Jun 2, 2016 4 min read

After previously questioning the rationale, the Washington County commissioners unanimously approved a teen’s court-ordered, weeklong visit to Puerto Rico with a caseworker at taxpayer expense to visit the 18-year-old’s biological family.

The dependent youth, who lives in a group home, can, if he chooses, be under the care of the Washington County Children and Youth Services until he turns 21.

“We’ve got to pay someone to go down there and stay for seven days?” asked commission Chairman Larry Maggi, a former U.S. Marine who noted an 18-year-old is mature enough to enlist in the military.

“I can see a 4-, 5- 6-, 7-, 8-year-old. But an 18-year-old? I have a problem with an 18-year-old boy and an escort to go on a trip to Puerto Rico at taxpayer expense.”

Commissioner Harlan Shober conjectured that the teenager could be reunited with his family, and the goal of CYS is to “build stabilization. Maybe we don’t see him again.”

Commission Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan questioned if the boy’s family chose to move so far away from Washington County, and if relatives made any effort to travel here to visit the boy.

The issue arose Wednesday during an agenda-setting session that precedes the meeting at which the commissioners vote, and Tim Kimmel, director of human services for the county whose jurisdiction includes CYS, said he did not have all the answers. But he told the elected officials that the caseworker from the Auberle agency, based in McKeesport, would chaperone the youth and Washington County Judge Michael Lucas ordered the travel.

Kimmel referred a reporter to Kimberly Rogers, administrator of the agency, who declined to say if the boy’s family member or members moved while he’s been legally considered a dependent child, citing confidentiality concerns.

Eighty percent of the trip for two, estimated to cost a maximum total of $2,195 for airfare, car rental, hotel stay in separate rooms and meals, will be borne by state and federal taxpayers, Rogers said. The local match, at 20 percent, would be $439.

“Part of the biological family is here and part is in Puerto Rico,” Rogers said Thursday. “I can’t give you all the details and the family history. We haven’t booked anything officially.”

She provided a fact sheet on Act 55, regarding “family finding and kinship care,” noting “we’re required to find family members regardless of where they are and build connections where they are.”

Under the law, children and youth agencies must search for and identify extended relatives and kin who may be willing to support children and families who are part of the child welfare system.

The youth “could say, ‘I’m staying in Puerto Rico.’ We’ve been working with child welfare services there,” Rogers said.

Lucas actually crafted the order, specifically mentioning airfare, in February with a spring break trip in mind, but the arrangements could not be worked out at that time for several reasons, Rogers said. With the board of commissioners’ approval Thursday, travel should take place “during the course of this summer.

“I understand what commissioner Maggi is saying, but we can’t just drop him off in another country. What if it doesn’t go well? We can’t not feed him – he’s in our care. As to transportation, we can’t leave him at the airport.”

Because of the death of his father, Lucas was unavailable Wednesday and Thursday.

Maggi said Thursday after the vote, “We wanted to know some details about the circumstances. Our CYS gave us some more details. Even though we’re not pleased with how the system works sometimes, the judge did issue a court order and we’re required to fund it. I don’t totally understand the requirements of CYS and some of the things they need to do. I understand it’s a law.

“It’s our system. We work with it the best we can. It doesn’t mean we have to agree with it.”