A group home counselor punched a 10-year-old boy in the face and stomach for misbehaving. Another counselor sexually molested two girls, 13 and 14. Four mentally retarded children were found last summer in a house with no air conditioning and with some of its windows sealed with plastic and duct tape.

They were among 21 cases of abuse or neglect at some of the city's 71 foster-care group homes and independent-living programs, substantiated by the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, in a 19-month period ending in May.

Forsaken by their parents, the children ended up in group homes because they were unwanted by foster or adoptive families — passed over for being too old, too troubled or too frail. The agency last year spent $27.6 million on the homes.

"Group homes get, on average, $40,000 per teen, per year, yet residents live in poverty, often without basic necessities," the Young Women's Project, a local advocacy organization, concluded last year.

Anne E. Schneiders, a longtime lawyer for foster children, said: "All these kids have problems that preclude them from going into foster care, so we put them into group homes. We call them therapeutic, and there's nothing for them."

William Wright, who entered the foster care system at age 10, said he and other foster teenagers were left to fend for themselves in a Southeast Washington apartment building. "It was like living on the streets," said Wright, now 22 and serving five years for armed robbery. "You're on your own. There were no strict guidelines or rules to obey."

Olivia A. Golden, the director of Child and Family Services since June 2001, said she cut the number of foster children in group homes from 317 to 260. She issued first-ever regulations for group homes. She also hired more monitors. "A huge amount has changed for children, but I still wake up at 4 a.m. thinking about what's left to do," Golden said.

Several of the 21 cases of abuse or neglect, which were compiled by an investigative unit that Golden created in 2001, documented staff misconduct. One incident occurred at the House of Seven Steps, in the Shaw section of Northwest Washington, 10 days before Christmas 2001. A counselor allegedly bought liquor for the boys under his watch and grabbed a female counselor, putting his hands between her legs and encouraging the boys to join in, investigators concluded.

The contractor that runs the home, Tricom Training Institute Inc., fired the counselor, and the city suspended the company's contract. Calvin L. Shingler, Tricom's deputy director, said the nonprofit group promptly reported the incident. "Once we as managers found out about it, we acted expeditiously and professionally," he said.

In several of the 21 cases, police sought arrest warrants but prosecutors concluded that there was not enough evidence for convictions. Under city law, social service workers who fail to report abuse or neglect face up to a $1,000 fine or 30 days in jail. Golden's investigators found a number of such failures, but a spokesman for the D.C. Office of the Corporation Counsel could not recall any prosecutions.

Golden said she is rewriting group home contracts to improve standards. "They are now being held accountable," she said. Since the investigative unit was launched, 12 group home workers have been fired and one contractor, Ward & Ward Mental Health Services Inc., has been put out of the foster-care business.

Last year, the unit conducted 12 investigations into Ward & Ward and substantiated two cases of physical abuse and two of neglect. One worker choked an 11-year-old boy. Another counselor put her knee in a boy's chest. Staff members missed three appointments to take a 7-month-old boy to a clinic at Children's Hospital.

In March, the city removed 11 children from Ward & Ward's homes. The company's founder, the Rev. Ruth E. Ward, a clinical psychologist and Baptist minister, said recently that she fired the employees accused of abuse. "Any time anything happened with any of the children," she said, "I immediately took action and tried to correct the problem as best I could."

By Dudley M. Brooks
15 July 2003