EDMOND — The Tulsa World on the child shelter law:
It appears that a new law effective in July is having the desired effect: reducing the number of children staying more than 24 hours in a state-operated shelter.
Since House Bill 1734 went into effect, the number of children housed at the Laura Dester Shelter in Tulsa has dropped from highs of 60 children a month last year to as few as 14 this past month.
The new law did away with a practice that many believe contributed to the high number of children placed in the shelter. In some areas, including Tulsa, there were standing judicial orders allowing law enforcement to remove children from their homes if they felt such an action was necessary. The new law requires law officers to contact the Department of Human Services and a judge before removing children from their homes.
The new law also placed control of DHS shelters with the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.
The law is among responses to an audit of DHS child protection procedures, including the practices that led to Oklahoma removing children from their homes at a rate almost twice the national average.
Certainly that high rate of removals was cause for questioning policies and procedures, and for some changes to be made. While police no doubt acted with good intentions, it seems obvious that not all the children removed in the past needed to be taken out of their homes.
On the other hand, some observers have lingering concerns. Oklahoma has long dealt with the problems arising out of what DHS Director Howard Hendrick calls the “fragile family” syndrome — the cycle of poverty and all its associated ills that often includes child abuse and neglect. There obviously is the chance that under the new procedures, the decision will be made to leave children in their homes and tragedy will ensue.
Let’s hope and pray that won’t be the case. The new law is intended to result in closer attention being paid to each case and an individualized resolution arrived at in each one. If all parties work toward that goal, and that seems to be the case so far, then the best interests of the children should be protected.
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