvious reasons and the state knows that. Much of the problem is there are people that work there that just simply haven't been caught yet.
But the real problem is there are simply too many children in the foster care either because of social services intervention or the minor's involvement in continued criminal activity. For the number of sex offenders out there, there are 10+ people trying to do the right thing for each of these children. Many people go above and beyond to help out these children, who in some cases their own family did not or cannot take care of their needs.
That being said, the foster care system NEEDS to be overhauled starting with the Feds. And trust me most of the people that work in it know that it NEEDS to be much better than what it is. What gets me about reports like this it that it is easy for the public to complain about how bad the foster care system is, but there are people out there genuinely trying to make things better for these children. You don't hear about the care givers that take specialized training annually to take care of the children that need intensive/extensive medical care because of abuse or neglect they have suffered? Or the organizations that provide supplemental resources for these children and the child's family that wants to reunify?

[Leonard H]

05:15 PM on 10/29/2011

This story is the mere tip of the iceberg. We are continually mystified why the PROBLEM with CPS and foster care doesn't ignite into a firestorm of angry citizens. Citizens should be "Pitchforks and Torches" mad about it.

"As many as 75 percent of all children in foster care, upon leaving the system, will have experienced sexual abuse. One study by Johns Hopkins University found that the rate of sexual abuse within the foster-care system is more than four times as high as in the general population; in group homes, the rate of sexual abuse is more than 28 times that of the general population." --Sexual Abuse: An Epidemic in Foster Care Settings? -By Orlow, Orlow & Orlow July 17, 2009

Leonard Henderson, co-founder
American Family Rights
http://familyrights.us
"Until Every Child Comes Home"©
"The Voice of America's Families"©

[seraphimblade]

05:10 PM on 10/29/2011

So, I'm going to offer a bit of counterpoint to the statistics here:

Several years ago, I answered the door to a cop pretty early in the morning. He asked me about someone I've never known and was presumably a former resident of the apartment. I told him I lived alone there and had never met the person he was talking about, at which time the officer told me he was there investigating a sex offender who'd failed to re-register.

After finding that out, as you might imagine, I wanted my address of that list. I finally did get there, but it took me almost a year's worth of bureaucracy.

If "sex offender addresses" are to be used as a metric, it's imperative that there be a system to promptly verify that a new resident is at an address and get them -off- that list. Periodic mail notification that a given address is on the sex-offender list should also be required.

[Phil McLeod]

04:20 PM on 10/29/2011

They should pick them up and put them in Jail. They should be punish for there crimes.

[Harold Melton]

12:36 PM on 10/29/2011

I was watching a program about sex offenders in a therapy session. The majority of them said that they would probably commit another sex crime when released. The Child Protective Services (CPS) is a big joke. With today’s technology it would only take a few minutes to monitor the sex offenders being in or near a foster homes. There are no requirements for the CPS employees and the managements to have common sense and good judgment. Every state should make it monitory that there is a Internet program that the public can a access to see what sexual convicts in their neighborhood. It should also be a part of the CPS’s job to view the information for any sex offenders in or around the Foster Homes. Failure to do that is reason for the CPS employee to be fired. It seems that employees of the LA County is tryin to hide something and should themselves be investigated and possibly be fired.

[cysocial]

11:59 AM on 10/29/2011

The second biggest threat to children after abusive and neglectful parents is Social Services. I can say that after having worked in for 20 years. I also worked 20 years in the unreleated private sector and I have never seen the level of top heavy management like as I have at Social Services. The people working the hardest, line staff has least amount of control and little resources. Here too however I have seen people who would NEVER make it in th private sector not only be allowed to continue but advance and be promoted. Despite what they say Social Services does not us multi-axial behavioral based models for assessing risk. Resouces that could be used to do things like monitor and cross check foster homes, both county and realtive are not there because the funds are sucked up useless programs NOT proven effective, pet projects of directors and upper management and TOO MANY prgoram analyst.

[medicallibrarian]

10:56 AM on 10/29/2011

"It seems that child welfare official(s) [sic] failed to compare the addresses even after they were told to do so in 2008". With technology and the software to do this, it couldn't be any easier. The Child Welfare Agencies in this country have been the last sacred cows who are allowed under law to hide their ineptness, their blatant malfeasance and certainly their non-beneficience toward the most vulnerable children. Why is this? We're not in the 19th century! It's because the law protects them. What other public agencies do you know of that use taxpayer money to operate and yet are NOT held to PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY? And yet we wonder why children grow up fractured and lost? Reprehensible! California and every other state gets away with this. Why? We teach children to tell if they are touched inappropriately and not to keep that secret. Yet the CPS' across this country are allowed to be secretive. Why don't the Right to Lifers get involved in this issue? It certainly seems that their voices could lend the much needed continual focus on this issue that impacts our society so profoundly.

