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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
Report No. 2005-79
October 2005
The following problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the State Adoption Program.
The goal of the Adoption Program is to provide permanency to children in foster care in the form of a stable and continuous relationship with nurturing and loving parents. During fiscal year 2004, there were 1,356 children adopted, and 1,398 were adopted during fiscal year 2003. While the number of adoptions has increased since the inception of the 1997 federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), the number has been decreasing in the last three fiscal years, and the department is still not petitioning to terminate parental rights (TPR) and/or achieving child permanency in a timely fashion.
For all children adopted in fiscal years 2003 and 2004, the average length of custody was 33 and 31.7 months, respectively, which is significantly longer than the national standard of 24 months.
We reviewed 60 of the 288 cases of children who had been in state custody for over 15 of the last 22 consecutive months in fiscal years 2003 and 2004. Our tests focused on children whose goal was adoption and who had no action or incomplete action on TPR according to department management reports. Issues leading to delays in TPR included: untimely court hearings; child mental and behavior issues; unsuccessful attempts at placement with other relatives; continued involvement of biological parents in their children's lives; and some courts' unwillingness to TPR until an adoptive placement is found. These delays cause adoptions to not be made because potential adoptive parents are discouraged by the continuous delays.
Our office reviewed the Children's Division Management Report dated June 30, 2004, "Table 23, Children in Care on the Last Day of June 2004 With a Goal of Adoption or in Adoptive Custody" and found that 15.4 percent of children shown to have a goal of adoption had actually already been adopted, but were not entered into the system in a timely manner. Also, the system incorrectly showed 26.1 percent of children as having incomplete TPR when their parent's rights had actually been terminated and 2.5 percent of children's cases reviewed as having TPR complete when it was not.
The Children's Division Management Report dated June 30, 2004, "Table 26, Children in Children's Division Custody on the Last Day of June 2004 by Case manager County and Goal" showed 250 children had no case goal. Of these children, the 104 who had been in care more than 15 of the past 22 months, were reviewed in detail. Our review found that 96 percent did have a goal, but it was not entered on the system.
We reviewed 60 case files, both physical and electronic, of children the system showed as having been in care over 15 of the last 22 months, but whose TPR action was not complete or not initiated. In over 18 percent of the files reviewed, the physical file showed TPR was actually complete in these cases, but was not correctly shown on the system. Additionally, the system is also used by workers to match children with available foster and adoptive homes. With unreliable data in the system, there is no assurance staff have all resources available to them when choosing placements for children.
Currently, the department does not survey adoptive parents to determine their satisfaction with the program or any unmet needs they may have. A survey could help identify unmet needs of adoptive parents and children and provide a way to let adoptive parents know services are available. People who had been interested in adopting, but were dissatisfied with the department sent comments directly to our office. The most common complaints included:
