Changes to Kentucky Child Protection System UPDATED

We have covered the Kentucky DCF woes for almost one year. See our previous post here.

Now, “[l]awmakers are proposing changes to the state’s child-protection system during the 2012 legislative session, prompted by recent news stories about child-abuse deaths, including that of Amy Dye, the 9-year-old Western Kentucky girl fatally beaten in February by her adoptive brother.

Rep. Tom Burch, a Louisville Democrat and chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee, said he is seeking ways to provide more information to the public about how the Cabinet for Health and Family Services protects children.

“I want more transparency,” said Burch, who plans several hearings on the topic. “Kentuckians can accept the truth and live with it.”

Kentucky Youth Advocates plans to hold a “Summit to End Child Abuse Deaths” Jan. 14 to gather more ideas for lawmakers. Terry Brooks, executive director of the organization, said the meeting of legislators, judges, medical experts, law enforcement, state officials and others is designed to come up with specific suggestions.

“We think the child-fatality issue is going to have to be addressed in a comprehensive and immediate way,” Brooks said.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has ruled the cabinet must disclose records in cases where children die or are seriously injured from abuse or neglect. Records that he recently ordered released involving Amy Dye prompted outrage among some lawmakers after they revealed the cabinet had dismissed multiple reports from Todd County school officials that the girl was suffering abuse.

Several lawmakers, including Sen. Joey Pendleton, a Hopkinsville Democrat whose district includes Todd County, expressed concern at a legislative hearing last month that the system had failed the girl.

“It’s going to fail another child if we don’t do something,” Pendleton said. “We don’t need another Amy Dye anywhere.”

Sen. Julie Denton, a Louisville Republican and chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, said she plans to file a bill that would restructure the way the cabinet secretary and top commissioners are hired, requiring a national search for top officials, rather than the current system where the governor appoints them.

Denton said she is still working on her bill, but she wants it passed in the 2012 session.

“We cannot delay in making changes,” she said. “This has got to be a professionally run cabinet. It cannot be a bunch of political appointees.”

Seeking more outside oversight of child deaths, Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, said she plans to file a bill to create a panel to investigate child fatalities and try to accurately identify and account for those that result from abuse or neglect. The panel of medical experts, law enforcement officials and others would be overseen by the state attorney general’s office and operate independent of the cabinet.

A similar bill died in the House last year after an anti-abortion lawmaker attempted to add language from a failed bill that would require women seeking abortions to be shown ultrasound images of the fetus. Westrom said she hopes to persuade lawmakers to resist efforts to attach such amendments to her proposal this time.

Some child-advocacy organizations, including the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths, argue that as many as half of all child-abuse deaths aren’t counted — improperly classified as accidents, natural deaths or from other causes.

Several lawmakers on the joint House-Senate Health and Welfare Committee that met last month to review Kentucky’s annual report on child-abuse deaths were surprised to learn the cabinet didn’t count Amy Dye’s because she was killed by a sibling rather than a parent or guardian.

“I thought it was the most ludicrous thing I had ever heard of,” Westrom said.

In ruling to release records of Amy’s case, Shepherd found cabinet officials had misinterpreted state law, which they argued limits child-protection officials to investigating abuse only by a parent, guardian or other person exercising custodial control. Cabinet records “show in brutal detail that Amy Dye’s death was a direct result of child abuse or neglect,” Shepherd wrote in his Nov.7 order.

“To be clear, a parent need not administer the fatal blow in order to be held responsible for abuse and neglect,’ Shepherd said.

Westrom said that to clear up any confusion on that point, she will file a bill specifying the cabinet is responsible for investigating all cases of suspected child abuse or neglect by any household members — including siblings or other adults in the home, such as the live-in boyfriend of the mother.

Westrom said she also plans to propose a bill to open the state’s now-closed family courts to the public, a measure has been supported by Jefferson County’s family court judges in the past. Though a similar measure has failed in a previous session, Westrom said she believes it has growing support amid the increased public attention on child abuse and neglect — which are among the confidential cases heard in family court.

“I think we’ve got the best chance we’ve ever had to get this passed,” Westrom said.

Also, Rep. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington, has filed a measure meant to prevent youths accused of noncriminal offenses from ending up in state juvenile detention centers. The Courier-Journal reported this month that Kentucky has one of the nation’s highest rates of jailing youths for status offenses — acts that would not be a violation for an adult, such as truancy or running away.

Children usually wind up in detention for violating a judge’s order — such as to stop running away or to attend school. Flood’s bill would require officials filing status-offense petitions to provide more details about a child’s situation and what attempts have been made to resolve it.

It also would limit the length of court orders, which now can last until a youth turns 18. And it would require a judge seeking to jail a status offender to hold a hearing where the child is represented by a lawyer.

