Social worker describes ‘placement crisis' for kids in care of Mass. DCF

Some of Massachusetts' most vulnerable children, in state custody with no place to go, are spending nights in rented spaces with social workers sitting watch.

A veteran social worker is calling it a crisis for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.

State records obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators show the state is renting out apartments and rooms for so-called "child sitting" in some parts of the state because there aren't enough group home beds and foster homes for kids in need.

"It would be an ideal world where we would have foster families waiting for kids instead of kids waiting for foster families, and we're not at that point," said Ethel Everett, a longtime social worker and a leader with SEIU Local 509, a union representing people who work in the field.

Our cameras captured the heartbreaking reality outside several offices for the DCF at the end of the day, viewing children with just a few belongings in need of safe and stable homes.

Some of those kids have been stuck at offices after hours while social workers scrambled to find them somewhere to go.

Everett says the DCF is in a placement crisis.

"Unfortunately the folks who suffer are the children in the care of the department," she said.

Many children have been moved night to night in emergency placement homes, known as "hotline homes," or have been placed in those rented spaces.

"The biggest concern is the trauma to the children, and that we're adding additional trauma with the children who are already being removed from their families of origin," Everett said. "There's also the risk factor in regards to safety. A lot of these neighborhoods we're going into, we don't know the neighborhoods."

According to records obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators, one home on the South Coast is being used to watch kids in DCF custody until the department can find them proper placement. In that location, the state pays contracted staff to supervise children on nights and weekends.

Contracts show a price tag of $465,000 a year to operate the site, and that the DCF is also renting space in Boston and Springfield.

Social workers are required to do the child sitting at those locations, and even administer medication if needed.

A DCF spokesperson tells us the rented spaces are mostly used for adolescents with high level needs.

"What's been happening is not working," Everett said. "Kids are being traumatized, social workers are experiencing secondary trauma, and I think the placement crisis is real."

Danielle Bonney opened her heart and home in Carver to fostering eight years ago. She has seen the impact and need first-hand. Bonney has adopted two of the children she has fostered, is currently fostering a teenager, and always has her door open for emergency placements.

"One of the most difficult things for me is in the morning, if the kid asks if they're coming back to my house or where they're going to be tonight," Bonney said.

She said the need is unbelievably high.

"I am getting called, at a minimum, five times a week," she said. "I get calls anywhere in the state, and I live close to the Cape. I get calls from the western part of the state. Kids are traveling up to two hours to get to my house for a place for the night."

Bonney says she's fostered multiple children who have come from Springfield, more than 100 miles away.

"I have had kids from Springfield that have come one night, get picked up in the morning, go to school, and come back the next night, as well," she said.

The latest state data shows while the number of children in DCF placement continues to decline, stability in placement is still a struggle, with children being moved to different homes on average seven times per 1,000 days -- much more than the national standard of four times.

Everett said kids "deserve to be cared for, deserve to be heard, to be valued, and because we're charged with meeting that need, we should meet it to the fullest."

We asked her if the DCF is meeting the needs of those children.

"I would say it's not happening to the level it should be," she said.

A DCF spokesperson told us the rented spaces are meant to offer a short-term, comfortable place to stay. They also said the department has worked to expedite the process for new foster homes safely, and they're working to make more group home beds available. Those are scarce due to a national shortage in human services workers.