Arkansas Department of Human Services v. Southerland

John F. Stroud, Jr., Judge.

The juvenile division of the Jefferson County Chancery Court ordered appellant, the Arkansas Department of Human Services, to pay Reuben Southerland $3,325 as compensation for providing foster care to Charlie Smith, an eighteen-year-old foster youth, for the period June 1997 through December 1997. We reverse.

At a review hearing involving appellant and Charlie, the subject of board payments for Mr. Southerland arose. Charlie had run away from the foster home to which DHS had assigned him and moved into Mr. Southerland’s house in January 1997. DHS did not learn where…