Santa Clara County’s child welfare agency failed to follow common safety checks before placing vulnerable children in foster homes, according to a state investigation released this week.
Investigators with the California Department of Social Services found “significant systemic gaps in documentation and timeliness across required emergency placement procedures,” the report states, including that only 10% of emergency placements complied with state law.
Another finding was that about half of background checks on foster parents were conducted only after children were placed in their care. State officials also found that workers often didn’t include evidence of criminal records when checking potential foster parents and extended family members.
The county’s Department of Family and Children’s Services was already facing scrutiny — a 3-month-old under the department’s care had died of a fentanyl overdose in 2023 — when 2-year-old Jaxon Juarez died in the home of a foster parent in April. Juarez’s foster mother was previously convicted of felony child endangerment…