Advocates demand Washington bring out-of-state foster children home after child's death in Michigan
The alarming death of a Michigan child at a foster facility in Kalamazoo in May has prompted more than a dozen child welfare agencies in Washington to pressure Gov. Inslee to terminate all contracts with the company that owns and operates the institution.
Sequel Youth and Family Services, based in Alabama, operated the now-closed Lakeside Academy in Michigan and 28 other centers for troubled youth in 13 states.
The state agency charged with child welfare programs in Washington, the Department of Children, Youth and Family Services (DCYF), had placed Washington foster children in Lakeside Academy and many other Sequel facilities since 2015, according to state records obtained by KING 5.
DCYF has sent more than 160 hard-to-place foster children to live in institutions out-of-state in the last five years. Many of them were sent to 13 different Sequel centers in states including Arizona, New Jersey, Illinois and Iowa.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/advocates-demand-washington-bring-out-of-state-foster-children-home-after-childs-death-in-michigan/ar-BB1aTJBh?li=BBnb7Kz