A working group that emerged from a tragedy sets out to reform child welfare services

HONOLULU (AP) — A working group formed to help reform Hawaii’s troubled child welfare system has drafted dozens of recommendations for reform, and the group is about to launch a series of hearings to solicit comments on those ideas.

The Malama Ohana Working Group was created by the Legislature last year in part in response to the death of 6-year-old Isabella Kalua, who disappeared from the Waimanalo home of her adoptive parents in August of 2021.

The body of Kalua, also known by her birth name of Ariel Sellers, was never found. She was officially declared dead by a probate court in 2022, and her adoptive parents Isaac and Lehua Kalua have been charged with second-degree murder in Isabella’s death.

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 295 last year. It noted “criticism of Hawaii’s child welfare system has been increasing and is accentuated when there is a tragedy. Shortcomings in Hawaii’s child welfare system are not new, and there is strong desire in the community to address these concerns.”

The working group is made up of social workers, foster parents, former foster youth and others, and the bill instructs the group to report back to the Legislature next year with a package of proposed reforms.

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So far, the group has produced a catalogue of more than 70 preliminary recommendations, ranging from complex ideas that could alter the dynamics of Family Court proceedings to some simple, heartfelt pleas from youth.

One recommendation from a group focused on the needs of children in foster care declares the system must “never, ever trick a young person into doing things or lie to youth.” Another urges the system to grant children and youth more of a voice in decisions about where they are placed.

Yet another suggests that when Child Welfare Services investigates a home, the system must “require transparency with youth about why and how to seek help in the future if investigation does not proceed.”

Keala Kaopuiki-Santos, project manager for the governor’s Office of Wellness and Resilience, said some common themes about flaws in the existing system emerged from the discussions along with some promising proposed solutions.

One idea is to shift the system from its current “child welfare services” approach to focus on ohana or family support services, she said. Another urges creation of “safe havens” where struggling families can seek help before abuse or neglect happens, and before CWS becomes involved, she said.

“There has been a big call for that, ensuring that while it’s crucial for keiki to get the support, it’s also crucial for the birth parents, or the caregivers of the kin, for the entire ohana to get support,” Kaopuiki-Santos said.

There have also been calls for more support for social workers and for guardians ad litem, who are the official legal advocates for children in the system. CWS staff say they often carry excessively large caseloads, in part because the system has far too many vacant social worker positions.

Another proposal urges the state to find ways to remove accused offenders from a household rather than the children, allowing children to stay put in their homes with guardians deemed to be safe.

The end game is to “seek transformational change in the child welfare system,” Kaopuiki-Santos said. “I think we really are going to get to a place of some really strong, solid recommendations that the community can get behind.”

Ryan Yamane, acting director of the Department of Human Services, said the department is “taking all of the recommendations and the feedback seriously. We’re going to look at ways to implement that.”

“We as a community are looking at way to improve, to make sure that we protect our most vulnerable,” he said. “The department, we are committed to getting better.”

But Yamane acknowledged the system as a whole suffers from a lack of resources, meaning both money and qualified workers and therapists.

The upcoming community meetings will kick off with gatherings in Waianae at Kalanihookaha Community Learning Center on Wednesday, and at Keaukaha Elementary School in Hilo on Friday. Both meetings begin at 5:30 p.m. Additional meetings will be held across the state in June and July.

The meetings are open to the public, particularly youth, adults and elders with life experience with the CWS system.

The working group includes representatives from the nonprofits EPIC Ohana Inc. and Hale Kipa, which both serve foster children, along with Kamehameha Schools, Liliuokalani Trust, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and DHS.

It also includes youths and birth parents of children who became involved in the child welfare system, licensed foster parents and family-specific foster parents who care for children who were caught up in the CWS system.

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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.