Post 3: Foster Care Board Retains Stitt

Post 3: Foster Care Board Retains Stitt

I read an article about Carol Stitt who is the head of the state’s Foster Care Review Board. The board reviewed her position in a two hour closed door discussion because of allegations from a former employee of the state against Stitt. During the closed door session the discussion was focused on the acceptance or refusal of the recommendations from the state ombudsman’s report to improve agency operations. The allegations on Stitt came from an employee who recently resigned; they claim that Stitt ordered an employee to release confidential information about a foster child. These allegations were true, but the information didn’t get released to the public.
It seems as though the board didn’t care about this allegation because the information was never released, but it doesn’t seem like they took much time to explore what would have happened to that child if the information were released. Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers thinks that Stitt should be fired because of her actions and I agree with him. I do however understand that being the head of foster care would be a demanding job and would put you in many tough situations and perhaps if they had presented more information I would feel differently about the situation.
The meeting did accept the recommendations from the state ombudsman’s report and plan on reviewing and organizing the program. They want to have monthly reports, board and staff protocols for complaints, and review operations and communications. I understand that things need to be reviewed and possibly re-vamped but Carol has been in this position for 24 years and they still don’t have company protocol? It seems that a review of the Foster Care Board was in order.