It's
easy enough to see how people can leap to the conclusion that the deaths of
children "known to the system" must be the result of "family preservation"
or the federal law requiring agencies to make "reasonable efforts" to
keep families together.
After
all, the cases seem so obvious -- especially in hindsight. Often they were not
the "tough calls." And almost everyone in the system has a vested interest
in promoting the idea that it was the fault of a law or a policy over which
they have no control. But the real reasons children "known to the
system" die are very different. And those reasons are well within the
control of many of those who point the finger at family preservation.
When
children known to the system die, it is usually because the system is
overwhelmed with children who don't need to be in the system at all.
· In most states, a bachelor's
degree in any subject is all that is required to become a child protective
worker. After hiring, training generally ranges from minimal to none.
· Turnover on the job is constant. The worker who goes to a troubled family is likely to have little experience.
· Working conditions are
appalling. In some child protective offices several workers share a phone, in
others workers keep files in their cars or piled under their desks.
· Caseloads are enormous, often
double, triple or more than called for in national standards established by the
Child Welfare League of America.
Then
these untrained, inexperienced workers with overwhelming caseloads are sent out
to make life and death decisions.
And
then, when something goes wrong, the people responsible for creating these
appalling conditions blame "reasonable efforts" or "family
preservation" because the alternative is to blame themselves.
Consider
some of the very cases that have gotten the most media attention:
· The case of Adam Mann, killed
by his mother in New York City. A city caseworker investigating that case
acknowledged that she closed the case after only cursory investigation because
she had "60 or 70 other cases" and didn't have time to investigate
thoroughly.[1]
· The case of Elisa Izquierdo,
allegedly killed by her mother. She was not in a family preservation program.
But there was an agency working with the family. That agency contacted her
child protective worker to warn that Elisa was in danger. The worker said he
could do nothing because he was too busy with other cases.[2]
· The case of Joseph Wallace,
killed by his mother in Chicago. In that case, a family preservation worker
recommended that the family not be preserved -- he recommended to a
judge that the child be removed. The judge agreed. The child was removed, but
the records were lost when the family moved to another county. Only then was
the child sent home to his death. [3]
Not
only was family preservation not the cause of the Wallace death -- family
preservation almost saved Joseph Wallace's life. Yet the Wallace death was
blamed on "family preservation" and set off a massive foster care
panic (See Issue Paper 2).
One
of the reasons family preservation is safer than foster care is because family
preservation workers generally are better trained than child protective
workers. And because they spend so much time with a family, they are often the first
to see when a family can't be preserved -- and, contrary to critics' claims,
family preservation workers do indeed place the safety of the children first.
Child
protective workers are overwhelmed in part because they are forced to
investigate so many cases that either are false reports or involve the
confusion of poverty with neglect.
CPS
officials and frontline workers know it:
From
Washington State: "Child Protective Services staff are faced with
violating policy by declining to investigate clearly low risk complaints or
spending time and energy [on them] at the expense of having adequate time [for]
more serious situations."[4]
From
North Carolina: "Current legal definitions of neglect are so broad that
protective services intervene in some situations where there is no substantial
risk of harm to children ...This ... takes an inordinate amount of staff time
for investigating..."[5]
When
Florida workers were surveyed about barriers to doing their jobs well 63
percent cited "responding to minor neglect reports" and 64 percent
cited "completing reports on obviously unfounded cases."[6]
Commenting
on another notorious child abuse death, the case of Lisa Steinberg, child
protective worker Keith Richards wrote: "It's fortunate we haven't lost
more kids like Lisa than we have, while we're running around checking out three
dozen other referrals concerning dirty houses and tiny bruises."[7]
Since
these are the real problems, the real solutions involve tough choices --
screening out some cases and spending more money. A lot of elected officials
don't want to do that. And for agency administrators to admit that children die
because their workers are overworked and undertrained is for them to admit that
the deaths are at least partly their own fault.
How
much easier it is for all concerned to scapegoat laws and policies over which
they have little or no control.
1. Carole Langer (producer), "Who Killed Adam
Mann," Frontline, December 3, 1991. Back to Text.
2. Nina Bernstein, "She Suffered in Plain Sight But
Alarms Were Ignored," The New York Times, Dec.24, 1995, p.1. Back to Text.
3. Joel J. Bellows, et. al., The Report of the
Independent Committee to Inquire into the Practices, Processes, and Proceedings
in the Juvenile Court as they Relate to the Joseph Wallace Cases, Oct. 1,
1993. Back to Text.
4. Governor's Child Protective Services Review Team,
Crisis in Children's Services, March, 1987, p.21 Back to Text.
5. Mary Lee Anderson, Program Manager for Child
Protective Services, State of North Carolina, in response to a survey from the
U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Children, Youth, and
Families, quoted in transcript of the Committee's hearing, March 3, 1987, p.4 Back to Text.
6. State of Florida Study Commission on Child Welfare, A
Survey of Florida's Child Protective Investigators, April, 1991, pp.10,28. Back to Text.
7. Keith Richards, Tender Mercies: Inside the World
of a Child Abuse Investigator (Chicago: The Noble Press/Child Welfare
League of America, 1992). Back to Text.