[Mandy Trouten]

09:11 PM on 12/10/2011

I'm one Right to Lifer who is absolutely speaking out on the abuse of children. My priority is peer sexual abuse in schools; however, you are more than welcome to keep me informed on child welfare screw-ups and I will add my voice.

www.facebook.com/mandytrouten
www.mandytrouten.com

[misspoptart]

12:15 AM on 10/29/2011

When is this country going to get its priorities straight and put children first? This is sickening.

[Foodgrade]

11:04 PM on 10/28/2011

And state juvenile detention centers match the rest.

[Nuni Paoli]

10:22 PM on 10/28/2011

I question why LA county would spend the money hiring attorney's to BLOCK an audit that would actually protect children. Seems backward and suspicious. The auditor needs to keep the heat on.

[kando]

10:50 PM on 10/28/2011

That was my question. LA County cries how broke they are, but can give taxpayers money away to protect sex offenders????

[moonwolfph]

09:52 PM on 10/28/2011

Holy CRAP! Doesn't ANY government office work correctly, without being manned by a bunch of illiterate, lazy SCREW-UPS?!
Jeez.

[joynoise]

07:51 PM on 10/28/2011

Aren't convicted sex offenders' names and addresses required to be made public? Maybe we as citizens need to take care of our own, and especially if we have children, check these lists and make note of any offenders who live near us, then report to the police any unusual activities going on at those addresses. Let's be vigilant and persistent!!! If you don't have a neighborhood watch in place, then start one.
By the way, I think the law should be changed so that an 18-19 year old is not breaking the law for being with a 15-16 year old, or at least not carry the "pedophile" label for life. Just my opinion.

[Dawn E Worswick]

07:30 PM on 10/28/2011

Look up Nancy Shafer...she was a US GA congress woman who was murdered bringing this truth to light. CPS is run by pedophiles and greedy social workers and judges getting kickback from big pharma, federal funds, and child care facilities that take in big bucks like 'boot camps' and juvi jails for kids. Think MacLaren Hall in LA and Orangewood in Orange county both riddled with corruption, greed, and sexual abuse misconduct. Two places overflowing with children they can't control!!!!!! Yeah, I was bad! By the time I was 5, I was beating my bully's with 2X4's to protect myself because the staff wouldn't! There are good foster parents who really do try... I had two of them when I was released from hell but by then, it was too late... I was too damaged!

[Dawn E Worswick]

07:29 PM on 10/28/2011

Cps is nothing but a child trafficking operation run by our government, I spent four years ages 3-7 being raped in Children's Village VIA LA CA CPS! The porn we made is still available today. I was ages 3-7. They ruined my life and only through the grace of God was I able to heal but not before I became a derelict mom, a drug addict for 8 years and a sex worker in the adult entertainment industry. When I was 6, all I wanted to be was a stripper! Isn't that sad? CPS does not help kids. They destroy families and medicate kids with dangerous psychotropic drugs with false diagnosis by CPS doctors who can care less for a child's well being. I was on 5 or 6 drugs at a time when I when I was 9-16 because I had PTSD from the torture and raped I had to endure!!!!!

[moonwolfph]

09:55 PM on 10/28/2011

My sincere condolences. You should go on Dr. Phil now, to expose your horrific story to the light. You never know who you might SAVE.
Take care and God heal.

[standUptotheman]

09:04 PM on 10/29/2011

Your child hood sounds like a nightmare. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. I wish you well in life!

[Angela BarffEib]

06:52 PM on 11/09/2011

Dr. Phil Doesn't care about "Children" he cares about ratings ! He's soooooo blinded by the the Corrupt Goverment officials and C.A.S.A that he can't even consider the harm he is contributing to this "Legalized Child Trafficing". CASA is disgusting.CPS/CWS is Disgusting in their criminal child Abuse,Fraud,lies....

[Dale9595]

07:29 AM on 11/05/2011

Write a book about your life, an expose about your inside experiences. Use a pseudonym and become a best selling author exposing the very corruption that didn’t kill you, but made you stronger. This country needs to wake up and take better care of our kids!!!
Kudos to you and your surviving skills.