No deaths, but near-fatalities appear in Washington, County CYS statistics
State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, in releasing county-by-county statistics on child protection, said when introducing the report, “Forty children died from abuse or neglect in 2017. Forty children,” he repeated. “That’s six fewer deaths than in 2016, but we are talking about children’s lives here. If even one child dies, it’s too many.
“What’s terrifying to me is that although more children were identified as victims and brought into the system in 2017, more children also nearly died. If that’s not the definition of broken, I don’t know what is.”
In Greene County, there was one near-fatality investigated in 2017, and another in 2016. Statewide there were 46 child fatalities in 2016 and the aforementioned 40 in 2017.
Greene County Director of Children and Youth Services Stacey Courtwright could not discuss details involving the incidents, but she could provide general information about the two near-fatalities the agency saw.
In both cases, CYS is still involved and no criminal charges were filed, Courtwright said. Near-fatalities trigger more stringent requirements, such as meeting with all those possibly involved in the child’s life to determine the best steps for moving forward.
Near-fatalities are often reported by a hospital, and do not necessarily automatically rise to the level of a substantiated report.
Washington County had no near-fatality child victims in 2017, and one in 2016. Kimberly Rogers and Carrie LaVecchia, Washington County’s director of Children and Youth Services and deputy director, respectively, explained the category is applied when a medical provider certifies a child is in critical condition due to neglect or lack of supervision and there is an allegation of maltreatment.
They gave as examples a child getting into a parent’s medication and ingesting it; a fall from a second-story window resulting in significant injuries; or a swimming pool near-drowning.
There were 79 near-fatalities statewide in 2016 and 88 in 2017.
When faced with the sobering statistics, Rogers called them, “The perfect storm, right? The laws changed, the drug epidemic hit us. … Where are our qualified, trained staff that want to work in these dangerous positions in child welfare?
“We all have staff retention problems across the state.”
Turnover among caseworkers happens in less than six months, Rogers said, because those starting out in the field often do not have a real sense of true-life situations.
“You actually walk into peoples’ homes – by yourself – and interview kids about possibility being victims of abuse or neglect,” Rogers said. “It’s much more than what you’re given in school, probably.”
She gave as an example a social worker having to watch a client produce urine to be screened for potential drug or alcohol abuse.
The amount of paperwork can also be daunting, sometimes 50 to 60 allegations in one case.
There is a pilot program for streamlining the state’s database, and gaining the ability to obtain electronic signatures for documents known as a “plan for a family,” which Rogers said is basically, “What does it take for us to get out of your life?”
If caseworkers can make plans in the field and obtain electronic signatures while they’re there, parents won’t have to make a special trip to Washington to sign paperwork.
Courtwright said the overall numbers have leveled off since changes in standards several years ago resulted in a significant spike in abuse reports.
“It tells us, because it hasn’t really fluctuated a whole lot, we’ve kind of leveled off.”
In 2017, Greene County received 201 reports of child abuse, 20 of which were substantiated. Courtwright also emphasized that just because a report is considered unfounded does not mean her agency is not still involved or that abuse did not happen, just that there may not be enough evidence or information to rise to the level of substantiation.
Of the 20 substantiated child abuse reports, there were 27 total allegations. A report may have more than one allegation involved.
Spending in the agency is on par with the previous year, though Courtwright said placements with foster families are on the rise.
“We obviously continue to increase our numbers,” she said.
Reports that do not rise to the level of abuse, such as risky parent behavior or other actions that might put a child at risk, are general protective services reports. These reports are assessed, not investigated, whether they are valid or not. Greene County received 955 of those calls in 2017, 194 of which were considered valid, with 273 children assessed and 391 different allegations. Courtwright said those numbers are on par with prior years.
Of the almost 400 allegations, 119 of those involved some type of parental drug abuse. Courtwright expects those numbers to rise in the coming year.
“I don’t expect the number of reports to go down anytime soon,” she said.
In the wake of the Jerry Sandusky trial, when allegations about the Washington native’s sexual abuse of teens and who in the Penn State hierarchy knew or should have known about the situation were splashed on front pages across the United States, the state Legislature passed and amended a raft of laws dealing with mandatory reporting.
The legislation expanded the basic definition of child abuse, vastly broadening the scope of problems that allowed authorities to intervene.
The state’s Child Line hotline to report suspected cases of abuse or neglect was set up in 1975, but in an audit released in 2016, DePasquale revealed many calls were unanswered or not being forwarded to county agencies that handle the bulk of these complaints.