“That is ridiculous,” said Michelle Zettee, of Midwest City, a former volunteer with the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program. “There needs to be some accountability here … When DHS has a child removed from his or her parents — especially when the reason for the removal stems from allegations of neglect rather than abuse — I feel that DHS should have as much responsibility to provide adequate supervision and ensure the child's safety as they are attempting to require from the child's parents.”

Thirty-eight of them have been missing for more than three months.

Seventy-eight children in custody of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services are missing.

Millie Carpenter, DHS's permanency and well-being program administrator, and Melissa Jones, a DHS program supervisor, insist there is accountability, but say preventing children from running away is not as easy as it might sound.

Carpenter said staff members believe all 78 children who are currently missing are runaways and not children who have been abducted.

There are more than 10,000 children in state custody. Most live in foster homes, while many others stay in shelters and group homes. Many of the children want more independence and some choose to run away, she said.

Some children run away to reunite with parents that state officials have deemed unsuitable, but “I've had just as many run just because they didn't want to follow rules,” Jones said.