RICHMOND, Va. -- A newly published audit focusing on Richmond's Department of Social Services (RDSS) is shedding light on the agency's adoption program.
According to the report by the office of city auditor Lou Lassiter, there were 66 children in foster care during the 2022 fiscal year.
Of those 66 children seeking adoption, 24 were adopted.
The federal goal is for adoptions to be finalized within two years of youth entering foster care. However, Richmond Social Services, along with the rest of the state, is not hitting that benchmark a majority of the time.
The audit revealed that 86% of RDSS cases over the past five years have taken longer than two years to complete. The state average for finalizing adoptions after two years is 68%.
Auditors generally noted that several factors may be impacting the timeliness of adoptions across Virginia including:
- a shortage of foster families
- difficulty placing kids with behavioral issues or disabilities
- delays in filing termination of parental rights or lengthy appeal processes
However, the city auditor's office was not able to determine which factors are causing delays specifically within Richmond, because local auditors are prohibited by state code from accessing adoption records. Therefore, data to test timeliness was unavailable to Lassiter's office.
Auditors reported that the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS), which oversees the state's 120 local agencies, meets monthly with RDSS to discuss adoption cases, implementation plans, and recommendations for children.
In their examination of compliance with Title IV-E, a federal program that provides funding for foster care programs, auditors identified areas in which RDSS could improve.
Auditors took a sample of 40 children who received Title IV-E subsidies and found that all 40 kids met eligibility requirements.
However in a quarter of those cases, sufficient evidence of completing required criminal background checks and child abuse and neglect registry checks for adoptive parents and adult household members were missing from adoption case files.
Investigation narratives within the files stated checks were completed but did not say when they occurred, and in some cases, documentation failed to note if adoptive parents met eligibility requirements for criminal record checks.
Auditors found there was a lack of quality control processes that resulted in incomplete adoption files, which may lead to noncompliance with adoption assistance requirements or danger to children.
"This could result in children being potentially placed in unsafe environments and the State or Federal government clawing back Title IV-E funds for non-compliance," the audit stated.
RDSS submitted a corrective action plan in response to the finding, which included quarterly reviews of adoption cases.
Richmond auditors also found that the department may have issued inappropriate adoption assistance payments.
According to the report, at least two children re-entered the foster care system last year, but RDSS continued to issue assistance payments totaling $65,000 to the adoptive parents without assessing whether payments should be terminated.
"For example, it was not determined if the adoptive parents were providing financial support for the children, which is one of the reasons assistance payments can be terminated without the parents’ consent," the audit stated.
The parents were concurrently receiving payments from foster care service providers.
Auditors recommended that RDSS develop an internal process to assess whether payments should be terminated once a child re-enters foster care and consult with VDSS about how to handle the two cases referenced.
Management agreed with the recommendations and will aim to implement improvements by July 1.
Click hereto read the audit.
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