Fact check: Are fewer children in foster care now than when Oregon Gov. Kate Brown took office?

Gov. Kate Brown gave her final "state of the state" address as governor on Feb. 3, touting what she said are key accomplishments of her seven-year tenure. Brown has led the state through a pandemic, historic wildfires and a contentious political atmosphere. 

"Collaboration, a deep love for Oregon and our collective determination to continue making our state a better place for everyone have led to our successes every step of the way," Brown said.

The Statesman Journal is examining some of those claims for accuracy and to provide context.

What Gov. Brown said

"We have reduced the number of children in foster care by 11% to just over 5,000 kids, our lowest number in 16 years, by investing dollars to connect families with resources earlier and more effectively."

What we found

In short, yes, there are fewer Oregon kids in foster care now, and that's part of an ongoing downward trend.

Asked for supporting documentation for Brown's statement, a spokesperson sent the Statesman Journal a press release from the Oregon Department of Human Services stating the number of kids experiencing care had declined 11% between 2020 and 2021. 

At the time the press release was released, a day before Brown's speech, there were 5,393 kids in care as of Jan. 1, 2022. Since 6,058 kids were in care on Jan. 1, 2021, that is indeed a decline of 11%.

The data now show that as of Jan. 1, 2022, 5,346 kids were in care.

A spokesman for DHS, Jake Sunderland, explained that "our data reflecting how many children were in foster care at any given times changes by a very small amount as the systems update and 'true up' for about 4-8 weeks after that point in time."

DHS provided data to the Statesman Journal about the number of Oregon children in care since 2006, both as a point in time on Jan. 1 of each year, and the total number of children in care each year.

The number of kids in care has been decreasing during Brown’s seven years in office. And according to figures from DHS, the number of kids in care is, as Brown said, at its lowest point in 16 years — 2006 being the first year the data is readily available.

That number was 7,210 on Jan. 1, 2015, about a month and a half before Brown took office. As of Jan. 1, 2022, that's a 25.8% decrease in the number of kids in care at that specific time.

In 2015, a total of 10,939 Oregon kids were in care. In 2021, a total of 8,389 children were in care. That’s a difference of 2,550 kids — a 23% reduction.

Sunderland said that a program created in 2011 by the legislature called the Strengthening, Preserving and Reunifying Families program, “has had a significant impact on our ability to keep children at home with their families.” Brown took office in 2015, the year after the program was funded in 2014.

The program gave money to local communities to “develop individualized local services and programs to support child and family wellbeing and safety during and after” Child Protective Services assessments.

“This was a significant change and marked the first time we as an agency were able to use funds to support families before there was a serious child safety issue that required the use of foster care,” Sunderland said. “Additionally, in the last few years, we have been seeing some of the benefits of these long-term investments in children and families.”

Asked for information about which programs seem to be most effective at preventing kids from entering foster care, Sunderland pointed to programs helping families with housing, clothes, food, finding medical care, parenting, and “intensive” outreach and support for substance abuse.

Our analysis

In 2015, after Brown had about half a year under her belt as governor, Willamette Week published an investigation into a Portland foster care provider, Give Us This Day, finding a litany of problems there – and renewing attention on the state’s foster care system.

Brown’s administration commissioned a report by an outside consultant, released in 2016, finding the state lacked “safe, appropriate” places for kids to stay, and the state could better coordinate its response to abuse allegations and potentially prevent abuse. 

And in 2018, state auditors said, “chronic mismanagement and high caseloads” in the foster care system put kids’ safety at risk.

In 2019, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported the state was sending kids to facilities in other states. This followed controversy over children in care sleeping in hotels and even DHS offices. According to DHS, no kids were sent to facilities in other states in 2021. 

“We all know that infants, children, adolescents and young adults do best growing up in a family that can provide love, support, lifelong learning, shared values and important memories,” Rebecca Jones Gaston, head of Oregon’s child welfare division, said in a statement Feb. 2, when DHS announced the figures. “That is why we are committed to doing everything we can to provide the necessary supports to help families safely stay together and decrease the use of unnecessary foster care.”

Previous fact checks from Brown's State of the State address

• Have graduation rates risen during Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's tenure?
• Has Oregon kept 90,000 people in their homes during the pandemic?

Claire Withycombe is a reporter at the Statesman Journal. Contact her atcwithycombe@statesmanjournal.com, 503-910-3821 or follow on Twitter @kcwithycombe.

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