Budget Cuts for Child Services Could Lead to Lawsuits

11.17.2009 by Jeff Robinson

(KCPW News) The state of Utah could be exposing itself to lawsuits if it continues to cut the budget for foster children.  That’s what a legislative committee heard today from Eric Bjorklund, President of Utah Youth Village, a residential care provider for foster kids.  He told the story of one case worker who was pressured to move a troubled child from a group home to an individual foster home, exposing the other children who lived there to sexual abuse.

“As a state, we may have saved $10,000 in moving a kid down to that level for a period of time, and we might have walked ourselves into a million-dollar lawsuit when that child perpetrates on the three little children that that foster family had in their home,” he said.

Bjorklund said if the budget for the Division of Child and Family Services keeps getting slashed, hundreds of high risk children who belong in group homes would have to be placed in less expensive foster homes.

Senator Allen Christensen, co-chairman of the Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel, told Bjorklund he was  “preaching to the choir.” But he said coming up with more money for child services will be tough.

“Finding the dollars, unlike the federal government, our printing machine is broken, and trying to allocate them is nearly impossible,” he said.

In 1993, the state was hit with a class-action lawsuit over problems with child welfare services.  It wasn’t resolved until 2007.