ODHS Publishes Second Semi-annual Child Welfare Report Under Wyatt B. V. Kotek; Shares Progress On Child Welfare Improvement Efforts - 10/30/26
(Salem) - The Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) today released its second semi-annual report under the Wyatt B. v. Kotek Collaborative Agreement.
The report focuses on actions taken from April 1 through Sept. 30, 2026, to improve how ODHS Child Welfare serves children and families. With the progress made during that timeframe, 23 of the 29 strategies are on track to meet their targets.
“Our goal is to ensure that each strategy we pursue leads to children and families in Oregon experiencing better outcomes because the system worked more effectively for them,” said Child Welfare Interim Director Rolanda Garcia. “Publishing this report twice a year shows families, advocates, and legislators where the system is performing well and where it must continue to improve.”
Updated data on Child Welfare’s 14 performance measures prescribed under the Collaborative Agreement will be provided in May 2027, when it issues the next Annual Progress and Efforts Report.
Oregon is making progress on improving how it serves children and families
ODHS Child Welfare is on track to implement its goals for 2027 to improve outcomes for children and families. Highlights include:
- Review of maltreatment in care incidents: ODHS reviewed 488 incidents of maltreatment of children in care that were reported in 2025 in order to strengthen prevention and improve safety.
- Enhancing face-to-face meetings with children, families and resource (foster) parents: Monthly face-to-face meetings between case managers and the parents, resource parents and children are essential for safety and to ensure families receive the support they need. To improve the consistency and quality of these meetings, ODHS provided additional supports, tools and training to case managers.
- Timely and accurate Child Protective Services (CPS) assessments to improve safety: Actions include updated agreements with law enforcement and other partners to align processes, improving the CPS assessment system to provide better guidance to staff when assessing safety threats to a child, and requiring staff to provide real-time documentation of case visits.
- Improving placement stability for children with significant behavioral and mental health needs: In-home services provide support for children with a high level of mental and behavioral health needs and the resource parents supporting them. These programs – including Response and Support 24/7 Network (RSN), Child Specific Caregiver Supports (CSCS) and Behavioral Health Treatment Foster Care (BH‑TFC) – help improve placement stability. ODHS plans to continue expanding these programs throughout Oregon.
Strategies with implementation barriers
ODHS is committed to transparency, which means sharing both progress and implementation challenges. ODHS is taking targeted action to remove barriers in certain areas, including:
- Enhanced Supervision Plans: These plans are written for resource parents caring for a child or young adult with high needs. They are required to be completed within 30 days. Because the timeliness of completing these plans has not improved despite efforts, responsibility for them will shift from caseworkers to resource parent certifiers, with implementation planned by the end of 2026.
- Maltreatment in care prevention: A plan was developed in June 2026 to address several areas, including an updated protocol for unifying families. It also includes targeted local plans to address findings from the review of 2025 incidents, and technical fixes to improve data errors. Implementation of this work is ongoing and active but is taking longer to implement than initially expected.
Resources
View all ODHS Child Welfare data reports
Read the May 2026 Wyatt B., et al. v. Tina Kotek, et al. Progress Report
About the Oregon Department of Human Services
The mission of ODHS is to help Oregonians in their own communities achieve wellbeing and independence through opportunities that protect, empower, respect choice and preserve dignity.