Lana H. (age 14) has been in OCS custody since 2018 and is currently living at a homeless shelter in Anchorage, where she has spent almost two months waiting for a foster care placement. Since entering custody, she has spent time in 17 different placements—including six placements in overly restrictive behavioral institutions where clinicians physically restrained and sedated her. Despite severe medical and mental health needs, OCS is not providing her with services and has not placed her in a suitable therapeutic foster home.

After removing them from their mother, OCS initially placed Jeremiah M. (age 10), and twins Hannah M. and Hunter M. (age 6)—Alaska Native children—with their grandmother. OCS did not provide the grandmother with foster care maintenance payments or support services. And when their grandmother actively sought to obtain a foster care license, OCS denied her any help. This lack of support caused the placement to disrupt, and OCS removed the children from their grandmother—instead placing them in a non-Native home with a youth that has a record of sexual abuse. OCS is not providing the children with the services they need and has failed to take steps to reunify the children with their mother even though the case plan still recommends reunification.

Siblings Connor (age 1) and Mary (age 3) are both Alaska Native children. They have never lived together, and Connor has been living with a non-Native family since birth, with OCS making almost no attempt to maintain his connection to his family and culture. OCS only placed Mary with her grandmother after her grandmother fought for custody, but ultimately failed to support the grandmother by withholding required funding and by making the licensing process extremely difficult. Ultimately, this lack of support caused the placement with the grandmother to disrupt. OCS then placed Mary with her uncle, but still refused to place Connor with his family. Moreover, the grandmother, along with the biological mother, are regularly excluded from meetings pertaining to the children, thus hindering a successful reunification or guardianship even though that is still the goal for Mary and Connor, respectively.

David V. (age 16), George V. (age 15), Karen V. (age 13), Lawrence V. (age 12), and Damien V. (age 11) are adopted siblings. Since entering custody, OCS has placed the children in at least 40 different non-kinship placements. These placements include group homes, overly restrictive facilities, and homeless shelters. OCS has for the most part not placed the children together nor has OCS placed these Alaska Native children in Native homes. OCS has failed to treat the children’s extensive mental health needs and has failed to support or prepare the foster homes in which OCS has placed the children. Even though the permanency plan for the children remains reunification with their mother, OCS stopped in-person visitation entirely until an agency that could provide “therapeutic visitation” became available.

Gayle T. (age 16), Rachel T. (age 15), and Eleanor T. (age 14) have been in OCS custody since August 2020. Rachel T. and Eleanor T., who OCS placed separately from their sister Gayle T., require extensive medical services and are not receiving the services or support they require. Making matters worse, they have each cycled through numerous caseworkers, at least one of whom is responsible for nearly 100 children. OCS has also failed Gayle T. by placing her in inappropriate and overly restrictive facilities far from her family where she has been physically restrained and sedated against her will and has also been sexually assaulted by another foster child.