Urgent Need to Shut Down Santa Clara County Satellite Homes
Urgent Need to Shut Down Santa Clara County Satellite Homes
The Issue
Last month, a foster youth who we deeply love and care for—attending school, playing soccer, and building healthy relational bonds—was placed into the San Jose emergency satellite home. Within the first week, she was sleeping in a tent in a park overnight, forced into drugs and alcohol for the first time, missing for days in apartments around the Bay Area, assaulted, and in a deep mental health crisis involving law enforcement and hospitalization. The horrors she experienced are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a grossly unregulated and failing system. Despite continuous emails and outreach efforts to the department offering support services and urging alternative placement, the department continued to allow young children to leave the site unsupervised for days at a time in harm's way without protection, safety plan, or accountability.
Emergency satellite homes under the care of Santa Clara County DFCS are anything but homes. They are makeshift holding cells, and children as young as 12 years old are suffering the consequences. These sites have children living without the safety, security, and care that any child deserves, leading to unimaginable incidents—points of crisis that include assaults, exposure to substance abuse, and worsened mental health.
Reports from various youth paint a distressing picture. Children are left to sleep in tents in parks seeking safety, with no access to structured daily routines or the basic necessities of life like regular meals, school transportation, and coordinated care. The absence of oversight and regulation means these facilities operate in chaos, failing the vulnerable youths they're supposed to protect.
The lack of schooling for these children disrupts their education, setting them further back and dimming their future prospects. The negligence has an immediate and long-lasting impact on their well-being.
These "homes" must be shut down immediately. The Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children’s Services must reform their system, ensuring that every child is placed in a safe, regulated, and nurturing environment. Real, systemic change is necessary to protect these children and provide them with a chance to heal and grow.
Sign this petition to urge Santa Clara County officials to act now. Let's protect our children from harm and give them the care and dignity they deserve.
Not familiar with satellite homes? Here are some articles-
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/26/santa-clara-county-running-illegal-network-of-group-homes-for-highly-troubled-children/
291
The Issue
Last month, a foster youth who we deeply love and care for—attending school, playing soccer, and building healthy relational bonds—was placed into the San Jose emergency satellite home. Within the first week, she was sleeping in a tent in a park overnight, forced into drugs and alcohol for the first time, missing for days in apartments around the Bay Area, assaulted, and in a deep mental health crisis involving law enforcement and hospitalization. The horrors she experienced are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a grossly unregulated and failing system. Despite continuous emails and outreach efforts to the department offering support services and urging alternative placement, the department continued to allow young children to leave the site unsupervised for days at a time in harm's way without protection, safety plan, or accountability.
Emergency satellite homes under the care of Santa Clara County DFCS are anything but homes. They are makeshift holding cells, and children as young as 12 years old are suffering the consequences. These sites have children living without the safety, security, and care that any child deserves, leading to unimaginable incidents—points of crisis that include assaults, exposure to substance abuse, and worsened mental health.
Reports from various youth paint a distressing picture. Children are left to sleep in tents in parks seeking safety, with no access to structured daily routines or the basic necessities of life like regular meals, school transportation, and coordinated care. The absence of oversight and regulation means these facilities operate in chaos, failing the vulnerable youths they're supposed to protect.
The lack of schooling for these children disrupts their education, setting them further back and dimming their future prospects. The negligence has an immediate and long-lasting impact on their well-being.
These "homes" must be shut down immediately. The Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children’s Services must reform their system, ensuring that every child is placed in a safe, regulated, and nurturing environment. Real, systemic change is necessary to protect these children and provide them with a chance to heal and grow.
Sign this petition to urge Santa Clara County officials to act now. Let's protect our children from harm and give them the care and dignity they deserve.
Not familiar with satellite homes? Here are some articles-
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/26/santa-clara-county-running-illegal-network-of-group-homes-for-highly-troubled-children/
291
The Decision Makers
Supporter Voices
Petition created on May 29, 2025