Foster-care contractor chose its own successor

Spokesman for firm says state agency was consulted on plans

ROBERT T. GARRETT

The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – A foster-care contractor that had two small children die in homes it managed was allowed to decide the fate of the other 250 youngsters in its care, a state report shows.

Mesa Family Services Inc. arranged for the transfer of virtually all of its foster children to a different contractor, Therapeutic Family Life. The resulting handoff apparently left children in danger: A 6-year-old girl died in December while living at a DeSoto home that Mesa had recruited and transferred to Therapeutic just a few weeks earlier.

State officials demanded that background checks be conducted on the Mesa-recruited foster parents and that other safeguards be taken, but Therapeutic didn't follow the plan, a spokesman for the state agency overseeing foster care said Wednesday.

And the report and another document show the state didn't learn of the planned transfer of 126 foster homes until at least two weeks after Mesa and Therapeutic began talks on the deal Sept. 13.

Eli Bell, a lawyer for Austin-based Therapeutic, said there were "some shortcomings" but insisted the body-slamming death of Katherine Frances in DeSoto was an "unpredictable tragedy."

Referring to the Department of Family and Protective Services, Mr. Bell added: "Nothing was done without talking to FPS about it."

The disclosure that Mesa selected its successor highlights the hands-off nature of Texas' privatization of its child-welfare duties.

With little notice, the outsourcing took off in the late 1990s. The department now relies on about 100 contractors to recruit and train about 80 percent of the foster parents it pays to take in about 20,000 abused and neglected youngsters.

The deaths of Katherine and 16-month-old Christian Nieto, who also died in a Mesa-recruited home last fall, underscored how the state has little idea of who the foster parents are. Nor is it always told when agencies move children from home to home.

Patrick Crimmins, the department of protective services' spokesman, said Mesa's decision in September to voluntarily give up its $7.2 million foster-care contract and relinquish its license was "a unique situation."

Nevertheless, Mr. Crimmins said the department has learned a lesson.

"We recognize that in cases such as this, where it's clear a child-placing agency is going to stop operating, that DFPS should take a much more active role in monitoring the transition of foster homes," he said.

While the state insisted that Mesa and Therapeutic strengthen a "transition plan" they drew up in September and October, Mr. Crimmins said his department later last fall did not check on whether Therapeutic's background checks and "home studies" on Mesa' foster parents were being done properly.

"We assumed that after that point, the transition plan would be adhered to," he said.

The state's final report on its unprecedented sweep of former Mesa homes accuses Therapeutic of "cutting and pasting" answers given by one prospective foster family into the home studies of some of the Mesa-recruited foster parents; mismatching some children with foster parents not expecting such a range of ages of the children or their behavioral problems; and failing to finish background checks before relicensing foster parents.

Investigators found violations at about one-fourth of the 126 homes recruited by Mesa, all but 17 of which agreed to switch to Therapeutic's management. Mr. Crimmins said the violations included a dangerous person on the premises and operating an after-school home day care business that overtaxed a foster mother's capability.

At one of every five homes, foster parents have financial problems that could tempt them to seek additional state payments by taking on more children than they can care for, the report says.

Mr. Bell said he was traveling and had not read the report. But he said the handoff of homes, except for Katherine's death, "went fairly smoothly."

Previously, Mr. Bell said he would challenge in administrative hearings the department's findings of deficiencies by Therapeutic.