Safety changes
follow death : Number of foster kids in homes
limited
By SUKHJIT PUREWAL
October 30, 2006
The death of a
2-year-old boy in a foster care home in Salinas
nearly a year ago has led to policy changes
regarding the placement of multiple children in
foster homes in Monterey County.
When Jaime Ceballos
died on Nov. 27, he was one of nine children living
in Ada and Antonio Sifuentes' home. Three were the
couple's own children. Authorities have not been
able to determine whether the death was accidental
or a criminal act.
A review of the
case by the state Department of Social Services has
raised questions about whether the "multiple" social
workers who were placing children in the foster home
were aware of the number of children in the home.
The state was asked to review the case by Elliott
Robinson, executive director of the Monterey County
Employment and Social Services Department.
"My sense is that
they (social workers) knew it was very full,"
Robinson said. "Did they do a census? That I can't
say."
Robert Powell, a
San Jose-based social worker representing Jaime's
biological mother, Megan Allen, said local social
workers should have been aware of the potential for
problems if they were making required monthly home
visits to the Sifuentes house.
"It doesn't take a
rocket scientist to see there were too many kids in
the house," Powell said. "To say it (the case) was
handled poorly would be almost dismissive. It was
handled grossly improperly."
Robinson said he
has instituted a new policy requiring social workers
to obtain authorization from Robinson or deputy
executive director Robert Taniguichi before placing
a child in a home that already has four children,
including any biological children.
"What you can't
assume is that just because a situation may be
approved for more children in one situation, it
doesn't make it necessarily right for the next set
of children," Taniguichi said. "You are still
looking at the kid's needs."
Jaime apparently
needed a lot of supervision because of his erratic
behavior, said Salinas police.
If Jaime was "out
of control," as the foster parents have insisted,
Powell said, he shouldn't have been in that home to
begin with.
Jaime died from a
blow to the stomach, which caused internal bleeding.
A Salinas police investigation concluded the boy
fatally injured himself, as was his pattern of
behavior.
Police say Jaime
was exposed to drugs before he was born, causing his
hyperactivity, including banging his head against
the floor and walls.
The coroner's
report was unable to determine whether the injury
was accidental or inflicted by someone else.
Jaime was being
seen at the Monterey County Screening Team for
Assessment, Referral and Treatment, a program
nicknamed McStart, said police. McStart staff
members work with children who have been exposed to
alcohol and drugs before birth and who, as a result,
show behavioral problems and developmental
deficiencies.
A representative
from the county District Attorney's Office said its
staff has not determined whether to press
negligence-related charges against the Sifuentes.
They knew that
Jaime had not been feeling well for several days
prior to the injury but had not taken him in to see
a doctor, police said.
Allen, Jaime's
mother, insisted that the boy and her two other
children, also placed with the Sifuentes family,
were being physically abused.
While Robinson said
he is still awaiting the state's final report, one
of its recommendations in light of Jaime's death is
that communication between social workers needs to
be improved so that placements can be better
coordinated.
Robinson said it
wasn't unusual that multiple social workers were
placing children in the Sifuentes' home, because
although they had been licensed as foster parents
for just four months, they were designated for
emergency placements. As such, they would take a
child in with very little notice. Monterey County
has a dearth of such homes.
"When people get
overloaded -- I'm not talking about my social
workers per se, I'm talking about people -- they
look for ways to make things happen," Robinson said.
But Robinson said
some choices can be made only by upper management,
which in the future will be consulted when social
workers consider adding children to homes that
already have a lot of placements.
Nine children in
any given foster home, he said, "should only be the
very, very last resort."
