Santa Clara County’s child welfare agency has taken exception to findings in a critical Civil Grand Jury report that the county lacks urgency in improving care for high-needs foster teens.
Not only is the agency actively working on a state-ordered 5-year improvement plan — brought on by the fentanyl overdose death of baby Phoenix Castro — it is also partnering with other county departments to get it done, child welfare officials said in their response this week to the Grand Jury report made public earlier this month.
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The county’s Department of Family and Children’s Services has been under intense scrutiny since baby Phoenix died after being sent home with her drug abusing father two years ago despite warnings from social workers she could be in danger there. Investigations by the Mercury News as well as the state Department of Social Services found that the agency put higher priority on keeping troubled families together than on keeping children safe. The Mercury News also found that when it came to the care of older foster youths, the county was running a string of unlicensed group homes that were the scenes of numerous assaults and runaways. Those have since been licensed.
In a July report titled, “Falling Through the Cracks,” the grand jury investigating the county’s foster care system determined that the child welfare agency had a “poor track record” of helping older youth, had “no singular sense of urgency” and expressed “serious reservations” that its leaders could effectively improve their care.
The civil grand jury, an independent watchdog body for local government that examines public agencies and citizen complaints, referenced Mercury News investigative stories in its report.
Those stories also spurred the Board of Supervisors to direct an overhaul of the agency to improve care to foster children. Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who worked with foster children early in her career, called for the changes. At a board meeting Tuesday, she said that she agreed with the report’s finding about a lack of urgency.
“This is something that the county disagreed on, but I think we just finished recognizing this to be true,” Arenas said after a public discussion about new strategies for better care. “If we’re not urgent with some of these matters, people may think that it’s not important to us.”
Although child welfare leaders “have made some progress” since baby Phoenix’s death in 2023, Arenas said, “we’re not there yet. We’re definitely not there yet.”
Baby Phoenix’s father, David Castro, and his alleged drug dealer, Philip Ortega, have both been charged with murder in the infant’s death after fentanyl was found in her system and on her pink-flowered onesie.
Earlier this week, San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP President Sean Allen said the leaders of the child welfare agency should be held accountable as well and called for a criminal investigation into those whose policies and decisions that led, in part, to the overdose death of baby Phoenix and the stabbing death of 6-year-old Jordan Walker.
Jordan was killed allegedly by an uncle after he was sent to live with his grandmother despite concerns from other relatives he wouldn’t be safe there. Allen said those leaders should face manslaughter charges — a suggestion the child welfare agency said “has no basis whatsoever.”
For the past two years, dozens of social workers have repeatedly appealed to the board of supervisors to hold leaders accountable. The only change occurred when former Family and Child Services Director Damion Wright, who refused to apologize despite repeated requests from social workers, left the agency in February. Wendy Kinnear-Rausch, a longtime social worker and assistant director of the agency, took his place.
The 13-page response to the grand jury was signed by Social Services Director Daniel Little, who also has come under scrutiny for implementing the family preservation policy in 2021, which led to far fewer abused and neglected children being removed from their homes. After the investigations led to policy changes, those numbers have since rebounded to previous levels.
In his response, Little agreed or partially agreed with several of the grand jury’s eight findings, including that the county has “underperformed” in delivering “a complete continuum of care” for high-needs youth.
“The County has strived to address the temporary and permanent placement needs of all children and youth who must live apart from their biological parents,” Little wrote, noting the county serves as many as 600 at any given time. “There are, however, significant opportunities to continue to grow and improve.”
In particular, he wrote, more resources and strategies are needed to “address the unmet needs of the approximately 12 to 16 youth in the County’s care with highest needs.”
Most of those teens had been housed in the previously-unlicensed group homes called “scattered sites.” One of the planned improvements calls for the establishment of high-level group homes called “short-term residential therapeutic program” homes with clinicians on staff to help those with severe mental or behavioral problems. Developing at least one is underway.