A report released Monday by a northern California civil grand jury finds that the local child welfare system routinely misses court deadlines, creating “an unnecessary amount of stress” for children and families — particularly members of tribal communities who are overrepresented in the foster care system.
In its report, Humboldt County Child Welfare Services and the Courts: Late Reports, Dysfunctional Systems, and Traumatized Children, the local watchdog group describes inefficiency and staff shortages as delaying family reunification for California families.
The grand jury’s findings center on delays by the local child welfare agency to file necessary reports to the dependency court in a timely manner. They also outline concerns that short-staffing is delaying family reunification and other necessary remedies in child abuse and neglect cases.
“The timelines dictated by law and policy are not arbitrary – they are meant to make the entire unpleasant process as short as possible while achieving good results,” the grand jury stated.
In an email, Humboldt County spokesperson Cati Gallardo said the board of supervisors had received the report and would respond to the Superior Court’s presiding judge. A draft of the responses will be presented publicly at an upcoming meeting.
“The County of Humboldt appreciates the hard work of the Grand Jury,” Gallardo wrote, “and we are grateful for the time and effort that went into this report.”
Eleven tribes are located within Humboldt County, including the largest tribe and largest reservation in California — the Yurok Tribe, with more than 5,000 enrolled members and ancestral homelands that span the Klamath River.
These Indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by foster care. The grand jury reported between 30% and 42% of Humboldt County’s child welfare cases involve Native children. Cases involving tribal children covered by the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) are the most likely to be subject to late filings in the local courts. Native families also endure the most lengthy proceedings of anyone involved with Humboldt County’s child welfare services, the report stated.
According to the latest U.S. Census, the county’s population comprises more than 6.4% of people identifying as “American Indian and Alaska Native alone,” and an additional 6% identifying as “two or more races.”
Yet all types of child welfare cases have been impacted, the report released Monday states. The grand jury described routine requests for continuances by Humboldt County’s Child Welfare Services, including at key points in foster care timelines such as court reviews that are required at six, 12 and 18 months, and when “post permanency hearings” must be held for foster youth who cannot return to parents’ homes. Each of these critical hearings requires a new report from social workers, which must be filed on time in order for the case to proceed according to state and federal timelines.
Recent delays have lasted 120 days or more, the grand jury found, and may violate the parent or guardian’s 14th Amendment right to procedural due process.
What’s more, “repeated delays may cause the children and families to grow skeptical of the process, creating more stress,” the report states. “Even if they are in the home with their parents, participating in reunification services and making progress, prolonged doubt about their future can expose children to Toxic Stress resulting in Adverse Childhood Experiences.”
Another area in need of improvement, according to the grand jury, are “institutional roadblocks” — including staffing shortages, high caseloads and high turnover that slow the court process and delay reunification with children in foster care.
In its review of staffing data provided by Humboldt County, the grand jury found high vacancy rates among social services aides, social workers and supervisors. Those employed by the county disclosed high levels of stress due to unrealistic work caseloads. The report also documents high rates of “moral injury,” defined in the report as “the strong cognitive and emotional response that can occur following events that violate a person’s moral or ethical code.”
To improve these circumstances, the grand jury makes a series of recommendations to address “lack of staffing, recruitment and retention, lengthy hiring and vetting processes, high caseloads, long hours, high staff turnover, absenteeism, moral injury, and bureaucratic red tape causing job burnout.”
Recommendations include a series of specific staff recruitment efforts and timelines to reach those goals. They suggest the county pay for the educational expenses of social work students in the area, and assign more lawyers to Child Welfare Services. Grand jurors also call on county supervisors to create a committee “whose sole mission is to independently and accurately evaluate the status of timely court filings by Child Welfare Services,” and to produce quarterly reports.
The 19-member grand jury is an independent watchdog group serving as an arm of the courts. The presiding judge of the Superior Court, the district attorney, county counsel and the state attorney general act as advisers. Its latest findings, released Monday, follow years of scathing critique and litigation against Humboldt County over its child welfare practices.
Over the past decade the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has investigated numerous complaints about the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Child Welfare Services.
In 2018, the California Bureau of Children’s Justice reached a settlement with the county following years of inquiry into the county’s lacking response to abuse and neglect reports.
More recently, Humboldt County has been sued over faulty “redeterminations” of tribal youths’ eligibility for extended foster care benefits that serve those ages 18, 19 and 20. A suit filed by the private law firm Jenner & Block and the nonprofit California Tribal Families Coalition alleges that tribal foster youth including members of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria were discouraged from applying or denied access to lifeline benefits, designed to provide safe and stable housing and financial support.
