State officials who oversee Hawaii’s 1,350 foster children defended yesterday their handling of a 19-year-old former foster child who hanged himself just six months after "aging out" of the system.

The Department of Human Services released redacted case files on Erwin Viado Celes yesterday on the eve of a legislative briefing at the state Capitol this afternoon aimed at finding new ways to help young adults in foster care — and to prevent future tragedies like Celes’ suicide.

"I don’t think the state failed him," said John Walters, program development administrator for Child Protective Services. "I think the state backed him up every step of the way and tried to help him realize his dreams. I don’t think it worked out that way, but that’s not his fault. It’s not the state’s fault. It’s just the way things ended up."

Celes’ death has stunned human services officials and caseworkers, Walters said.

"We’re all hurt," he said. "I felt devastated myself. That kid had heart, and we’ll never know what caused it, what precipitated it."

The Honolulu Medical Examiner concluded that Celes hanged himself with an electrical cord in his mother’s workplace on Sept. 7 and was pronounced dead at 7:33 p.m.

Celes’ "ex-girlfriend committed suicide by hanging a few weeks ago," according to the September autopsy report. "He subsequently said he wanted to kill himself. He was last seen alive about 45 minutes before he was found unresponsive and hanging from a ceiling beam at his mother’s workplace."

There was no evidence of foul play, but the autopsy found that Celes had enough methamphetamine and its "breakdown product" — amphetamine — in his system to suggest that he had used methamphetamine around the time he hanged himself.

Celes also had marijuana and nicotine in his system, according to the autopsy report.

Department of Human Services officials had offered Celes "independent living skills" that provide foster children with basic life skills they learn from their foster parents or other adults — as well as "youth circles" in which foster children select adults to help them develop a plan for their future.

Celes’ case files indicate that he rejected both services as he came close to "aging out," but was being mentored by his kickboxing coach and found success in the Hawaii National Guard’s Youth Challenge program, Walters said.

"He was getting help all along the way," Walters said. "And a lot of people really cared for him."

State Rep. John Mizuno, chairman of the House Human Services Committee, has scheduled a legislative hearing for 1 p.m. today in the state Capitol, Room 309, over the issue of foster children such as Celes.

Currently, about 54 Hawaii foster children are about to "age out" with no permanent living arrangements, but they could have plans to join the military or enroll in college, said human services spokeswoman Toni Schwartz.

Mizuno met with seven foster youth advocates yesterday to brainstorm ideas to discuss this afternoon.

"The consensus was that we cannot say 100 percent for sure that Erwin wouldn’t have taken his life anyway," Mizuno said. "If Erwin had Medicaid coverage and proper counseling or an excellent mentor, perhaps the result wouldn’t have been the same. Nevertheless, it allows us an opportunity to take a closer look at the system and provide for improvements. There are many other foster youth that we’re not even hearing or seeing about that are worse off than Erwin."

Mizuno was considering several ideas yesterday:

» Possibly increasing the current $529 monthly payment per foster child to foster parents. The rate has not increased since 1986, Mizuno said, and realistically should be closer to $960 per month because of Hawaii’s high cost of living.

» "We’re only one of two states in the nation that do not require mandatory training for foster parents after they’re licensed," he said. "We need to equip our foster parents with better knowledge."

One idea would be to encourage additional training for foster parents by increasing monthly payments another $20 to $40 for foster families that receive additional training, Mizuno said.

» Require a mentor to help older foster children apply for Medicaid until the child reaches age 21.

» Provide foster services to age 21.

» Provide tuition waivers and housing for former foster children to attend the University of Hawaii system.

Walters, of Child Protective Services, plans to attend this afternoon’s briefing and welcomes any suggestions.

"We’ll keep trying to do better," he said. "If we learn something from this — and I hope we do — that we can change or we can improve, we’ll do it. We’ll do it in a heartbeat."

Celes was born at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children on March 12, 1991, the youngest of six children.

When he was 6, the redacted files show that he and three siblings were taken into police custody after they — and a chained family dog — were found malnourished in their home in Waipahu.

Their mother was using "ice," or crystal methamphetamine, and would often talk to herself — or to a wall — and had burned her own hair to the point that she was bald.

Adults constantly came in and out of the home, and police believed it was a "drug house," according to Celes’ files.

Celes had never attended school and should have been entering the second grade. Once in foster care, he was enrolled in kindergarten instead and struggled for the rest of his school years to keep up academically.

Over the next 14 years that he spent in foster care, Celes lived with — or tried to live with — an aunt, his oldest sister and foster families in Waipahu and Waianae. He was sent to live at the Hale Kipa shelter for boys in Kalihi after he went on the run for nine days in 2005. In 2007 he ran away from the Central Oahu Youth Services Association in Haleiwa and turned himself in to police a month later.

In 2008 he was arrested when he was found sleeping in a stolen car.

Celes often earned B’s in school but just as often struggled with D’s and even F’s. He regularly got into fights, skipped school, was often suspended, once tested positive for drugs and was enrolled in anger management training.

He also found that he loved paddling, responded well when he went to church with one of his foster families and began training for football and kickboxing, a caseworker wrote.

As a ninth-grader at Waianae High School, a case worker wrote that Celes’ "relationship with his boxing coach provides the surrogate-like parent support that he has never had. … Erwin is very capable of making useful decisions when he is stable. For now, he must learn to walk away from conflict. … He knows how to self regulate and the difference between right and wrong."

Then, in 2008, a plan for Celes to live with his older sister "failed at the 11th hour," a caseworker wrote.

Celes had been telling his caseworkers that he wanted to join the military. Instead, he got a job as a shift leader at the Wahiawa Little Caesars, bought a beat-up 1986 Toyota Supra that he called the "Batmobile" and dreamed of going to college on the mainland one day.

After he turned 18 in 2009, a caseworker wrote in one of the last notes in Celes’ file that he is a "very respectful young mans (sic) who has a lot going for him. … This case is closing … because he no longer meets eligibility requirements."

Thirteen months later Celes was dead.

His redacted files can be found at hawaii.gov/dhs under "Foster Care Records for Irwin (sic) Celes."