For-profits to compete in child placements

Measure was approved without public hearing

Patricia Wen

Boston Globe

A little-noticed provision tucked into a bill in the dead of summer has triggered a sweeping change in adoption and foster care placements in the state, allowing for-profit companies to compete in Massachusetts for the first time.

The measure, passed without a public hearing, overturns previous language that had allowed only government and nonprofit agencies to handle the placement of children with adoptive families or in foster care. The measure was attached to an economic development bill, which was quietly approved by the House and Senate late last month, and signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney last week.

The change was pushed by a human services company, Massachusetts Mentor, with the help of well-connected lobbyists with ties to the State House and Republican circles. The firm began as a nonprofit in Boston in 1980, but changed its status in 1983 to a for-profit company and now operates in 34 states.

The new law has sparked anger among child-welfare advocates and nonprofit agencies, who say for-profit companies often introduce aggressive marketing and high adoption placement fees. They also oppose the for-profit firms because they are not subject to the same public disclosure requirements as nonprofit agencies.

They also argue that such a major shift in state policy should not have occurred without any public notice or hearing.

"Who would have looked in a commerce bill for this?" said Joan Clark, executive director of the Adoption Community of New England, a nonprofit adoption and education support group. "Everything had been operating fine -- and now, behind closed doors, this happens?"

Not everyone opposes allowing the for-profit firms in Massachusetts; some child-welfare officials say introducing more choices for families could be beneficial. The state Department of Early Education and Care, which licenses foster care and adoption agencies, is "neutral" on the change, according to general counsel Constantia Papanikolaou.

Department of Social Services Commissioner Harry Spence said he supported it as a way to invite more agencies to serve children in state.

Massachusetts Mentor was the key instigator of the change, and will be a major beneficiary of it. Officials at the company acknowledge they pushed from behind-the-scenes for passage of the measure, but said they saw the change as "technical." The firm, with $14.6 million in revenues in Massachusetts last year, has worked in the past in this state to recruit foster parents for needy children, but it has only been permitted to do so by forming an alliance with a nonprofit entity, said Dwight Robson, spokesman for the company.

As a result of the change, Massachusetts Mentor can compete directly for state foster care contracts.

In its most recent high-profile case, Massachusetts Mentor was the sub-contractor that hired a foster mother who was later indicted for second-degree murder in the death of 4-year-old foster child, Dontel Jeffers. The company was cited by the state last year for lax supervision of the foster mother, though company officials have said the case was an exception to their otherwise strong record of foster care.

In its political efforts on Beacon Hill this summer, Massachusetts Mentor hired as a lobbyist Sean M. Morrissey, the former chief of staff for former House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran. Morrissey now works with the lobbying firm, Dutko Worldwide, with close ties to top Republicans. The firm's executive committee chairman is Ron Kaufman, who has advised GOP presidents for the last 25 years.

The company, whose masthead includes numerous former State House officials and staffer members, also hired lobbyist Joseph Ricca of Dewey Square Group, a former chief of staff in the Secretary of State's office under Michael Connolly. The company has paid the lobbyists a total of $8,000 in Massachusetts so far this year, records show.

Robson said his company supported the new bill, but did not dictate the method by which it would pass.

"The vehicle? The timing? It's completely out of our control," Robson said in an interview in which the company agreed to only if written questions were sent in advance.

According to the state Senate clerk's office, the Senate Ways and Means Committee chair, Therese Murray, this summer introduced the language into the economic development bill allowing for-profits to compete here. On the House side, Representaive Daniel Bosley, chairman of the Economic Development committee, shepherded the same language into its version of the bill, legislative records show. Neither Murray nor Bosley returned phone calls yesterday, asking about their role.

The governor's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, said Romney had initially vetoed an earlier version of the measure, saying the language was "too loose." But after changes were made, "we removed our objections," Fehrnstrom said by e-mail.

Nonprofit adoption agencies say the Massachusetts tradition of excluding for-profits is not about a self-interested preservation of the status quo, but is grounded in experience nationally. The Child Welfare League of America, the Evan. B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and other national child advocacy groups have been highly critical of for-profits, saying they have been behind numerous horror stories, including birth mothers coerced by high fees to give up babies.

Some child advocates say such a change should not have happened without input from those directly involved in child-welfare work. "Our adoption folks are outraged this has happened," said Nancy Scannell, director of policy and planning at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com.