WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – This week, Erica Porter brought forward 10 more complaints against agencies that run foster care programs in Jefferson County.
Those are just the ones she found the time to formally write up and submit. It’s hundreds of pages involving 17 children in foster care and Porter says there’s more coming.
“I will be submitting additional complaints, but those were just the first 10 that were finalized,” said Porter, Jefferson County representative, CHILD.
Walking up to the podium with a stack of papers in hand, Porter addressed the Jefferson County Board of Legislators Tuesday night.
“I am Erica Porter. I am the Jefferson County representative for Community Helping Individuals Living in Distress. We’re also known as CHILD,” she told the lawmakers.
Since becoming involved with CHILD, Porter says she hears from at least one person every day. Some are parents and grandparents worried about their children, others are community members.
“Teachers, doctors, medical professionals, people who work for DSS (Department of Social Services) or for CHJC (Children’s Home of Jefferson County) that have some complaints they want to give,” she said.
Porter says one of the 10 formal complaints she turned in comes from a grandmother, claiming her grandchildren were placed in a certified foster home that wasn’t given a proper background check. They’re back home now, but Porter says they’re suffering mentally, emotionally, and medically.
“They’ve been apart from their father for two years in a home that there was a lot of abuse in, and unfortunately one of the children was in the hospital several times with broken bones and things like that,” she said.
Porter, a foster parent herself, has had her own issues involving St. Lawrence and the Jefferson County Department of Social Services. She claims the agency made false accusations of abuse to the state, resulting in her foster kids being taken away. The state later found those accusations were unfounded, but she wants to take that experience and become a voice for the voiceless.
“If I can give just one person a voice and prevent what happened to me from happening to another family, it will be all worth it,” she said.
Porter hopes these first 10 complaints will result in a formal investigation into Jefferson County DSS.
She’ll also be sending them to the state Office of Children and Family Services.
The county has already launched an investigation involving another incident with DSS. 7 News reached out to Jefferson County DSS and the Children’s Home of Jefferson County for comment but did not hear back.
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