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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2020)
A4 OPINION Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, July 15, 2020 DHS stats missing key piece E very month since early in 2018, the Oregon Department of Human Services has been publishing reports for Gov. Kate Brown showing its progress to re- build and improve the state’s foster care system. The monthly reports have evolved. Some statistics that DHS reported in the past to the governor are no lon- ger being reported to her. We are not sure that’s an improvement. Gov. Kate Brown requested the monthly reports after a devastating state audit in January 2018. The audit showed that the state’s child welfare system was so dis- organized and inconsistent it was putting the children it served at high risk. The audit said chronic understaffing of caseworkers and overwhelm- ing workloads were having a terrible impact on the state’s ability to care for some of its more vulnerable children. DHS also lacked data to track its performance. DHS, Gov. Brown and leg- islators have worked together and made many improve- ments since then. Most nota- ble perhaps is more case- workers have been hired. And Gov. Brown established a child welfare oversight board in April 2019 to more closely monitor progress. There used to be a link to that audit on the DHS web- site. If it’s there still, we can’t find it. That’s a shame. It’s a piece of history of Ore- gon’s DHS that should never be forgotten. The audit can be found on the secretary of state’s website. What’s in the monthly reports to the governor has changed. They are much eas- ier to read now. They are more colorful. There are far fewer numbers. Some change is to be expected — even nec- essary — as priorities and problems evolve and metrics are reexamined. A metric we noticed that is gone: repeat abuse. It was a metric established to mea- sure how often children who are mistreated are mistreated again. Specifically the definition is “of all children who were victims of a substantiated or indicated report of maltreat- ment during a 12-month tar- get period, what percent were the victims of another sub- stantiated or indicated mal- treatment allegation within 12 months.” The state’s goal was a rate of less than or equal to 9.1%, and it wanted to see the rate decline. The state’s num- bers were 9.6% in the sec- ond quarter of 2017, 10.3% in the third quarter of 2017 and 10.9% in the fourth quar- ter of 2017, according to the March 2018 monthly report to the governor. In March 2020 it was 11.4%. If you look at the more recent reports to the gover- nor, that repeat abuse met- ric is missing. The state still tracks it. It just doesn’t share it any more in reports to the governor. We wanted to know why. DHS’s short answer is: It doesn’t really move. It stays pretty much the same. So DHS told us it felt like it “did not provide a valuable update on what happened on a monthly basis.” We disagree. It represents children that are harmed again when the state knew they had been harmed before. For March 2020, the total number of child victims in Oregon was 12,538. Of those, 11,110 were not harmed again or did not have a report of harm within a year. But 1,428 had been harmed again. The repeat abuse statis- tic may not move much, despite the improvements DHS is making, but it should be reported to the governor. It’s a sad and terrible num- ber. One of the primary pur- poses of Oregon’s child welfare effort is to protect children from future harm if they have already experienced maltreatment. We need to be reminded of the failures as well as the progress. FARMER’S FATE Kids, love and Oreos T he “F” word makes many people feel faint — but it’s what gives my life strength. It’s how I identify. Actually it’s a combination of three “F” words that really make up the core of who I am and what I love: family, farming and faith. My family, like many in agricul- ture, I imagine, are a funny little band of characters going through life sharing milk and the com- mon cold, vying to drive the nicest tractor, hiding the chocolate from each other, borrowing clothes and machinery, short-sheeting the beds, putting toothpaste inside Oreo cookies, laughing, loving, fight- ing, teasing and sharing the com- mon threads that bind us together — farming and family. Farming was never a question: long hours, little sleep, tight bud- gets — it was a lifestyle I knew and loved. But starting our own family seemed to bring many, many hours of “what ifs” and uncertainty. It seemed like a much bigger commit- ment than signing over everything you had to the bank for the oppor- tunity to work like a dog in hopes that the bank would let you do it all over the next year. But the moment we saw each of those little baby boys, we wished we would have had them sooner. It was love at first sight — we know it was love because Dr. Seuss said you know you’re in love when you can’t sleep. I think he followed it up with something like “because real- ity is better than your dreams.” But he could have stopped with sleep — we certainly didn’t the first few months. But every sleep-deprived moment was worth it, for family is the foundation of everything. We’re like four volumes of the same book — each recording different moments, different perspectives, differ- ent wants and goals. But while our chap- ters