THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411190206
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
``The public doesn't know the facts,'' Social Services Director Daniel M. Stone says. ``My agency knows the facts.''
That's a pronouncement which the public has heard before from social-service agencies nationwide and must take largely on faith, since confidentiality prevails. But not wholly on faith: Of 450,000 children in foster care nationwide, 6,200 of them in Virginia, hopeful judgments about parents' readiness to have them home prove tragically wrong in relatively few instances. Yet enough tragedies occur to make a reference to ``facts'' which the public can't know unlikely to ease its apprehension and confusion about Social Service guidelines.
The latest specific case of public concern is an infant who was hospitalized because he'd been inadequately fed and whom Social Services placed in foster care on release from the hospital. Last month, Social Services returned the baby to his parents. They are scheduled for trial in January on charges, brought last May, of felony child neglect. Both prosecutors and the court-appointed guardian for the baby have protested his return to his parents.
The general public concern is that social-service professionals put too much stock in their ability to transform into re-spon-si-ble, trustworthy parents adults whose parenting has been not just demonstrably poor but dangerous to their children. Preserving families is a fine goal. What, however, are the guidelines for deciding when preservation isn't compatible with protecting children? A Beach mother has gone to jail for using a box in a closet to discipline her 4-year-old daughter. By whose standards - Social Services'? Courts'? The public's? - is that a greater or lesser offense than failing to nourish an infant?
Social Services has a difficult job, and second-guessing the professionals' decisions is part of the difficulty. But by sharing what information they can, they can educate the public - maybe even learn something themselves. Social Services can live with public questions about its decisions. The goal, after all, is ensuring that children can live with them, too.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SOCIAL SERVICES
by CNB