Blog note: this article references a 2015 grand jury report.
Child abuse includes physical, sexual, emotional and medical abuse, as well as neglect. Learn about signs, risk factors, how to get help. Wochit, Wochit
Riverside County on Tuesday released a seven-page report on its embattled Children's Services Division following a year-long investigation by an outside attorney.
Officials said the report details how the county is "enhancing and expanding safeguards to protect children from abuse and neglect." But outsiders said the brief document does not clearly establish how the county will prevent more of the abuse and neglect alleged in multiple legal cases over the last several years.
The Department of Public Social Services has seen significant leadership changes and mounting pressure to curb crimes against children and settlement costs. The investigation was announced soon after the department's former director, Susan Von Zabern, resigned in September 2018. The department has been hit with numerous civil cases claiming it failed to protect children from severe abuse, neglect and rape.
The seven-page reportcost the county $147,000. It identifies five "overarching complaint categories." While it states that the findings will serve as an "objective tool with which to enhance practices and policies that support its priority mission of protecting children from abuse and neglect," it offers few concrete examples of how the department will achieve this.
Sarah Mack, who has been director of DPSS since April, said in an interview that the report is one tool among many that the department has implemented to ensure that the safety of children remains the central priority.The Children's Services Division is part of DPSS.
"The goal of this department is to implement practices, policies and treatments long before there are incidences that result in a claim," Mack said. "Our priority is keeping children safe."
Mack said a longer version of the report was released internally to county leaders and that many details were not included in the public report because they relate to juvenile cases that are confidential by state law.
Roger Booth, a lawyer who has successfully sued DPSS on behalf of several child victims, called the report "awfully vague" and noted it focused only on legal cases that were filed, not on other forms of complaint or feedback. "The devil's always in the details," he said.
While Booth said he thinks there are some aspects of the report that indicate the department is taking a hard look at how it can improve, he said it does not establish a clear mechanism for ongoing accountability to the public in the future.
"It seems there’s an emphasis on how do we avoid getting sued in the future," Booth said. "I guess that only partially overlaps with how we protect kids."
Peggy Stewart, who works at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and teaches at USC's Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, agreed with Booth that there is not a framework to judge whether the report's findings will translate into lasting changes.
"What evidence do we have things are going to permanently change for the better?" she asked. "Did they hire more social workers? They're the ones doing the job."
Mack said that the department has hired more social workers, but did not provide an exact number.
"Social workers have a challenging job, they see trauma every day," Mack said. "The safety of children is our top priority, they come to work to protect the children of this county."
Legal cases cost county millions
For several years, the Children's Services Division has faced allegations that staff failed to adequately investigate claims of child abuse and neglect.
Several cases in both the criminal and civil departments of the Riverside County Superior Court have outlined these failures in grim detail:
- On Nov. 4, 2016, a 13-year-old girl gave birth to a child that DNA tests later determined was fathered by her mother’s live-in boyfriend, a man whom the victim had first reported began sexually assaulting her three years earlier. Deon Welch, the convicted rapist, has since been sentenced to 230 years in prison. A civil case filed on the victim's behalf settled for $10 million in November 2018.
- In another case, a victim was awarded nearly $1.4 million after DPSS staff failed to remove her from abject living conditions in which law enforcement later found her hugging the remains of her deceased infant sibling. The corpse was discovered by police after a neighbor reported a foul smell coming from the home.
- According to records released by a juvenile judge, Riverside County social workers received at least 10 reports that the Corona boy Noah McIntosh was abused and neglected by his father long before the boy went missing in March 2018. Bryce McIntosh has since been charged with Noah's murder.
For all its uncertainties, the new report establishes that the Children's Services Division will continue to work more closely with the Office of County Counsel — the department that handles Riverside County's civil cases.
When advocating for a new settlement protocol to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, county counsel revealed that settlement payouts related to DPSS have ballooned 55% since 2013, Last year DPSS was responsible for the most money paid out in civil settlements of any county department — $12.4 million of $28.2 million. The county counsel is also bracing for a heavier DPSS workload: Its current fiscal year budget request projects a 27% increase in juvenile dependency cases over the next year.
Five overarching complaint categories
Christie B. Swiss was hired by Riverside County to conduct a review of claims and lawsuits against the Children's Services Division made between 2008 and 2018. Swiss specializes in civil litigation and is a managing partner at the private law firm Collins, Collins, Muir and Stewart. Swiss said the report's objective "was to perform a root-cause analysis for CSD-related claims and lawsuits and institute actions resulting in safer and improved outcomes for children."
Swiss identified five trends among the claims made against DPSS over the past 10 years.
Wrongful removal: The most common type of claim made against the department was for wrongful removal of a child. Of the 38 claims of wrongful removal Swiss reviewed, 31 were conducted without a warrant, three were conducted with a warrant and four were unclear about whether a warrant was granted.
