Parents and advocates press Board for oversight of Department of Children and Family Services
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Summary
Multiple public commenters described prolonged family separations, alleged false reports, denied breastfeeding, and systemic shortcomings in child-welfare practice and urged the board to expand oversight, investigate staff conduct, and refer claims to the civil grand jury.
Several parents and advocates used the meeting's public-comment period to press the Board of Supervisors for stronger oversight of the county's child-welfare system (Department of Children and Family Services, CFS). Comments included personal accounts of long separations from children, allegations of inaccurate or harmful social-worker reports, and requests that the board act where operational fixes have not resolved recurring problems.
Alejandra Contreras told the board she has been separated from her children for 18 months and said she believed case reports contained inaccurate information that has blocked reunification. "This level of separation has been devastating... I have complied with service requirements," she said, and described filing a civil-rights complaint naming specific staff. Another speaker, Devin Kilgore, criticized what he called a lack of accountability and said the board's public comments elicit little change: "Participation without power is not democracy... Allowing us to speak while nothing changes is not leadership."
Andrea (identified in the transcript as Andrea c) specifically requested correction after CFS denied breast milk for her child. "Breastfeeding is not a preference. It is recognized under California law as a preferred method of infant feeding," she said, and urged the board to treat this as an oversight issue rather than a case-level intervention.
Other speakers raised concerns about foster-parent contracts (one commenter said foster parents receive "$3 to $5,000 per child") and broader systemic problems including alleged false allegations and prolonged detentions. Multiple speakers asked the board to use the oversight mechanisms available to it: audit case processes, refer allegations of staff misconduct to the civil grand jury, and move beyond case-by-case responses to systemic review. One public speaker thanked the board for establishing an ad hoc committee to investigate child-welfare concerns and said that committee is an important first step.
Why it matters: The board provides oversight and funding for county departments. Citizens said operational failures in CFS produce repeated, preventable harms to children and families and asked supervisors to use oversight levers to ensure statutory and medical standards are met across cases.
Next steps: Speakers requested the board to authorize or expand oversight actions (audit, civil-grand-jury referral, committee investigations); no formal board action on these specific requests was recorded during this meeting.