Source: “2012 LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW; Child protection due changes” Louisville Courier-Journal 12/31/11 by Deborah Yetter

REFORM Puzzle Piece

The accountability is related to better training of social service workers, better screening of foster parents as well as tracking abuses and deaths.

Update: “The Summit to End Child Abuse Deaths, put on by Kentucky Youth Advocates, will send a letter to the General Assembly of their top four changes that legislators can make to improve child neglect, abuse and deaths. The other three are:
 Increase funds for proven and effective services such court appointed advocates, substance abuse programs, in-home services and parent advocate programs;
 Increase funds for additional Cabinet social workers and support.
 Improve the system of collaboration among agencies involved in the child welfare system.”

“Budget problems have hurt child protection efforts. Cabinet Secretary Janie Miller said the Cabinet’s budget had been cut by $80 million in the past four years. The KYA has estimated that child deaths and near deaths in Kentucky rose 39 percent between 2006 and 2009. At the same time, there are 125 fewer front-line social workers statewide.

Legislators at Saturday’s meeting outlined the difficult relationship between the Cabinet and legislators, which makes it difficult to get good information.

“Instead of lies, we need leadership,” said Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, who chairs the Senate Health and Education Committee. Denton last month asked for Miller’s resignation.

Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, chairwoman of the House Health and Welfare Committee, is sponsoring legislation on death reviews, along with a pilot program to open court proceedings.

“We have a perfect storm. This is the only year I have seen that we can make a difference,” Westrom said.

Miller attended the meeting briefly, praising the collaboration on the topic and the difficulty created by the Cabinet’s losing $80 million in funding in the past four years.
The Cabinet has requested about $10.8 million in FY 13 and $9.9 million in increased General Funds for 300 additional positions in the Department for Community Based Services. Ninety-one of those positions would be for front-line child and adult protective services workers in Protection and Permanency.

The remaining funds would be used to fund the family support side of DCBS, which provides support for Medicaid eligibility, TANF, SNAP, LIHEAP and other programs that promote self-sufficiency and provide basic essential services for families and children in need.   After her speech, Miller declined to comment on newspapers’ lawsuits.

“What’s discouraging to me is when the  focus on this discussion is personalized instead of it being a real discussion of what actual practices we need to have to prevent child fatalities,” Miller said.
Chris Bruggman, a social worker in Louisville, said Saturday’s discussion could help Kentucky’s poor outcomes when it comes to child fatalities.

“If Rick Pitino or John Calipari had these outcomes, they’d be fired,” he said. “That’s because we value sports, but we don’t value families or keeping families together.”

Patricia Estes, a Cabinet social worker in Paducah, said social workers across the state are terribly stressed with issues of trying to help children while keeping up with required paperwork.

As to the current debate over transparency, Estes said: “Secrets make us sick. I have nothing to hide. I would like nothing more than for the public to know what we do and how we do it. There needs to be a reckoning.”

Summit on child abuse deaths recommends more transparency from Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
[Lexington Herald-Leader 1/15/12 by Linda B. Blackford]

“State child-protection workers applauded Gov. Steve Beshear for requesting an additional $21 million to hire more front-line social workers in his budget but told lawmakers Wednesday that more needs to be done to improve morale and working conditions.

“They are the most honorable, hard-working people I know and they are breaking down,” said Patricia Preg liasco, who works in child protection in Jefferson County. “Workers are leaving or trying to leave every day.”

Jefferson County child protection workers told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that additional staff would help with high case loads — which they said are inching past 50 per worker.

The workers also said they are toiling under hostile work conditions and are being reprimanded and demoted for failing to close old investigations of child abuse and neglect, yet are being asked to investigate new cases.

On top of that, they are frequently told that because of budget constraints there is no overtime available. If they take their work home and try to complete it, they are reprimanded again, social workers told the committee.

As part of his budget proposal, Beshear asked for $21 million over two years to hire 300 additional social workers — about 100 of those positions would be for child-protection workers. The remaining positions would go to other parts of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services that also have seen increasing caseloads.

Beshear announced his proposal Tuesday night during his budget address. The legislature has until mid-April to pass a two-year budget.

Pregliasco praised the move but said Jefferson County alone needs an additional 30 social workers to bring it to the same staffing level of five years ago.

Teresa James, acting commissioner of the Department for Community Based Services, which oversees child protection, said caseloads for child-protection workers have gone up as the department lost $80 million during the past four years because of budget cuts.

Beshear has said that the average worker caseload is now 20 and that he hoped hiring additional staff would bring that number down to 18.

But Pregliasco and other social workers said they know of no one who has only 20 cases.

James said the state does use some social workers who are administrators when it averages the caseload per worker. James said the cabinet also does not count overdue cases — or cases that should be closed — when it calculates caseloads.

Republican Sen. Julie Denton of Louisville, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, asked that James provide the committee with an average caseload number that includes overdue cases and excludes workers who do not have cases.

