County Intake Center For Foster Kids Closed; Placement Speeds Up

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Santa Clara County's foster children are no longer being held in the county's Receiving, Assessment and Intake Center, Supervisor Dave Cortese's office said Monday.

After months of inundation, the county's RAIC finished processing and transferring children into foster care placement within 24 hours of receiving them, Cortese's office said in a news release.

A memo Thursday from county Social Services Agency director Robert Menicocci said the last child was discharged on Wednesday from the intake facility at 2300 Enborg Lane in San Jose.

For the time being, children removed from their homes will now be taken to a few locations for short-term assessments. If a child cannot be placed within 24 hours, the county has secured a few homes where the child can be cared for until a long-term placement is identified, Menicocci said in the memo.

The Board of Supervisors will be briefed with a detailed report on further options for processing and placing foster children during its first meeting of the year on Jan. 14.

"For the sake of the children, we need to place them within 24 hours of being removed from places where they have been traumatized," Cortese said in a statement Monday. "We do not want to be responsible for further traumatizing these vulnerable children who we are supposed to be protecting. I am hopeful this new approach will move us toward that goal."

Cortese first called for a moratorium on foster child intake at RAIC at a Nov. 19 Board of Supervisors meeting.

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