O.C. Settles Child Welfare Suit

A youth advocacy group on Wednesday announced it had settled a lawsuit against Orange County for allegedly holding abused and neglected children longer than legally allowed in overcrowded conditions at the Orangewood Children’s Home.

County officials said the lawsuit had served as an important wake-up call, and said they would make every effort possible to ensure children younger than 6 are cared for by suitable family members or in approved foster homes instead of Orangewood.

Larry Leaman, director of the county Social Services Agency, on Wednesday called the lawsuit a “2-by-4 across the head” of the agency, and said it helped to prompt dramatic reforms.

The agency, which oversees the home, began adopting reforms shortly after the lawsuit was filed in 1998.

“Essentially, they have to keep doing what they’re doing,” said Shannan Wilber, an attorney for the Youth Law Center in San Francisco, which filed the lawsuit.

The suit charged that young children were being held at the institution for up to two months--twice as long as the law allowed--and separated from siblings and other family members.

“There’s been a cultural change,” Leaman said. “The philosophy is that kids are better off in a family setting, even if it’s foster care, compared to even the best county institution in the world.”

At the time the suit was filed, the average stay at Orangewood for children younger than 6 was 18 days. Today, it’s seven days, Leaman said. Occupancy rates for children in that age group have dropped by two-thirds, he said.

“The lawsuit really forced a number of changes,” agreed Jim Palmer, president of the Orange County Rescue Mission and a vocal children’s advocate. “I hope that these changes continue.”

The suit was prompted in part by a 1998 Times series chronicling problems inside the county’s child welfare system. It came in the wake of new state regulations that significantly restricted circumstances in which children can be placed in institutions.

Under the terms of the settlement, the county will continue efforts to keep siblings together or at least allow them to be in contact with one another.

The county also agreed to pay the Youth Law Center $37,500 for attorneys’ fees and legal costs.