Advocacy group gives state
an‘F’for its teen treatment
The group also gave the
state B's for childhood
and early education
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — A children’s ad
vocacy group has flunked the
state for its care of troubled teen
agers and given it only an average
grade for its investment in fami
lies and child safety.
Children First for Oregon has
tracked the treatment of children
and families for eight years in an
attempt to improve services for all
children. Each year, the watchdog
group studies data and grades the
state on areas such as childhood
poverty, prenatal care and child
abuse and neglect.
This year, the group gave the
state B’s in education and early
childhood, C’s for investment in
families and child safety, and an
F in dealing with teens.
Pam Patton, director of govern
ment relations at Morrison Center
Child and Families Services, a
child and family organization,
said adults turn away from teens
in trouble out of fear and igno
rance.
“We see teen-agers as aggres
sive and violent,’’ she said. “We
don’t help them, and they get
worse and worse until all we
want to do is lock them up.”
Teens who don’t come under
the jurisdiction of the state’s child
welfare agency, don’t have seri
ous mental illness and have not
committed a crime are blocked
from the help they need, Patton
said.
Paul Bellatty, an analyst with
Portland State University’s Child
Welfare Partnership, said older
youths are the lowest priority for
the State Office for Services to
Children and Families, yet teens
from 13 to 17 make up 8 percent
of the agency’s caseload.
But the state’s financing is more
effective aimed at the youngest
children, said Senate Majority
Leader Gene Derfler, R-Salem.
“I still think we’re spending too
much money on late teen-agers,”
he said. “If you don’t address the
problem early on, the dollars you
spend are not effective. If a teen
ager is stealing cars and beating
people up, I’m not sure you’ll be
able to turn him around for the
rest of his life. It’s very difficult to
turn that kid around at that age.”
Others say the state ought to ad
equately finance programs for
children of all ages.
By keeping youths away from
services, “we’re doing a real dis
service not only to kids but to our
communities,” said Charlotte
Cook, who serves on a citizen
board that reviews cases that go
through the Oregon Youth Au
thority.
Most agencies serve only dan
gerous or immediately endan
gered youths. Organizations that
serve all youths are swamped and
serve about 20 percent of those
who need help.
Steve Olsen, supervisor of Har
ry’s Mother, a southeast Portland
shelter, spent Wednesday scram
bling to help a mother whose
daughter was halfway through
private treatment for drug and
emotional problems when the
family’s insurance ran out. The «
mother called all kinds of pro
grams to see whether they would
help her daughter. Olsen sched
uled an interview at a 10-bed
shelter, but there are no guaran
tees.
“Parents come in with a kid
who began tearing up the house at
age 10, and now the kid’s 15, and
they say, ‘God, I’ve been trying to
get services for five years,’ ” Olsen
said.
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