Lawmakers put Hawaii’s foster care system on blast at State Capitol

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii’s foster care system was on the hot seat at the State Capitol in the wake of deadly child abuse cases and an audit from a year ago pointing out problems.

Lawmakers want to know — has there been any progress to fill vacancies and strengthen protections for kids to stop tragedies from happening in what are supposed to be protective homes?

Isabella “Ariel” Kalua and Geanna Bradley are just a few Hawaii children who lost their lives to abusive households.

Some of them were living with their own parents and others were in adoptive, or what were supposed to be, protective environments.

“When we start talking about where there are failures, we can understand where the failures are happening,” said Senator Joy San Buenaventura (D) Health and Human Services Chair.

Lawmakers also followed up on prior audits and hearings about Child Welfare System gaps.

Senator Kurt Fevella (R) questioned who does the intake interviews with caregivers or “foster parents.”

“We are working with Attorney General. We are almost there on something called ‘Code of Conduct,’ every contract that child welfare does with the vendor,” explained Ryan Yamae, DHS Director.

“Anytime there is a call against a resource caregiver possibly harming a child, we are going to investigate, and pending that investigation, we are going to remove them from the home,” said Daisy Hartsfield, CHS.

The Attorney General’s office told lawmakers the judiciary is trying to add more protections and eliminate barriers to home entry when abuse is suspected.

“They have already taken steps to change that guardianship order to modify that relationship that they’re creating to add additional protections of additional reports and additional oversight by the court,” said Lynne Youmans, Deputy Attorney General.

DHS has hundreds of vacancies in its Child Welfare, Protective Services and Assistant ranks, but they are trying to add a pay differential for new hires and performance pay for current staff.

As for the families they rely on to help kids, Yamane said pre-adoptive services and counseling would be mandated rather than voluntary.

Yamane said it would be the direct response to current cases but those that are also in internal review.