How Could You? Hall of Shame-Foster Care Infant case-Child Death

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Mississippi, “an infant in foster care died five days after arriving in a home that caseworkers had never inspected, according to a court monitor’s report.”

“The report highlights severe weaknesses that remain in Mississippi’s foster care program despite federal court orders requiring the state to meet certain guidelines.

“The sense that you get from what the court monitor thinks is things are going backward, not forward,” said Wayne Drinkwater, an attorney who represented the eight child plaintiffs in the Olivia Y suit. “The number of children in foster care is getting bigger, and there are no adequate resources to deal with this. The state hasn’t put resources into effect. It’s a very depressing and sad chapter in our state’s history.”

According to the report, the Division of Family and Children’s Services continues to miss standards that would ensure the safety of children in custody, putting children at risk.

“I think the big question is how can the state tolerate this, and how can the taxpayers of the state tolerate this?” said Marcia Robinson Lowry, lead attorney for Olivia Y. “It doesn’t save money to run a dysfunctional system, and it harms children.”

The Olivia Y lawsuit, filed in 2004, argued the state failed to protect children in foster care. The state has never complied with terms marked out in a settlement that was reached in 2008.

David Chandler, a former state Supreme Court justice who was appointed as executive director of DFCS last month, said he hadn’t yet read the report but the agency is concerned about its contents.

“We are very, very concerned about some of the statements in the report, but we acknowledge the agency has not always done what was required of it, and I think that is one reason the governor has asked I come on board, to make sure the precious children of our state are getting the care, attention and proper treatment they so rightly deserve.”

Last year, a baby identified as “CD” died while sleeping in the same bed as the infant’s foster parent, according to a report analyzing the incident. One of the foster parent’s biological children had died under similar circumstances, the report said, and two sibling groups had already been removed from the home because of reports of maltreatment.

The report suggests DFCS employees failed to adequately investigate the foster parents’ backgrounds before placing the child in their home. Caseworkers had never collected information on the foster mother’s unemployment, the medications she took and failed to learn she had been arrested and convicted of a crime until an investigation into the child’s death, records show.

The foster parents also didn’t receive required training before gaining custody of the child, and the infant didn’t have a medical screening within 72 hours of entering state custody, a DFCS-mandated policy.

“Almost everything that should have happened didn’t happen,” Lowry said. “No one was paying attention to if those policies were in fact happening, and the lives of children are at stake here.”

Records related to the case were incomplete and contained conflicting information, shortcomings the court monitor wrote were “not unusual” for DFCS case records.

“Notwithstanding these findings, it is important to recognize that there are many talented and committed DFCS caseworkers and supervisors who labor under enormous challenges to make critical decisions that affect families at their core,” the court monitor wrote. “The defendants must ensure that this workforce is appropriately trained, managed and supported, and that it has manageable workloads.”

After Olivia Y was settled, a court order was issued, and when the state failed to comply, the court order was renegotiated but with little impact to the system.

“Every step of the way, they demonstrated a lack of concern about vulnerable children,” Lowry said. “It’s not a new situation. It’s something the state has known about for at least eight years, and it’s doing nothing about it.”

Chandler believes state leaders are finally ready to make changes to bring the system into compliance.

“It really is a different day,” he said. “Gov. (Phil) Bryant is focused on this thing, and the legislative leadership is. Just trust them. I do. I completely trust them. … The Legislature is going to take care of our children.”

If the state fails to meet the requirements outlined in the court order, attorneys plan to request a judge to appoint a receiver of the foster care system, Lowry said, a decision that would transfer control from the state to federal court. Only one other foster care system in the country — the District of Columbia’s — has been placed under a receivership, she said.

Bryant was unavailable for comment, but spokesman Knox Graham wrote in a statement: “The governor understands that the system is broken and that drastic improvement must be made to avoid federal takeover. Justice Chandler and Gov. Bryant will work tirelessly to ensure Mississippi’s foster children receive the best care and comfort. They deserve nothing less.”

Even as the number of children in state custody has risen, the foster care system hasn’t had enough caseworkers or licensed foster homes, the report said. Turnover is high, and employees experience high stress and large caseloads.

“I think there have been inadequate resources given to the system,” Drinkwater said. “The governor recognizes that our state has not given sufficient resources to run this system.”

A court order requires the state to raise compensation for DFCS caseworkers and supervisors to that of staff from other agencies and to analyze the size of their caseloads.

Chandler said his agency will request the Legislature appropriate $34.5 million to DFCS to increase compensation for his employees. A entry-level social worker earns about $3,000 less than at comparable positions in other state agencies, he said.

“We have another court date May 15, and the federal judge will look very carefully at what we have done since the order was filed, what the Legislature has done, and it’s up to him as to how he rules,” Chandler said. “But we will present all the evidence we have that we’re working to comply with his order, and a big part of that is legislative funding.”

Another requirement of the court order is to increase the number of foster homes. Chandler said that on Thursday he ordered staff to process a backlog of about 1,500 foster parent applications, some of which date back a year.”

Infant death cited as another foster care failing[The Clarion Ledger 1/7/16 by Mollie Bryant]

REFORM Puzzle Piece