In the year 2024, Oregon had a total of 6,799 children who spent at least one day in any form of foster care, according to Oregon’s 2024 Child Welfare Data Book. This number is significantly lower than in previous years. The year 2019, in particular, saw 10,887 children spend at least one day in any form of foster care.
But that’s not the only shocking development of 2019. The same year, a scandal within the system stopped the movement of children out of state due to the concern. At least 86 children were placed out of state, according to a 2019 Child Welfare monthly report; most of them were placed into facilities owned primarily by one company: Sequel Youth and Family Services.
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, a few years prior, from 2016 to 2018, Oregon faced a lawsuit for the concerning number of foster children being sent to hotels from a lack of space for all the children in the system needing shelter. Due to a lawsuit surrounding that issue, Oregon settled on slowly lowering the number of children being placed in hotel rooms. Around that same time, Oregon started increasing the number of children sent to private out-of-state facilities. This was a win-win for Oregon and Sequel. According to OPB, Oregon would not face the public outcry of placing children in hotels, and Sequel received large sums of money from Oregon to pay for the children under their care, with each child costing Oregon around $10,718. Oregon paid about $13 million total from 2018 to 2019. Of course, Oregon was not the only state to work with Sequel.
Despite this increasing number of children sent to out-of-state facilities like Sequel, Oregon lacked the means to track the children effectively, or to investigate any abuse against them in these facilities. This problem came to the surface as multiple cases of abuse occurred in Sequel facilities. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, in 2017 to 2019, police were called to a Sequel facility, Red Rock Canyon School in Utah, 72 times; 24 staff members were investigated for child abuse. In light of this, Oregon soon recalled the children from out-of-state facilities. Up until 2025, Oregon had all but banned out-of-state placements of foster children. However, on Feb. 27 House Bill 3835 was introduced to the state legislature. If passed, it would allow the movement of foster children across state lines again, among other changes to child welfare.
