Children’s Welcome Center

Three months after Los Angeles County shifted many hard-to-place children in foster care from two emergency shelters to four private contractors, the issue of children staying too long before finding a home persists.

The problems that forced the closure of the Children and Youth Welcome Centers in Los Angeles are not limited to the state’s largest county. Though there is some variation in how California counties deal with housing the children who enter their child welfare system, the pressure to recruit an adequate supply of foster families and address the needs of hard-to-place youth are persistent issues throughout the state.

In the run up to the closure of a pair of emergency shelters for abused children in Los Angeles County, Office of Child Protection Director Michael Nash says the county should return to an old system of judicial oversight to improve the experiences of children at such shelters.

As we reported last week, Los Angeles County’s child protection administration plans on closing two 24-hour shelters for abused children and youth next month. The impending closure is significant in that both the Children’s and Youth Welcome Centers were initially heralded as positive steps toward stabilizing traumatized children during the fitful first hours after being removed from their families’ homes.

Next month, Los Angeles County’s child protection department plans to shut down two centers meant to serve as children’s first stop on their traumatic journeys into foster care. The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) says that the closure of the so-called Children’s Welcome Center and Youth Welcome Center – little more than three years after the first was opened – is an appropriate response to a state lawsuit, and good for children.