“If the workers are getting written up on past dues, we need to understand that, especially when we’re working on the budget,” Denton said. “… We need more money for front-line workers.”

James also said cabinet leaders have never told regional supervisors that they cannot authorize overtime. However, overtime does need to be approved in advance, she said.

Pregliasco said overdue cases are causing social workers to be demoted or reprimanded. Those cases should be counted in total workload, she said.

Tamara Williams, a child-protection worker assigned to investigations in Jefferson County, said after Wednesday’s meeting that she was demoted five pay grades, to a clerical support clerk, because she got behind in closing old investigations. She is appealing the disciplinary measure, she said.

“But the cabinet continues to subpoena me to testify in court hearings,” she said.

Williams said she was working on 30 to 40 cases at a time. “There is no human person who can keep up with it,” she said.

Social workers said they have been intimidated by regional supervisors and told that they cannot speak out about working conditions in Jefferson County.

Denton said she wanted social workers to work in an atmosphere that is “empowering rather than intimidating.”

James agreed to meet with Jefferson County social workers to discuss the problems and possible solutions to lessen the workload. Denton said James also has said she wanted to know which supervisors were trying to intimidate social workers.  ”

Kentucky child-protection workers describe hostile work environment
[Lexington Herald-Leader 1/19/12 by Beth Musgrave]

Update 2: “Governor Steve Beshear today issued an executive order to establish the Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel. The independent, multi-disciplinary panel will conduct comprehensive reviews of child fatalities and near fatalities that are determined to be the result of child abuse or neglect.”

“The independent 17-member panel will be attached to the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet for staff and administrative purposes, and will be composed of a wide range of experts and stakeholders including those of law enforcement and social services, and representatives of all three branches of state government.  Those members who are not serving by virtue of their office are selected for service by external peer committees or by the Attorney General.

Members will meet quarterly to review official records, case files, or information relating to child fatalities or near fatalities and analyze the medical, psychosocial and legal circumstances of the child to identify conditions that contributed to the death or serious injury.  The panel will recommend improvements to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) and to any other public or private agencies involved with the family relating to protocols, practice, training or other protections to keep children safe.

The panel will also publish an annual report of case reviews, findings and recommendations that will be submitted to the Governor, the CHFS Secretary, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the General Assembly and will be available to the public on the websites of both the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and CHFS.”

“Gov. Beshear also announced today that he has directed CHFS to provide to the Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader the remaining child fatality and near fatality records that have been the subject of ongoing litigation between the newspapers and the Cabinet.

Those records include the case files for all child fatalities and near fatalities that occurred during calendar years 2009-2010 in which criminal charges are not pending or findings of abuse are not on appeal.

The Cabinet has already released about 76 of the approximately 140 case records from that time period. An estimated 43 case files will be released to the newspapers today.  Other cases still have pending court action and will be released after they have been adjudicated.

Despite reports to the contrary, these records and those released prior to today have never redacted or excluded any information about CHFS employees.  All names and actions by the employees involved in these cases have been available to the media and the general public, and they will remain open to public review.  This information must be open to the public, says CHFS Secretary Audrey Tayse Haynes, so the Cabinet as well as the public can evaluate the actions taken by the state.

“There remain many misconceptions among the general public as to why the Cabinet and the newspapers are in court. Simply stated, we disagree on how much personal information about the children and private individuals included in caseworker files should be made public,” said Sec. Haynes. “The Cabinet has sought to protect the innocent parties involved in these cases—some of whom are still grieving the loss of a child, sibling or grandchild.”

“We have also protected the identities of those who step forward to report abuse or neglect, as the law requires, a safeguard essential to ensuring that reports will continue to be made,” Sec. Haynes continued.  “At no time since the Cabinet began releasing these case files last year, has the Cabinet attempted to protect the identity of our staff who worked these cases nor has the Cabinet concealed the actions of our workers. That information has consistently been provided in full to the public.”

Kentucky governor creates panel to review child fatality

[Examiner 7/16/12 by Thomas McAdam]

Update 3: “A bill that would permanently establish a 20-member independent panel to review deaths and critical injuries of abused and neglected children won approval Friday from the Democrat-led House.

House Bill 290, which now heads to the Republican-led Senate, would establish a panel of experts to review social worker case files and other information about children killed or nearly killed from abuse or neglect.

The panel would be attached to the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and would make annual recommendations on how to improve Kentucky’s child protection system.

State Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, told House members on Friday that the bill will allow more oversight and transparency of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees child protection in Kentucky. The House voted 96-0 to pass HB 290.

The Kentucky Press Association, of which the Lexington Herald-Leader is a member, has opposed the measure, saying it would allow the panel to conduct its meetings in secret and would exempt all of its records from the state’s Open Records Act.

[Kentucky.com 2/22/13 by Beth Musgrave]