Advocate: Some Child Abuse Complaints Not Fully Probed

Advocate: Some Child Abuse Complaints Not Fully Probed

By Craig Schneider

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia Child Advocate said he is concerned some state caseworkers are not adequately investigating complaints of child abuse and neglect, placing children at risk of injury and even death.

Child Advocate Tom Rawlings said some caseworkers have told his office that they believe the agency is pressuring them to keep down their number of formal investigations by shifting families to community services such as counseling.

Rawlings said he does not know the extent of the problem, but he said a recent review of cases by his office found problems with child abuse and neglect investigations and inadequate assessments of family problems.

State child welfare officials, for their part, say their workers are doing a good job at investigating and assessing families brought to their attention.

Rawlings acknowledged that the state Division of Family and Children Services has made improvements in its treatment of children removed from troubled homes into foster care. But he sees troubling signs regarding those cases in which complaints of abuse or neglect are lodged, and the child is kept in the home. In many of those cases, parents undergo services such as counseling, drug therapy and parent skills training.

In some cases, a child is placed with a relative or friend while the parents undergo services.

Rawlings said he is concerned that DFCS has been too quick to shift troubled families to community services or move a child in with a relative, rather than extensively investigating or assessing concerns. He also worries that DFCS is overusing these methods, which "can encourage a softer approach to addressing the family's issues. ... It becomes investigation-light."

DFCS Director Mark Washington defended the state child welfare system, saying he believed the staff is properly investigating cases, assessing families' needs and keeping children safe. He said he does not believe that superiors are pressuring caseworkers to divert families to services rather than pursue full investigations.

"Our expectation is that staff and supervisors will work diligently and consistently on all investigations until they are completed," Washington said in a letter to Rawlings. "We have already seen the benefits of this practice."

He said DFCS supervisors double-check caseworkers' actions to make sure they make the right assessments of family problems, and that the family receives the proper services.

When a child is placed temporarily with a relative, the agency makes sure that the placement remains as short-term as possible while the family problems are addressed, Washington said.

The state child advocate office was created by the state Legislature in 2000 to monitor the child welfare system. In questioning the practice of diverting families to services, Rawlings is challenging a practice that was initiated about five years ago as a way to reform a system in crisis.

At that time, caseworkers were quick to remove children from homes, which officials said disrupted households and overburdened the system. The reform, called diversion, was intended for families with relatively minor problems that did not place a child at great risk. Officials say it helped correct the system and keep more families together.

But Rawlings said his review of cases revealed problems with diversion, assessments and investigations.

Rawlings pointed to the case of Bryan Moreno, an autistic 6-year-old in Forsyth County who police say was beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend in July. Three complaints of possible abuse had been made to DFCS before the death, but the agency did not properly assess the danger to Bryan, he said.

While DFCS staff may have made errors in that case, Rawlings said his review revealed larger problems with the system. Specifically, he is concerned that the Forsyth DFCS office placed too high a priority on achieving certain caseload reductions and meeting deadlines on investigations "to the exclusion of a focus on providing quality social work services."

Further review of about 50 cases in other counties, he said, indicated that the problems extend beyond just one county.

For instance, Rawlings pointed to the case of a 9-year-old child who died Aug. 27 of respiratory problems apparently related to ongoing asthma problems. DFCS found no reason to believe the child's death was related to parental neglect, Rawlings said. But Rawlings said the house smelled of smoke and the agency had multiple prior involvements with the family, including a case in which the mother was not meeting the child's medical needs, he said.

He also pointed to a case of a heavily intoxicated mother who arrived at a hospital with a child in September, who later died. Three months earlier, the mother required stitches after the father hit her after finding she was drunk and breastfeeding the baby. DFCS diverted the case to community services after the mother received a restraining order against the father.

Rawlings said further investigation should have been done in those cases. If that had happened, he said, the children might not have died.

Washington said he believes the problems in the Moreno case were bad judgment on the part of workers, not a systemic issue. He said he could not address the other cases without further review.

In defending the agency's work, Washington said statistics show that very few children whose cases are diverted to other services come back with new cases of abuse or neglect. He said these services, such as counseling and drug treatment, help heal the problems in these families, without having to take more severe measures of removing the child into foster care.

http://www.ajc.com/news/advocate-some-child-abuse-261236.html