Agency draws fire for 2 hired drivers (sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl & drunk driving one)

[Omaha Steve]

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Agency draws fire for hired drivers

By Matthew Hansen
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN — For the second time in a week, a driver contracted by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services faces charges of endangering a child who was in the state’s care.

Scott Meredith, a former employee of a Ravenna transportation company called Prince of the Road, is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl he was supposed to be driving to a group children’s home, the Nebraska State Patrol said Friday.

That felony charge comes days after Sarpy County police arrested Denise Thomson, an employee of Omaha’s Beneficial Behavioral Health Services, for allegedly strapping an 8-year-old foster child into a car and driving drunk down Interstate 80.

Police said Thomson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.40, about five times the legal limit.

Both Meredith and Thomson worked for companies that HHS hires to drive children to and from appointments. They were part of a large privatized work force that involves more than 150 transportation providers, employs thousands of drivers and cost the state and federal governments about $6.7 million last year.

Their arrests have sparked outrage from some state senators and children’s advocates, who say Nebraska lacks sufficient control over the people transporting foster children and other state wards.

Some say Nebraska should resume hiring state employees to drive children instead of contracting out the work. Some say the privatized system is fine but needs stricter oversight.

Others say recent changes to state law have weakened the regulatory agency charged with overseeing the state’s transportation companies.

They agree on one thing: The current system of driving state wards to school, doctor’s appointments and therapy sessions isn’t working.

“I just find this inexcusable behavior when a child we’re supposed to protect has been placed in the care of someone who is negligent or abusive,” said Sen.Gwen Howard of Omaha, an HHS employee for 34 years.

Health and Human Services officials defend the practice of contracting out transportation services.
The private contracts are necessary because the department has nearly 7,000 children in its care, including many who need regular rides.

“Certainly it would be a major challenge for the state to attempt to do this on our own,” said Todd Landry, HHS director of children and family services. “I’m sure some will ask, is the state really the best provider of this service?”

Companies hired to provide rides for state wards are required to put their employees through a series of background checks, examining their records for criminal history, child abuse and driving violations, Landry said.

Drivers must be trained to properly use car seats and seat belts, are prohibited from smoking on the job and sometimes are enrolled in defensive driving courses, he said.

The department seriously investigates any claim of wrongdoing, Landry said. Beneficial Behavioral Health Services remains under investigation, HHS officials said, although they noted that the Omaha company completed the required background checks of Thomson before hiring her.

Prince of the Road already has agreed to stop transporting wards of the state who need to be restrained, an agreement reached after 14-year-old Jordan Goodwin escaped from a Prince of the Road van carrying him to the Douglas County Youth Detention Center last year.

Goodwin and another man are charged in the fatal shooting of a 6-year-old girl, which occurred less than a month after the 14year-old escaped from the van.

It’s unclear whether Prince of the Road will face additional sanctions because of the alleged sexual assault of a state ward. Citing confidentiality issues, HHS spokeswoman Kathie Osterman refused to comment on that case Friday.

Drivers and transportation companies who never make headlines — and are never investigated — also routinely fail to follow the rules, leading to everyday errors that frustrate foster parents and increase the chance that a child may be harmed, said Carol Stitt, director of the Nebraska Foster Care Review Board.

Stitt said she has repeatedly heard complaints that foster children are left at therapy appointments, that drivers smoke, and that some drivers arrive to pick up toddlers without the proper car seat.

HHS’ Landry, in an interview, repeatedly pointed to the Public Service Commission as a state agency that exercises additional control over which companies are qualified to transport children.

But Mark Breiner, director of the PSC’s motor transportation department, said his commission has little authority to regulate the transportation companies and providers that HHS hires.

Fewer than 50 of the 164 companies transporting wards of the state are certified by the commission, Breiner said.

None of the thousands of socalled “friends and family” transportation providers needs to be certified by the commission. These drivers, often friends or relatives of state wards, are exempted from the PSC certification process under a law passed last year by the Legislature, Breiner said.

The companies that are regulated — such as Prince of the Road, the Ravenna-based company that employed Meredith — don’t face any background checks on their employees from the commission.

By law, the PSC isn’t allowed to conduct a 50-state background check of the company owner, Breiner said, something the Public Service Commission has tried — and failed — to get state lawmakers to approve.

“We would certainly like to do a more thorough check,” Breiner said.

The bulk of oversight falls on Health and Human Services and a process that has seemingly allowed private transportation companies to hire “bad apples,” State Sen. Tony Fulton said.

Fulton has introduced a bill calling for the privatization of foster care. He said he’s tried unsuccessfully to get answers about who in HHS monitors the transportation companies and where the money goes.

“I don’t get a firm answer,” he said. “And that causes me serious concern.”

Note: State Senator Howard is the only union member (AFSCME)in the current state legislature. That is not her reason for asking the state to hire it's own drivers.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Let's see

Privatization of driving foster care kids has resulted in disaster-drunk drivers, rapes, etc. And Fulton therefore wants to privatize all of foster care? Is the man insane?