• Violation

  R 400. 125 Staff; volunteer; requirements. (2) All staff and volunteers shall act in a manner that is conducive to the welfare of children.

  I received information from the Bureau Information Tracking System (BITS) licensing system that the Program Director for this facility Alya Yang On 10/26/2021 1 contacted the Licensee Designee Angela Johnston. She reported that when she hired Ms. Yang in , Ms. Yang told her that she was a foster parent but due to some issues with a foster child, she and her husband Mr. Yang would no longer be fostering any children. That was the only information that Ms. Johnston had about the situation. On 1012712021 1 conducted interviews with Program Director Alya Yang and Angela Johnston. Ms. Yang reported that she and her husband were foster parents because they had difficulty having children of their own and felt that adoption was a better option for them. Ms. Yang said initially they told of Kalamazoo that they only wanted children aged 0-2 years old. However, one of their friends had a 10-year-old foster, that they had provided respite care and their friend n*11on er wantedthe c i ue to the child's behavior issues." asked Mr. and Mrs. Yang if they would be willing to accep is -year-o r their first placement since the respite visits had gone well, and they accepted. Ms. Yang admitted that she never should have applied to be a foster parent and that this was not a good placement for their first attempt. Ms. Yang said her husband is and he has only lived in the United States since when they got married, She explained that, culture is very different when it comes to child rearing, and she believes her husband did not understand the differences from his culture and the United States in terms of what is acceptable behavior management. The foster child came from a very traumatic background, and would often act out, sometimes even violently against them. Ms. Yang said it was hard for her husband not to use a "firm handn with the child because in his culture, children do not hit adults and it is acceptable to use physical discipline with any child that behaves this way. She explained that the foster child went toU therapist in May 2021 and told the therapist that they were hitting , screaming in■ face, pulling■ hair, and that they were extremely racist. 1 Ms. Yang denied being physical with the foster child but admitted that they did have to use force to restrain her so she would not harm them or herself. She denied pulling the child's hair. She acknowledged that there were times when she and her husband would scream in the child's face out of frustration. Ms. Yang placed much of the blame on the child, and on -_I♦I♦II for not providing more support to them. Ms. Yang admitted that she knew her husband struggled to get along with the child. She described a time when the child was misbehaving, and she was not home. Mr. Yang had become so frustrated that he was not allowed to spank the child that he delt with the frustration over the child's behavior by She also acknowledged that her husband did not understand culture norms of issues surroundinc racism. She said the foster child's father had given the child a hat to wear. However, they felt that this hat was a trauma trigger since the child hadsustained abuse at the hands of father; and that the child would misbehave when was wearing the hat, so they took the hat away. Ms. Yang said they placed the at on top of the refrigerator where the child could see it as a reminder for to work toward good behavior to get the hat back. She said that her husband a so told the child that he had only met one - person prior to meeting the foster child 'who is also -) and that person was not nice. Therefore, Mr. Yang felt that all people were not nice, but now that he has met the child, he thinks maybe some can be nice. The couple had also given the child a name and called by that name as they had planned to adopt until the child's behaviors became oo much for them. On the same day that the child made allegations against them to the therapist they called and asked for■ to be placed into another foster home. An Inve

The Program Director Alya Yang inappropriately disciplined a foster child.

Disposition: Substantiated