OKDHS Response to Children's Rights Allegations - Fact Sheet

• The most recent audit conducted by the Federal Government showed that Oklahoma was one of only four states who could document that more than 90% of children in care receive a monthly visit.
  
• Oklahoma continues to be one of the top five states in the nation in per capita adoptions of children out of foster care. There are actually several thousand more children who have been adopted out of foster care in Oklahoma than remain in foster care today. Few states can make such an assertion.
  
• Today, there are 8,398 children in out of home care in Oklahoma, the lowest number in more than a decade.  More than 72 percent of children removed from their homes were reunited with their families after receiving OKDHS services.
  
• Oklahoma was one of only eleven states to receive an “A” on its legal representation of foster children, according to A Child’s Right to Counsel, a national report card on legal representation for abused and neglected children.
  
• OKDHS saw a decrease of 5% in the number of children who are alleged to be victims of abuse and neglect.  This is a result of many efforts to improve child safety.
  
• Almost 1.2 million individuals received a service from OKDHS in the past year – approximately one third of the state’s population.

Children’s Rights Facts:

• Children’s Rights, Inc. collected a total of $3,224,498 in legal fees during the three year time period of 2005 – 2007, according to the organization’s Form 990 filings.  The Form 990 for 2008 has not yet been posted on GuideStar.
  
• In addition, Children’s Rights Inc. and an Atlanta law firm (Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore) received an award of $10,522,405 for their class action lawsuit involving children in Georgia’s foster care system, which is currently on appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court.  Children’s Rights Inc. attorneys in the Dwayne B. v. Granholm case in Michigan were awarded $6.2 million for services and fees; Children’s Rights attorneys in the Olivia Y. v. Barbour case in Mississippi were awarded $4.8 million for their services and fees from 2002 to 2008; and in Connecticut, the Juan F. v. Rell case brought forth by Children’s Rights cost the state $665,000 in court monitor fees in fiscal year 2007.
  
• Dr. Peg McCartt Hess, who was cited in Children’s Rights press release as an “independent consultant,” has in fact testified on behalf of Children’s Rights in at least two other lawsuits, including those in Georgia and New Mexico.