Comment

Comment by truth on January 1, 2009 at 1:54pm

CHART: Ohio child abuse and neglect deaths by county, 2002-2007.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/12/21/...

System fails, kids die
Agency workers' bad decisions leave children in hands of abusers

Sunday,  December 21, 2008 3:40 AM
By Randy Ludlow
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Nicholas Goodrich, 11 months old, died after his mother's boyfriend threw him across a room. Calls to social agencies were unheeded.

Nicholas Goodrich would have been walking and talking by now.

Instead, he rests beneath a stone, eternally 11 months old.

He's dead in part because the government workers entrusted to protect him ignored pleas -- at least 12 calls to officials in Franklin and Delaware counties over four weeks -- to stop the abuse.

Nicholas was speckled with bruises and had a bite mark on his cheek. He had severe diaper rash and appeared malnourished. "It's like he was a punching bag for somebody," a caller complained.

In a sickening prediction, another caller told a children-services caseworker: "Because there's nothing that has been done, that poor child will end up dead."

The Delaware infant died after his mother's boyfriend picked Nicholas up by the throat and threw him across the room. The boyfriend was playing a Madden NFL 06 video game and became angered by the baby's crying.

Nicholas' death on Dec. 12, 2006, was neither unique nor the last.

County children-services agencies responsible for investigating child-abuse reports and removing imperiled kids from danger regularly make fatal mistakes.

An investigation by The Dispatch found that 87 of the 234 children who succumbed to abuse and neglect from 2002 to 2007 died on the watch of Ohio's children services agencies. Their families or caregivers were being assisted and monitored by county children-services workers at the time of, or within a year before their deaths.

They've been kicked, strangled, suffocated, beaten, shaken, thrown, drowned, burned, frozen, poisoned, starved and denied medical care, all while county officials were monitoring their families, foster parents or caregivers.

Not all of the deaths could have been prevented; many abuse deaths stem from impulsive acts of anger by parents or their partners and other caregivers.

Crystal Ward Allen, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, defended overworked caseworkers.

Theirs is an agonizing job that quickly burns out many when "reality overcomes altruism," she said. The turnover among caseworkers is about 30 percent annually, Ward Allen said.

"It's still a complex system. It's a very difficult job. You can never predict human behavior. You're never going to create the Ward Cleaver family," said Ward Allen, a former caseworker. "Hindsight is perfect."

But some children-services workers have misread or discounted signs that children were in danger.

The six-year total for abuse and neglect deaths comes from a statewide survey by The Dispatch of all 88 county children-services agencies and a review of death certificates, child-fatality reports, other public records and news reports.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which oversees county agencies, reports a larger number of child-abuse and neglect deaths to federal officials. State officials reported 358 such deaths from 2002 to 2006, and children-services officials were involved with 92 of those children, or 26 percent, within five years of children's deaths.

That percentage is more than twice the 12 percent national average and third highest among the states submitting figures to the federal government, trailing Alabama (42 percent) and Florida (28 percent).

Comment by truth on January 1, 2009 at 1:52pm

article part 2


State officials say the numbers reported to federal authorities include deaths such as the "rollover" suffocation of babies sharing beds with parents and cases of inadequate supervision. The Dispatch excluded some of those cases that clearly were accidental or did not lead to criminal charges.

The investigation by The Dispatch found that Ohio's child-protection system is riddled with problems:

    *
      County child-fatality review boards, created to find ways to reduce deaths, dramatically underreport the number of children dying from abuse and neglect. Reports from 2002 to 2006 listed 136 child-abuse deaths, far below the 203 confirmed by The Dispatch for those years. Figures for 2007 are not yet available.
    *
      While state regulations require a review of the death of every child involved with county agencies, the state failed to review nearly 30 percent of deaths until The Dispatch discovered the shortcoming.
    *
      State child-fatality reviews fault county agencies for major flaws in their response to abuse reports, including placing children with unsuitable caregivers and then not checking their safety.
    *
      With 27 deaths from 2002 through 2007, Franklin County led Ohio in the number of child-abuse deaths. The county's children-services agency had cases open on 11 of the children's families or caregivers.
    *
      Many of Ohio's children-services agencies, particularly in smaller, rural counties without local tax levies, are underfunded by the state. Only Minnesota contributes a smaller percentage of children-services spending. States provide an average of 39 percent nationally. Ohio's figure: 9 percent.

Michael Fox, a former state representative who now is director of Butler County Children Services, finds the number of dead children unacceptable.

"As a general rule, the child-welfare system is broke. And it has been broke for years," he says.

Fox attributes some fatal mistakes to children-services agencies' reliance on "fuzzy information" and an obsession with confidentiality that can restrict the sharing of information that can save lives.
Oversight lacking

Some state reviews of county cases show that caseworkers failed to assess the safety of children, did not check the backgrounds of adults in abusive homes and improperly closed cases when children were still at risk.

Foster-care placement agencies licensed by the state have failed to screen or run background checks on foster parents, including in a Cincinnati-area case where a 3-year-old boy was bound, stuffed in a closet and died.

State officials who oversee the county-run children services agencies concede that improving the system is a work in progress.

"No child death is acceptable. We accept that we have work to do," said Barbara Manuel, assistant deputy director of the Office for Children and Families at the Department of Job and Family Services.

Sandra Holt, deputy director of the Office for Children and Families, said the state is working to assist county agencies and better train caseworkers "so we never, ever miss what is paramount in our work -- child safety."

A new "alternative-response" program is finding creative ways to address family needs and lessen the danger of abuse while keeping children out of foster care and families together, the state officials said.

And within a couple of weeks, county agencies will learn when foster caregivers, adoptive parents and other adults in at-risk households have been fingerprinted in connection with a crime to allow a quick assessment of potential dangers to children.

County agencies received 70,752 reports of child abuse and neglect last year, an average of 194 a day. Only about 4 percent of the complaints led to the rem