Ginter is one of 30 current and former employees of Washington’s child welfare agency who spoke with reporters about how the state cares for foster youth without placements between the hours of 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., when the agency’s most inexperienced social workers some recruited fresh out of college are left alone to handle many of the most challenging and troubled kids in the state’s care.
Those interviews with state workers, along with a review of six hours of police body camera footage, dozens of police incident reports, internal DCYF emails and child welfare case notes, uncovered an unstable and chaotic environment for both the foster youth without placements and the after-hours social workers responsible for their well-being and safety.