Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 3, 1995 TAG: 9509050012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Barbara Bryan has been trying to change Virginia's system of handling child-abuse complaints for more than a decade.
She was accused in 1983 of neglecting her three teen-age sons, who were suffering from chronic exhaustion. Child Protective Services - created by the General Assembly 20 years ago to investigate claims of child abuse and neglect - restricted her contact with her sons for 76 days, lifting it only after it was proved that their condition was not caused by neglect, but a combination of genetics and medical factors.
"You are never the same person," said Bryan, of Roanoke. "You never again think the same about your responsibilities and obligations to your children. And you never think of your government the same way."
Nothing would please her more than a total dismantling of the Child Protective Services system.
"It doesn't make any difference how [a complaint] gets started - a teacher, a mixed-up social worker, a vindictive spouse," Bryan said. "When you're on the track of a flawed process, there's no way you can have a correct result."
She has parlayed her anger into work as communications director for the Ohio-based National Child Abuse Defense & Resource Center. From her home in Southwest Roanoke, she advances her charge that the system doesn't work - in saving children, in preserving families, but particularly for the accused.
Bryan is not alone. From all corners of the state, critics are coming forward with complaints that Virginia's Child Protective Services system has reversed the judicial premise that the accused is innocent until proven guilty.
Now, it seems, someone is listening.
A joint legislative subcommittee and a committee of the state Board of Social Services have been conducting separate but parallel studies of the state's Child Protective Services system.
The legislative panel convened in May to address what could be done about false child-abuse allegations, particularly those in divorce and child custody cases. Since late last year, the state board committee has been trying to gauge the system's strengths and weaknesses.
Both will make recommendations for the 1996 General Assembly.
"I was concerned about the Child Protective Services appeals process, where we have the opposite of what people consider American justice," said Del. Alan Mayer, D-Fairfax County, who chairs the legislative panel. "Once you are accused and you have a 'founded' complaint by Child Protective Services, you are guilty of child abuse. Then, according to CPS doctrine, you are assumed guilty until you prove self-innocence."
Mayer introduced legislation in 1994 to bring more due process into the Child Protective Services system, allowing a more open process for the accused when appealing an abuse or neglect complaint. The bill was carried over to the 1995 session, where it passed. An accompanying resolution established the subcommittee.
Mayer's bill was prompted by a constituent, a lawyer, who had defended someone falsely accused of child abuse.
"He pointed out to me the flaws in the system," Mayer said. "We want to try to bring more due process."
The panel held four public hearings across the state this summer. The fourth was held Wednesday in Roanoke.
Throughout, people have come forward with stories of unpleasant dealings with Child Protective Services. But "for the most part, people have said that this is a concept that needs to continue," said Sen. Jane Woods, R-Fairfax, a member of the legislative panel. "You need, with any system, to take a look at it and evaluate how it's working - in a systemic way as opposed to an amendment here and there."
But changing the system requires a delicate balancing act, said Phillip Jones, who chairs the state board committee.
Parents losing children "is repugnant and scary. It couldn't be more frightening," he said. "But equally frightening is the specter of an abused child going unprotected."
Abolition of Child Protective Services is not likely. But what may come out of the committees' work is the creation of a "two-tiered" system, where criminal types of complaints are separated from those where people simply need basic parenting skills.
Currently, all complaints are investigated. The names of people involved in complaints deemed "founded" - where there is evidence abuse has occurred - go into the central registry, a kind of bank of accused child abusers. The registry is used, in part, by schools and day-care centers to screen people who work with children.
Those complaints deemed "unfounded" are wiped from the system, even though some intervention may have been needed. Intervention in those cases has been difficult since a Virginia Court of Appeals ruling earlier this year struck down the "reason to suspect" category of child-abuse cases. That category included incidents where a caseworker suspected child abuse or neglect, lacked strong evidence to prove it, but maintained a record of it and prescribed some help.
The legislative subcommittee is looking closely at several states that have introduced "two-tier" approaches to handling child-abuse complaints.
South Dakota has been using such an approach in five localities, and is preparing to take it statewide Oct. 1. The approach is fairly simple: child-abuse or neglect complaints will be referred for either an investigation or what is called a "family assessment."
An investigation will be conducted on a complaint when a child is in immediate, life-threatening danger. If not, a complaint will be assigned for a family assessment, a method of helping families address problems that "may represent poor parenting skills or issues that may affect the safety of a child but don't need to be labeled abusive," said Judy Hines, program administrator of Child Protective Services in the South Dakota Department of Social Services.
"We think it has great potential in providing services in a less punitive way than is generally offered in an investigation," Hines said. "One size fits all didn't seem appropriate any longer."
Judy Brown, supervisor of the Roanoke Department of Social Services' Child Protective Services unit, said there are possibilities for improving Virginia's system. One is changing how names get into the central registry.
"People who deliberately and willfully neglect and abuse children need to be put in the registry," Brown said. "But there are a lot of circumstances where parents just make bad judgments, irresponsible or immature decisions, and they need some services and some help."
What has spawned the movement toward protecting the rights of the accused and cracking down on false allegations?
"I think there are enough people in the state who have complained about unfounded complaints causing problems in their families," Brown said. "What they're saying is that they've been treated unfairly and unjustly. That has caused enough ruckus to call some attention to the situation.
"We do need to be aware of people's rights," she said. "But I don't think adults' rights should overshadow protecting children."
by CNB