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
No comments:
Post a Comment