Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth & Families

In an Associated Press article about foster care by AP investigative reporter David Klepper that appeared in over 100 newspapers, Rhode Island government employee and whistleblower Nicholas Alahverdian disclosed that Rhode Island had been spending millions of dollars on sending children out of Rhode Island.[10][11] Alahverdian reported that he was not allowed to contact anyone while in the Florida and Nebraska foster homes, including the courts, the police, his social worker, Rhode Island legislators, or anyone else that could help him escape the torture.[12]

Representative Roberto DaSilva, who introduced several bills on behalf of Nicholas Alahverdian, spoke to the Associated Press along with Alahverdian. Their joint efforts to reform DCYF received national coverage in August 2011. DaSilva's financial and ethical concerns were noted. Alahverdian noted that "It's an inhumane approach to a human problem. These are the most vulnerable people in Rhode Island. We have the ability to provide for them here. And we're spending all this money to ship them across the country." DaSilva agreed, stating: "The amount of money we're spending here is huge. There are facilities here in Rhode Island that could provide these services. And who does the oversight on these out-of-state facilities? Are they being watched as closely as the ones right here?"[13]

From the late 1990s until the mid-2000s, DCYF engaged in a practice wherein a foster child without a home or otherwise any relative to stay with would be subjected to spending their days in a DCYF office building until the agency could find a temporary bed for them to be sheltered for the night, hence the name "night-to-night."

Former DCYF director Jay Lindgren promised that there would be "no kids in the hallways at DCYF late in the afternoon" in 2003, but the practice was not ended until much later.[14] Longtime Providence Journal columnist Bob Kerr credited Nicholas Alahverdian and his fervent advocacy for reform with ending the brutal practice where kids were shuffled from unsafe home to unsafe home, unable to go to school, spend time participating in extra-curricular activities, sport, or preparing for university. Kerr said “regardless of what happens in federal court or at the State House, Alahverdian has left his mark. Night-to-night placement has been ended forever. [...] Alahverdian, I have to believe, had something to do with those changes.”[15] Night-to-night was one of the programs for which Alahverdian is known as a whistleblower since he alerted legislators and the media of the practice, first as a Rhode Island state government employee and then as a lobbyist until he was sent to Nebraska and Florida where he was raped, tortured, and prevented from speaking to anyone until his 18th birthday.[16][15][13][17]

Due to the legislators finally having the opportunity to get the facts from Alahverdian, the Rhode Island House of Representatives read and passed a resolution that requested "that the Department of Children, Youth and Families present a plan to the General Assembly on or before May 1, 2002 which will eliminate night to night placement in Fiscal Year 2002."[18]

The practice was condemned in yet another House of Representatives Resolution as it was still being practiced years later in 2011. Rep. Arthur Handy introduced a resolution creating an Emergency Oversight Commission on DCYF at the request of Lobbyist Alahverdian. He was joined in the resolution by Rep. Christopher Blazejewski and Rep. Anastasia P. Williams.[19]

In June 2013, a child's arm was broken at DCYF facility Harmony Hill School[20] and a toddler in foster care was found dead.[21] Following these incidents, The Providence Phoenix asserted that those in power in Rhode Island listen to Nicholas Alahverdian and his legislative ideas so that foster care abuse and deaths can be prevented.[22]

In August 2018, DCYF project manager Maxim Fetissenko alleged in a Rhode Island Superior Court complaint that his supervisors misused a $2 million federal government grant under his purview. Fetissenko alleges that senior DCYF staff altered his report to the supervising federal agencies and continued to do so despite his objections.[23]

A girl, aged 9, in the care of a DCYF foster carer died in a bathtub in January 2019. The girl, who had cerebral palsy, died after spending at least eight hours in the bathtub. One state representative, Patricia Serpa, noted that "This is murder." The criticism of DCYF was aimed especially at its Director, Trista Piccola. Lima said at a Rhode Island House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing that "None of you deserve to be there, none of you. If you had any honor, or any dignity, you would hand in your resignations immediately and walk away."[24]

In October 2018, the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, ordered DCYF to improve in 33 of 36 areas assessed.[25] The federal report noted that DCYF services were "inadequate, not developed when needed, or lacked consistent monitoring." Former Rhode Island government employee and whistleblower Nicholas Alahverdian called for the Rhode Island General Assembly to pass legislation that has been pending for nearly a decade.[26] Alahverdian stated "For three decades, we have seen reports nearly identical to this one: child deaths, an increase in caseloads, low staff morale, severe child abuse marked as “information” cases — cases that will not be investigated and that are only solely meant for taking reports and not conducting an investigation — and comprehensive pandemonium within the DCYF."[26] Harvard Kennedy School professor and former Obama Admininstration official Jeffrey Liebman agreed with Alahverdian and claimed that the DCYF is "the most messed-up agency ever."[26][27] Alahverdian remarked that his comprehensive DCYF reform legislation, supported by Reps. Ray Hull, Bob DaSilva, Arthur Handy, Michael Marcello, Anastasia P. Williams and many others would provide the solutions to the problems that ACF claimed DCYF needed to solve.[26]

In 2014, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released a report that revealed Rhode Island as third-highest in the nation (after Wyoming and Colorado) for placing youth in out-of-home placements, such as group homes and residential treatment facilities.[28] The report, which also cited high turnover rates and funding cuts, explained that 28% of the children in the DCYF system were in group homes and residential treatment facilities, as opposed to foster homes, adoptive homes, or living with relatives.[28]

In 2018, the Office of the Child Advocate called for DCYF to be overhauled[29] due to the failure of the Child Protective Services division of the department to investigate all cases referred to them, lack of an intake process for new children and families, inadequate staffing, and the fact that 3,200 Rhode Island children were abused or neglected in DCYF care.[29]

It was revealed in November 2019 that the DCYF is overspending its budget by $22 million in the current fiscal year. The Providence Journal reported that Rhode Island House of Representatives Finance Committee Chairman Marvin Abney was "not happy." The discovery was made when a quarterly spending report was made available to the public that showed the DCYF had overspent its legislature-approved $165.1-million budget by nearly $22 million.[35]

The agency is responsible for the state's juvenile corrections. The Rhode Island Training School (RITS) is a secure residential facility for juvenile delinquents.[36] RITS is located in Cranston.[37]

A previous facility, with separate facilities for adjudicated boys and girls, was constructed in the 1960s. By the 2000s there were so few girls adjudicated in Rhode Island that they lived together in one unit and shared day schedules with boys.[38] In the 2000s the state ordered the construction of a new RITS building.[39] In 2009 Governor of Rhode Island Donald Carcieri proposed that Rhode Island Housing, a state agency that is set up like a corporation, buy the former RITS site in Cranston.[40]