Human Services Minister Dave Hancock says the foster-care system has made significant improvements since a St. Albert teenager died shortly after leaving care in 2006.
A public fatality inquiry was conducted last year into the death of 13-year-old Samantha Martin, who died just five months after leaving provincial care.
"Whenever there's tragic circumstances, we owe it to the child, we owe it to the family to learn as much as we possibly can from those incidents," Hancock said.
Judge Marilena Carminati's final report from the inquiry highlights a series of failures in the foster-care system.
Samantha's mother, Velvet Martin, provided the St. Albert Gazette a copy of the final report in mid-October; it was not publicly released until Nov. 2. Hancock declined to comment on the report before this date.
In her report, Carminati recommended that the province ensure caseworkers' workload is "reasonable" and ensure they have up-to-date medical information about the foster child.
She also recommended policies be improved to ensure children receive annual medical checkups and recommended Children's Services follow up on medical complaints.
"I'm confident that each of these areas has been dealt with," Hancock said.
He pointed to increased supports for children with disabilities, which allow up to 98 per cent of these children to remain with their families, as opposed to entering care. He also said significant progress has been made by ensuring the child-and-youth advocate is an independent entity.
"We've also done a lot of work to ensure that front-end workers have the information they need, and worked on collaboration between agencies so everybody who's working with the child has the ability to share information," he said.
In terms of caseworkers having a "reasonable" caseload, he said this is subjective, but added more staff and support workers are being added.
Life in care
Samantha lived in a Morinville foster home from shortly after her birth until June 2006, when she moved back with her biological parents.
The report detailed many situations where Samantha slipped through the cracks.
Children with Tetrasomy 18p, the condition Samantha was diagnosed with at birth, often see their pediatrician every three months. Samantha, however, only saw her doctor four times in four years.
Each of her three caseworkers since 1998 went large periods of time – up to 14 months – without meeting her in person, despite a requirement to meet face-to-face every three months.
Samantha also had low weight, which was not caused by her medical condition. Instead, medical professionals who testified at the inquiry said her weight was the result of low caloric intake.
The report detailed concerns from school staff regarding the contents of Samantha's lunch compared to the "larger more balanced" lunches provide to the foster parents' biological son.
When school officials raised this problem with the foster mother, she instructed staff to "fill Samantha up with water." At this time, Samantha weighed just 51 pounds.
Hancock said he is confident these circumstances are an abnormality in the system, which currently cares for 4,500 children and youth.
Before foster parents can foster children, they must pass a "robust" screening process, he said.
"We need people who will give themselves and their homes to take care of children who need a loving, caring place and a safe environment," Hancock said. "We want to go out and recruit people to do it, but we then put them through quite a process before they're allowed to do it."
Martin said she is seeking criminal charges to ensure the foster home is no longer fostering children.
Hancock was not sure if the foster home is still operating.