are different, they are bound by the same fabric and Brianna thread. Walker One of my favorite results of having kids running (and often shouting) around the house and underfoot is the inability to be cross all day. One can start out the day in a bad mood, but it is nearly impos- sible to keep that mood — they are far too entertaining. The other morning I came in and grabbed the fresh load of linens out of the dryer. I tossed the John Deere sheet set to my oldest son, saying, “Quick, put these on your bed. Then we need to go swath.” Later that night when we came in, tired from a long day, my son asked my help making his bed. “I thought you made it this morning?” I asked. He shook his head with a smirk, “You said put the sheets ‘on’ the bed, not make it.” He was right. That was exactly what I had said. We both knew what I had meant — but his logic was impeccable. Only days after the sheet inci- dent, my 3-year-old reinforced what most seasoned parents already know — that word spec- ificity is paramount. I was in the bathroom when he first toddled out of bed and knocked on the door of our only bathroom, our other bathroom currently under construction. “Can you just go outside?” I asked (one of the perks of living in the country). “Where?” he asked. “It’s cold outside.” “RICH OR POOR, WE WILL KEEP TOGETHER AND BE HAPPY IN ONE ANOTHER.” —Louisa May Alcott, “Little Women,” 1868 “Just go out the door,” I answered, “on the porch.” Five minutes later when my hus- band came in for breakfast, I real- ized just what a poor word choice that was — but how can one have a bad day after that? It’s those crazy moments in life that change your mood, that make you smile — that create happiness. Like when my 3-year-old helped put away the gro- ceries, taking great pride in opening the package of plastic utensils meant for a picnic, putting them in the sil- verware drawer and throwing away the box. Or when you give your kids each a quarter of a breakfast omelet, but your youngest wants a bigger piece because he has a bigger mouth. Or when he licks the frost- ing out of the Oreo and then happily announces he saved the cookie for you. (That may be where the tooth- paste-filled Oreos came in — not that I am admitting to it.) Those moments are love. Reality really is better than dreams — even though I have no difficulty falling asleep now. It’s really hard to beat the life of a farming family. And as we all head out to the field, in our different pieces of hay equipment, I cant help smiling to myself — the family that bales together, prevails together. Brianna Walker occasionally writes about the Farmer’s Fate for the Blue Mountain Eagle. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Government honesty requires accurate and timely reporting To the Editor: I am certainly thankful for the efforts local people and the county government have made to help avoid a COVID-19 outbreak in Grant County and to prepare for if/ when we get more cases. I have watched Grant County Court meetings online and have been reading minutes and arti- cles over the past months. I join many people in being dismayed at the lack of reporting and transpar- ency, the high overrun in approved expenditures and how some of the funds were spent. I remain unclear as to why a sheriff’s deputy was appointed to run the EOC and why he quit. One of the most interesting things I have noted were the hours said to have been spent on COVID- 19-related work by County Com- missioners Jim Hamsher and Sam Palmer. Included in the county court minutes from June 10 was a letter from Seth Klingbeil, EOC cybersecurity officer. It stated that Jim and Sam had each worked 1,000 hours on COVID-19 tasks. Thinking this seemed quite high, I started with the date they were appointed (about March 10), did some simple calculations and found that each of them must have worked 11 hours a day, seven days a week for that three months! Also, if Jim and Sam took Sundays off, that meant they worked 13 hours a day, six days a week — on COVID-19 only, let alone their county court responsibilities. I would think the public would be as amazed as I am! Clearly, we all should and do appreciate the work Jim and Sam and many others did and continue to do. But what I look for from gov- ernment is honesty, that is: accu- rate and timely reporting — in hours, activities, costs, etc. Oth- erwise, how am I going to believe anything that is reported from our county government? Please respect the citizens. Victoria Thompson Mt. Vernon L ETTERS POLICY: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local, state, national or world issues. Brevity is good, but longer letters will be asked to be contained to 350 words. No personal attacks; challenge the opinion, not the person. No thank- you letters. Submissions to this page become property of the Eagle. The Eagle reserves the right to edit letters for length and for content. Letters must be original and signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should include a telephone number so they can be reached for questions. We must limit all contributors to one letter per person per month. Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Send letters to editor@bmeagle.com, or Blue Mountain Eagle, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845; or fax to 541-575-1244. 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