THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 15, 1995 TAG: 9507150340
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
The city's Department of Social Services generally does a good job of protecting endangered children, but the agency has made mistakes and should change several of its practices to help avoid future problems. That's the conclusion of a review committee in a report released by the city Friday.
The panel's three-month study was spurred largely by the agency's handling of three highly publicized cases in recent years. Critics complained that the department failed to safeguard the children in those cases.
The state-appointed committee, formed after the agency's director sought an outside review, agreed. It called the three cases ``symptomatic of issues that appeared in other cases or interviews.''
In the first case, the panel said that the agency's decision to place a child with a foster parent who had been convicted of felony sex abuse was ``a serious violation of state standards.''
``There was no justification for that action,'' the report said.
In the second case, the report said the agency erred by not immediately obeying a judge's order to investigate an allegation of child abuse. The girl in question was found two months later to have been disciplined by being locked in a box-like setup in a closet.
The report said the city lags behind the region and state in the time it takes to respond to child-abuse complaints. It reaches just 48 percent within three days, compared with 63.9 percent for the eastern region and 72.4 percent for the state.
In the third case, city child-welfare workers shouldn't have returned an infant boy to his parents who were awaiting trial on charges of starving him, the report said. And the agency should have communicated better with prosecutors, who were shocked to learn that the couple they were working to put in jail had regained physical custody of the boy.
Before returning children to their homes after suspected abuse or neglect, the city agency should do more to assess actual risk to the children rather than focusing on whether the caretakers successfully completed classes or therapy, the report said.
The committee issued 12 specific recommendations for the Virginia Beach department. Accountability and supervision were the ``most significant'' areas requiring improvement, it said. The report acknowledged that not all of the recommendations were feasible because of limited funds and personnel, and many aren't required under existing state guidelines.
``This is an agency with many strengths, and I hope these are apparent in the report, even though the concentration was on areas needing improvement,'' Gene E. Daniel, the Texas consultant who chaired the nine-member review committee, said in written comments distributed with the report. Other committee members came from the Child Welfare League of America and the state Department of Social Services.
``The report, while identifying some problems in the past, shows the child welfare program in Virginia Beach . . . to be a good one,'' wrote Carol A. Brunty, commissioner of the state Department of Social Services.
In a nine-page response to the 29-page report, Virginia Beach Social Services Director Daniel M. Stone agreed his agency made a ``technical error'' in placing the 5-year-old with a sex offender for foster care, but noted that a permanent home was later found for the child.
He also defended his department's actions in the case of the girl punished in the box. An abuse allegation by one parent against another in heated custody battles ``does not automatically trigger a Child Protective Services investigation,'' Stone said, explaining that the case was assigned to a lower-priority mediation.
In the starved-child case, Stone said, his agency retained legal custody and agreed to give up physical custody only after the parents were provided ``numerous services'' to help them.
Stone also disagreed that his agency's response time to abuse and neglect complaints was below par, saying he followed a different state standard and had never had complaints.
``We are pleased they have found no major problems,'' Stone said in released remarks.
``The committee's finding showed no violation of any state, federal or local policies or laws. Many of the review committee's findings and recommendations address `best practices' which go beyond the requirements of the Code of Virginia or state policy. These `best practice' standards must be understood as what we want to be as opposed to what we are required to be.''
The review committee interviewed some 50 people, from judges to foster parents, and inspected 69 cases. The panel noted that many of the problems facing Virginia Beach are seen around the country: more crumbling families, growing caseloads and shrinking budgets. ILLUSTRATION: Social Services Director Daniel M. Stone
by CNB