Update: He has been found. Faoa’s foster mother picked him up in Newport on Oct. 31, 21 days after he was first reported missing.

Sixteen-year-old Doug Faoa has been missing for 12 days in Clackamas County, and no one is looking for him.

At least, that’s how his foster mother, Carol Palmer, sees it.

“I realize that, according to the state, I’m just a foster parent, but I have been with Doug every day for the last three years,” Palmer said. “So, I know him better than anybody.”

Faoa left Palmer’s home in Albany on Oct. 10, to spend 90 days at a treatment facility in Happy Valley. After he arrived at the Inn Home for Boys, a facility that often hosts foster care youth, he told staff he was going to take a walk more than two miles away to Clackamas Town Center, Palmer said.

He never returned.

Faoa’s disappearance has received little media attention, and police are not actively searching for him, Palmer said.

The response to Faoa’s disappearance stands in stark contrast to the sustained attention and high profile searches for Owen Klinger, a University of Portland student who went missing in early October. Volunteers worked to keep the media and others informed on developments and turned out in force to distribute fliers and search for Klinger, who had close family ties and connections to the community.

But foster children like Faoa have few people to advocate for them. Those that do step up like Palmer often lack the community-powered efforts like flier distribution and search parties that draw public awareness to missing persons cases.

But the case has caught the attention of Oregon Sen. Sara Gelser, who represents Palmer’s district.

“There is a missing 16-year-old boy, and we all have an obligation to find him and for him to know that people are looking for him,” Gelser said. “Until we do know where his is, everyone is responsible for looking for him -- DHS, law enforcement and the Inn Home for Boys.”

Thinking about #FindDoug & the harmful lie that foster youth don’t “belong” to anyone. This destructive lie tells kids they don’t matter and are unloveable. These kids matter. They are loved & needed & we can’t afford to lose even one. #FosterYouthMatter #RealKids #orpol — Sara Gelser (@SenSaraGelser) October 20, 2019

Gelser said she thinks state privacy laws governing child welfare that are supposed to protect Faoa have actually hindered awareness about his disappearance. “DHS in general cannot release any information about a foster youth, including that the foster youth is in fact in foster care,” she said. This creates a significant challenge for the agency to share details of foster youth with the public -- like when they are missing.

Jake Sunderland, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Human Services which oversees child welfare, confirmed Monday that Faoa is a missing foster care child.

“We are concerned about his safety and ask that the community keep an eye out for him,” Sunderland said.

In 2018, almost 11,500 Oregon children spent at least one day in some kind of foster care, according to the 2018 Child Welfare Data report. Less than 1 percent exited foster care as runaways -- about 27.

When a foster child is missing, caseworkers follow a detailed protocol that includes notifying law enforcement, the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children, relevant courts, CASA workers and caregivers, Sunderland said.

After Faoa didn’t call her the first night at Inn Home, Palmer contacted his DHS caseworker and learned he had been reported as a runaway by the Inn Home for Boys’ staff.

Police never initiated a search and rescue, said Clackamas County Sgt. Marcus Mendoza. When police receive a runaway report with no suspicious circumstances -- such as a teenage boy who walks away from a treatment facility -- they put the missing person’s name and description information into state and national law enforcement databases, he said.

If the missing person has a run-in with law enforcement, police will see the information from the database.

It’s a “very common scenario” for the Inn Home for Boys to report runaways, Mendoza said. The majority wind up back at the facility in a few days.

But after nearly two weeks, Faoa is still missing.

“This is a missing child in the care of the foster care system. He is vulnerable,” Gelser said. “No one should ever stop looking. You shouldn’t just be a number in the status report. We can’t just let kids disappear.”

Palmer says her foster son never should have been allowed to walk off just a few hours after arriving in a strange new place. Faoa has run away once before, Palmer said, when he was afraid the state would permanently move him from her home. But Faoa was only supposed to spend 90 days at the treatment facility and return to Palmer’s home and his friends in Albany.

“He could have been lost. They could have been searching for him and found him,” Palmer said. “That’s what I don’t understand.”

Gelser said that a search should have begun right away, and that DHS and Palmer should have been notified immediately.

“Why he was allowed to be missing over night before any action was taken is simply stunning. He is a missing child in a city he does not know,” Gelser said.

She also said calling him a runaway stigmatizes a vulnerable child.

“We don’t know that he ran away in the first place, and if he did, it doesn’t make him a ‘bad’ youth and it doesn’t lessen the urgent need to find him, bring him home, and find out what he was running from so that we can better address his needs.”

State records show that in 2016, the Inn Home for Boys had two substantiated claims of negligent treatment in which staff did not provide “adequate supervision” and two children left the facility in a program vehicle and drove around for hours until they were stopped by police.

In 2017, the facility had one substantiated allegation of physical abuse and five substantiated allegations of neglect that led to the termination of a staff member. It is unclear whether these occurred at the same building where Faoa was staying. The executive director did not respond to an email requesting comment.

Doug Van Anda, who oversees the facility, said that due to state laws, he could not comment, confirm or deny that Faoa was in the care of the Inn Home for Boys.

The night before Faoa left Palmer’s home and South Albany High School, Palmer invited his best friend over. Palmer said he told his friend, “I’m going to do this ... and come home."

What Faoa was undergoing treatment for at the Inn Home is confidential, Sunderland said.

That night, Palmer made Faoa memorize her phone number.

“It doesn’t matter what happens. We can figure things out, no matter what. You can always call me,” she told him.

Faoa hasn’t called. Meanwhile, Palmer says she’s done what she can to find him, giving his photograph to security at the Clackamas Town Center and to TriMet. But she wouldn’t know where to begin to search in the unfamiliar urban area. Palmer is circulating his photo on social media, but said she feels like the search is all up to her.

Faoa is 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds. He was last seen at the Clackamas Town Center on Oct. 10 wearing grey jeans, a grey or white hoodie and a black vest. If you see him, contact the Clackamas County Sheriff at 503-655-8211.

-- Emily Goodykoontz; 503-221-6652; egoodykoontz@oregonian.com

— Molly Young contributed to this report