These are excerpts, things haven't changed since 1999. I've pulled out the passages relevant to residential treatment. This is disgusting, it needs serious work.
JUNE GIBBS BROWN
Inspector General
MARCH 1999 OEI-02-95-00044
However, Some Weaknesses Are Acknowledged... (pg. 7)
MARCH 1999 OEI-02-95-00044[/b]
The Compact Plays a Smaller Role in Residential Placements (pg. 9)
Residential Placements Vary Widely Among States[/i]
Some States have no or few residential facilities and must use residential facilities in other States. As a result, States with facilities may receive very large numbers of residential placements from other States. As reported in our previous inspection, one of the ten States reports receiving in excess of 700 children each in 1997 into residential placements. This is several hundred more than other States.
States Do Not Conduct Home Studies for Residential Placements[/i]
Although the Compact covers foster care, adoption, and residential placements, it plays a smaller role in residential than in the other interstate placements. States do not conduct home studies to assess placement suitability for children placed through the Compact into a residential facility. It appears that States place children only in licensed facilities, and State compact administrators report they recognize the licensing so home studies are not conducted. One State, however, reports it sends its own licensing staff into potential receiving States to verify the licensing and standards of residential facilities.
Receiving States Do Not Supervise Residential Placements[/i]
Receiving States do not supervise interstate residential placements. As noted earlier, in a typical interstate foster care placement, supervision reports are generally completed quarterly by a local worker in the receiving State. This is not the case for placements into residential facilities. Over half of the State compact administrators say that they receive supervision reports on children placed in residential facilities. However, these reports are not completed by the receiving State. The staff from the residential facilities completes the reports. A few States express concern with supervision reports that are completed by facility staff. As one State stresses, it may be hard for employees to be objective.
It is reported that children placed in-State have more supervision than those placed out of State. For instance, when a facility is in a child’s home State, his own local worker would check on the child. This would involve visiting and calling the facility to ask how the child is doing. In contrast, no local workers, either from the sending or receiving State, visit out of State children in facilities.
Documents for these Placements Sometimes Bypass Compact Offices[/i]
Usually documents for interstate placements flow from the local worker in one State to the local worker in the other State through the two State offices. Documents for residential placements, however, sometimes does not follow the same path. Four of the ten State compact administrators report they do not receive residential supervision reports regularly from their own State facilities. Instead, the reports are sent directly to the local sending agencies.
Most States Do Not have Written Policies for Residential Placements[/i]
Although in practice residential placements are treated differently, State Compact policies make no distinction between residential and other placements. In a review of policies from 43 of the 52 Compact States we found the majority of State policies do not have a section dedicated to residential placements describing how these types of placements should be handled. In fact, many State policies fail to note any difference in procedures for residential placements. Six of the 52 States, however, have detailed instructions for residential placements into and out of their State. These detailed policies include instructions for approving residential placements, verifying the facility acceptance of a child, and establishing that no appropriate in-State placement is available. Some State policies indicate that it is the responsibility of the sending agent to monitor the placement via quarterly supervision reports prepared by the facility staff.
States Define Residential Care Facilities Differently[/i]
The Compact does not cover “any institution caring for the mentally ill, mentally defective or epileptic or any institution primarily educational in character, and any hospital or other medical facility.â€