Saturday, July 2, 2016

San Bernardino County Grand Jury releases scathing report on child welfare system

San Bernardino County’s child welfare system is rife with systemic failures, including shoddy documentation practices, a communication breakdown between social workers and law enforcement that thwarts child abuse investigations, and a reluctance by social workers to remove children from abusive homes, according to grand jury findings.
In its annual report released Friday, the San Bernardino County Grand Jury suggested 14 changes in the Department of Children and Family Services after a yearlong investigation revealed disturbing practices resulting in the death of children in some cases.
“We appreciate the findings and recommendations made by the grand jury,” said Marlene Hagen, director of Children and Family Services, in an email Friday. “The county will review the report and implement any suggestions that we think might lead to better outcomes for children and families in San Bernardino County.”
The grand jury’s findings come a week after state Attorney General Kamala Harris announced her office had launched its own investigation into the department based on similar allegations. It was unclear if the two were connected. Attorney General spokeswoman Rachele Huennekens could not be reached for comment.
RECORDING INTERVIEWS
The grand jury found CFS did not record interviews with clients due to confidentiality and out of concern it would be intimidating to the clients.
When the grand jury raised the question as to whether that could create problems with conflicting testimony at juvenile dependency hearings, CFS was still “uniformly opposed to the idea of tape-recording client interviews.”
The grand jury recommended this change.
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Among the grand jury’s most serious findings were that social workers and law enforcement appear to be on completely different pages when investigating allegations of child abuse. CFS does not immediately provide case documents to police upon request. Instead, the reports are sent to County Counsel for review before being released to police, and when they are released, they are redacted, hindering criminal investigations.
Hagen said seldom are CFS documents redacted before they are provided to law enforcement.
“The release of records to law enforcement is very routine, and only on very rare occasions does the law require the redaction of information other than social security numbers,” Hagen said in an email.
Additionally, social workers, the grand jury found, do not always coordinate with police when responding to reports of child neglect or abuse and often make contact with victims on site, before police arrive.
“If the person of interest is first contacted by CFS concerning the allegations, the individual will generally not be cooperative with law enforcement officers,” according to the grand jury report.
Police officers, the report states, told the grand jury social workers are reluctant to remove abused children from their homes because CFS prefers keeping families unified, whereas police are intent on arresting individuals suspected of child abuse. Social workers also frequently do not return phone calls from law enforcement officials, and they often will not inform police where a suspected abused child is located, which also delays investigations.
At the Children’s Assessment Center in San Bernardino, where children suspected of being abused are taken for interviews, CFS does not always inform police of the scheduled interview. And if a detective does not show for the interview, it is canceled, which sometimes leads to social workers closing potential criminal cases without notifying police.
Hagen said a social worker does not have the authority to close a case, only a juvenile dependency judge.
“Termination of juvenile court jurisdiction does not stop law enforcement from continuing their ongoing investigations,” Hagen said. “Communication with law enforcement is critical to CFS investigations, which is why regular meetings are held with law enforcement to discuss and address any issues that may arise.”
The grand jury also noted a significant delay in CFS producing documents it had requested.
Interviews with CFS management also revealed that social workers who had observed a parent under the influence of drugs or alcohol did “not necessarily” notify law enforcement or remove the child from the home. While social workers are trained to identify parents who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, they are not furnished instant test kits to validate suspicions that the parents are under the influence, according to the grand jury report.
MORE TRAINING SUGGESTED
Other issues raised in the report included the grand jury’s difficulty in obtaining documents for its investigation and more training for social workers in report writing, risk assessment, as well as coaching, mentoring and training for new social workers from a new CFS position — the senior social service practitioner.
High employee turnover and high social worker caseloads at CFS were other major issues cited by the grand jury. It visited three CFS field offices and found caseloads averaging between 30-45, 42-43 and 55-60. The Child Welfare League of America recommends caseworkers handle no more than 12 to 17 cases, according to the grand jury.
July 1, 2016
San Bernardino Sun
By Joe Nelson


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