Of the 38 removals reviewed, the report notes that 34 occurred before 2015, when county counsel implemented a new warrant process. The report notes that county counsel made the change to "address issues in wrongful removal lawsuits," but provided no further details about what changed with the warrant process.
According to the report, Children's Services Division and county counsel better defined their roles and responsibilities, management meetings were "restructured," and training modules were "fully integrated." No further details about these changes were provided in the report.
Wrongful removal is the only claim type described in the report that includes any reference to social worker wrongdoing, but it provides no detail about what was done about the potential violations.
"The review identified 13 claims between 2008 and 2018 that alleged instances when social workers were purported to have violated practices, policies or procedures," the report reads.
Failure to remove, adequately investigate or respond to referrals alleging abuse or neglect: Documented concerns about Children's Services Division's ability to thoroughly investigate child abuse and neglect go back at least as far as a 2013 Grand Jury report that found substance abuse, domestic violence and general neglect in households where the department had previously closed investigations as unfounded or unsubstantiated.
Unlike many of the other categories, the report does not explicitly state how many claims in this category were reviewed. Swiss reports that in May 2019, the division started collaborating with The Casey Family Foundation on "audits of risk management cases." The report provides no details about how these audits are triggered, what they entail or what results from them.
Some of the department's most troubling cases have resulted from documented failures to remove children from abusive home environments and an inadequate investigation related to the suspected murder of Noah McIntosh.
According to the review of claims in this category, the report notes, the division implemented further "clarification of roles and responsibilities," more training, and better communication between "field social workers, supervisors and County Counsel."
Abuse or neglect in foster homes: The second most common claim against the county was for abuse or neglect in the foster care system — Swiss reviewed 25 such claims during the investigation.
The report provides no details about patterns of abuse in foster homes or any concerns about the quality and safety of foster care in Riverside County. The report did note that the division is strengthening its contracts with "foster family agencies to ensure supervision and compliance with policies and best practices for children in their care." No further details were provided about what this means.
Additionally, the report notes that managers were reminded of their responsibilities, but no detail was provided about which managers or what responsibilities.
"In June and July 2019, at documented leadership meetings, managers were informed of their responsibility to monitor both timely and quality contact requirements," the report reads.
Medical exam of child without parent consent or presence: According to recent court cases in federal and state court, parents have a right to be told and in many cases to be present when their children receive medical attention.
Both the division and county counsel, the report notes, are updating "policies, procedures and trainings to reflect" the law as interpreted by two cases that establish the rights of parents during medical examinations.
The report notes that four claims were reviewed which involved a social worker seeking a medical examination without the permission of a parent or the opportunity for the parent to be present, but no further details were provided.
Interview of a child without parent consent or presence: Swiss reviewed five claims that included allegations that social workers interviewed a child without parental consent or presence.
The report notes that policies, procedures and training are being updated to reflect the law as it relates to social worker interviews of children. In this case, details were provided about how social workers and managers are to ensure they are documenting a "reasonable suspicion of abuse" when visiting a child at school pursuant to Penal Code 11174.3, California's Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act.
County departments work more closely
The report is clear on one point: The division and county counsel will work together more closely in the future. County counsel said as much in the current fiscal year budget projections, noting that one-third of their attorney staffing is "dedicated to child safety and welfare."
While they handled 1,353 juvenile dependency cases in 2017 fiscal year, they are expecting 1,767 in the current fiscal year. And they are preparing to litigate 216 cases, a 20% increase from last year.
DPSS spokesperson Gene Kennedy said county counsel supports DPSS in a number of ways and the counsel's projected increases in cases do not mean an increase in "cases alleging wrongdoing."
While the report makes no mention of the county's new risk management protocol, county counsel's increased role in the day-to-day work of DPSS, as outlined by the report, is in line with the new county effort to rein in spending on civil settlements.
The county recently established a new risk management committee that will attempt to hold departments, like DPSS, responsible for paying settlements out of their department budgets if they do not fix their faulty policies or lack of training.
Brooke Federico, a spokesperson for the county, said the new risk management protocol was approved to "create a more aggressive approach to handling claims." If a claim has a potential cost greater than $50,000, the new committee will notify the department of "corrective actions" to address the problem.
"Costs associated with the claim will now only be paid from an appropriate insurance fund once corrective actions are taken by the department," Federico said by email. "Without corrective actions, claim costs will impact the department’s operating budget."
To Federico, the committee represents a new county investment in preventing future claims, one that is rooted in the Board of Supervisors' responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer money.
When asked by The Desert Sun about the new risk management protocol, a spokesperson for Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, who represents the Coachella Valley in Riverside County government, said: "The county’s new risk management controls are aimed at driving down legal costs and reducing the county’s future exposure to lawsuits."
October 3, 2019
Palm Springs Desert Sun
By Christopher Damien
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