STATE OF WASHINGTON

OFFICE OF THE FAMILY AND CHILDREN’S OMBUDS
6840 FORT DENT WAY, SUITE 125
TUKWILA, WA 98188
(206) 439-3870  (800) 571-7321  FAX (206) 439-3877

PLACEMENT EXCEPTION DATA – SEPTEMBER 1, 2017 – AUGUST 31, 2018
Spending the night in a hotel or office, even just once, can be traumatizing for children who have
experienced abuse and/or neglect, and creates unreasonable demands for Department staff. When a
placement cannot be found children are often handed from one caseworker to another as shifts change
or caseworkers tend to other responsibilities. Children often spend all day in a DCFS office before going
to a hotel late in the evening, and are then taken back to the office or to school early the next morning.
Placement exceptions and related instability put children at risk.
From September 1, 2017 – August 31, 2018 OFCO received notice of 1,090 “placement exceptions”
involving 195 different children.1 This is the most in a single year since OFCO began keeping track. The
vast majority of these placement exceptions (1,075) involved children spending the night with social
workers in hotels.

Figure 1: Number of Placement Exceptions per Year

Number of Placement
Exceptions

1200

1090

1000

883

824

2016

2017

800
600
400
200

120

0
2015

2018

OFCO Reporting Year
September - August

1

While Department policy specifically prohibits placement of a child in an “institution not set up to receive foster
children”, a Regional Administrator may approve a “placement exception” at a DCYF office, apartment, or hotel if
no appropriate licensed foster home or relative caregiver is available, and as long as the child is adequately
supervised.

 # of Placement Exceptions per Month

Figure 2: Placement Exceptions by Month, 2018
187

145

139

104
82
63

74

59

70

67

62
38

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

August

OFCO Reporting Year 2017 - 2018

Many children spent only one night in a hotel before a more suitable placement could be identified (90
children, or 46.2 percent had only one hotel stay). Twenty-one children involved in placement
exceptions spent at least ten nights in a hotel or DCFS office.2 Eight children combined for one third of
the hotel stays (spending a combined 371 nights in hotels). The most nights any individual child spent
in a hotel or office was 67. Table 1 provides a further breakdown of the number of placement
exceptions per child.

Table 1: Number of Placement Exceptions per Child, 2018
Children with Number of Number of Children
Placement Exceptions
(n = 195)
Only 1 placement exception
90
2 to 9
74
10 to 19
18
20 or more
13

Percent of Children
46.2%
37.9%
9.2%
6.7%

The placement crisis continues to be most apparent in DCYF Regions 3 and 4: 96 percent of nights spent
in a hotel this year were by children with cases assigned to a DCYF office in either Region 3 or 4.3 Just
over 45 percent of Washington households with children are located in these two regions4 and 31
percent of children in out of home care have cases out of either Region 3 or 4.5

2

The number of nights a child spent in a hotel or DCFS office is the total number observed for that child over a one year period
– not necessarily consecutive nights in a row.
3 DCYF Region 3 encompasses Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, Island and San Juan counties. DCYF Region 4 encompasses King
County.
4 Partners for Our Children Data Portal Team. (2017). [Graph representation of Washington state child welfare data 9/26/2017].
Count of All Households with Children. Retrieved from http://www.vis.pocdata.org/maps/hh-populationregions.
5 Partners for Our Children Data Portal Team. (2018). [Graph representation of Washington state child welfare data 7/19/2018].
Children in Out-of-Home Care (Count). Retrieved from http://www.vis.pocdata.org/graphs/ooh-counts.

 Table 2: Placement Exceptions by Region, 2018

DCYF Region
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Region 4
Region 5
Region 6

# of Placement
Exceptions
11
3
242
809
10
15

% of All Placement
Exceptions
1.0%
< 1.0%
22.2%
74.2%
< 1.0%
1.4%

% of Washington
Households with
Children
12.4%
9.7%
16.9%
28.6%
16.3%
16.1%

Demographics of Children Experiencing Placement Exceptions
Of the 195 children OFCO identified who spent at least one night in a hotel or DCFS office, 66 percent
were male and 34 percent were female. Figure 3 shows that the children who have been temporarily
placed in hotels skew older than the total out of home care population.6 Most of the children were at
least ten years of age (66 percent).7

Figure 3: Child Age in Placement Exceptions, 2018
43%
36%
25%

26%

30%
19%
12%

8%

0-4 years

5-9 years

Placement Exception Population

10-14 years

15-17 years

General Population of Children in Out of Home Care

The average number of placement exceptions per child who spent at least one night in a hotel or DCFS
office was six. The average number of placement exceptions by age is shown in Figure 4. Younger
children spent the fewest nights in hotels.

6
7

Partners for Our Children Data Portal Team. Ibid.
The age of four children is unknown at the time of writing.

 Figure 4: Average Number of Placement Exceptions of Children by Age, 2018
0-4 years (n=15)

2.3

5-9 years (n=48)

6.5

10-14 years (n=58)

7.12

15-17 years (n=70)

5.5

Racial Disproportionality
Children of color are disproportionately represented in the placement exception population compared
to the out of home care population statewide, as well as when you look at only the Region 3 and 4
population. Twenty percent of children spending a night in a hotel or office were African American or
Black compared to 13 percent of the Region 3 and 4 out of home care population. This
disproportionality is even more pronounced when you look at youth who spent more than one night in a
hotel. African American or Black youth comprise 23 percent of youth who spent 2 or more nights in a
hotel. Though the small population makes it difficult to draw larger conclusions, of the 21 youth who
spent 10 or more nights in hotels over the course of the year, twelve (57.1 percent) were identified in
the Department’s case management system as non-white.8

Table 3: Child Race and Ethnicity, 2018

Caucasian
African American or Black
American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian or Pacific Islander
Multiracial
Unknown
Latino / Hispanic

Placement
Exception
Population
54.4%
20.0%
2.1%
2.1%
19.0%
2.6%
11.3%

Region 3 & 4 Out of
Home Care
Population**
49.6%
12.9%
5.5%
4.2%
14.7%
-13.0%

Entire Out of
Home Care
Population*
65.3%
8.8%
5.1%
1.9%
18.0%
-19.0%

* Partners for Our Children Data Portal Team. (2017). [Graph representation of Washington state child welfare data 9/26/2017].
Entering Out-of-Home Care (Count). Retrieved from http://www.vis.pocdata.org/graphs/ooh-entry-counts.
**Region 3 and 4 encompasses Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan, Island and King Counties.

8

7 youth are African American and 5 are identified as multiracial.