Auditors find foster care files rife with errors
The state's $50 million computer system that tracks children in foster care is laden with errors, flaws that risk putting children in unsafe homes, according to a report released yesterday by the state auditor's office.
After reviewing more than 4,000 files last year, auditors said they found errors in 67 percent of the cases in the state Department of Social Service's computer system. While DSS officials said they've made improvements, they also downplayed the report, saying it's just a matter of computers having to catch up with paperwork.
But auditors said the problems run deep. Some errors found in the six-year-old FamilyNet system included overdue criminal background checks of foster families, missing or inaccurate dates for when children moved in with foster families, and insufficient information in more than 1,000 files.
"With 10,000 kids living in foster and group homes, it is essential that DSS has updated and accurate information available to ensure that these children are placed in homes that are safe," state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci said in a statement. "The department should review this information on a regular basis."
Officials at DSS, who received the audit's results last October, said the errors never put a child at risk. They also said the errors were merely data-entry problems, in which social workers kept written files but failed to enter the information into the system.
Moreover, they said, since October, about 75 percent of the data-entry problems have been fixed. They also said there has been similar improvement in criminal background checks.
"The computer is one source of data. It doesn't put a child at risk," said Denise Monteiro, a DSS spokeswoman. "In terms of safety and the work we do, we're absolutely on top of things. It's just the paperwork that we have to get better at."
Among the errors, the agency -- which received $670 million in federal and state funds in fiscal 2003 -- approved one foster-care provider without completing any required reviews.
The audit found DSS failed to do timely criminal background checks on potential foster p