THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507200151
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
In a city that doubled in size during the 1980s, it would be expected that the number of children endangered by abuse and neglect would jump also.
That's what has happened in Virginia Beach, and it correspondingly has led to some problems in dealing with the issues.
In the past three years, an average of 2,400 kids a year have come to the attention of the city's Department of Social Services. Complaints to Child Protective Services are up 14 percent since mid-1992; opened cases are up 12 percent in the same time. The agency was responsible for 185 foster children at the end of 1994. Meanwhile, its staff has increased just 3.7 percent.
Mistakes are made, and procedures could be improved, just as with similar agencies facing similar problems across the country. That's the conclusion of a state-appointed review committee that studied the local agency, which has been stung in recent years by criticism from employees, foster parents, prosecutors and a judge over three highly publicized cases.
The committee agreed that the agency made mistakes in the three cases: placing a boy with a foster father convicted of felony sex abuse; not immediately following a judge's order to investigate a child-abuse allegation that later turned into a case of a girl being disciplined in a locked box-like cell; returning a boy to parents awaiting trial on charges of starving him, although in this case one judge also had ordered the boy's return.
The committee also said the agency generally does a good job given its resources, but still offered a dozen detailed recommendations for change in its 29-page report, publicly released last Friday.
Daniel M. Stone, director of Virginia Beach Social Services, had asked City Manager James K. Spore for the review in January; the nine-member committee was appointed in March, headed by a Texas consultant, Gene E. Daniel.
While Stone disagreed with some of the committee's conclusions in a 9-page response of his own, he expressed general satisfaction.
``The committee's finding showed no violation of any state, federal or local policies or laws,'' Stone said in released remarks.
``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.''
During the three-month study, committee members interviewed more than 50 people, from judges to foster parents, and reviewed 69 cases.
The committee called the local agency a ``trendsetter'' in its mediation and therapy programs for families in danger of breaking apart.
But the committee also concluded that some decisions concerning child-abuse complaints are made too quickly, ``without gathering all the relevant information.'' And too many other cases endure ``unacceptable delay'' between complaint and investigation, with some moderate- to high-risk situations sitting for days when they should be investigated immediately.
Among the review-committee's recommendations:
Develop written rules for cooperation and communication with prosecutors and the courts, to avoid misunderstandings due to the sometimes conflicting roles of criminal justice and social work.
Provide closer, documented supervision of cases and more-balanced workloads.
Focus on parenting capabilities, not just services offered, in determining when to reunite parents with their abused or neglected children.
Formalize a program to recruit and retain foster parents, particularly minorities, emphasizing more of a ``team concept'' between foster parents and staff members. Encourage and support the creation of a local foster-parent association.
Computerize case files for easier reference and safety. The review committee found one file missing completely - the controversial sex-offender foster-father case.
Improve accountability by requiring visits or interviews in every case when abuse or neglect is alleged, and by fully documenting reasons for decisions and informing the parties of the decisions.
Provide needed services in all founded cases of abuse or neglect, not just the most serious.
Move to better facilities, since the current Virginia Beach Boulevard offices are too small and termite-infested, and the phone system is inadequate. (See related story)
Develop policies to share more information with the news media and the public, to help them better understand agency decisions while still obeying confidentiality laws.
Share the ``best practices'' recommendations from this review with other local departments across the state, to provide possible solutions to problems they may be facing.
``Our first concern is for the welfare of our children,'' Spore said in an accompanying statement. ``The recommendations made will be implemented as feasible.''
Daniel, the Texas consultant who chaired the review committee, called Virginia Beach Social Services ``an agency with many strengths.''
``Let me be clear that I think the essence of the report is that any agency this size, serving large numbers of individuals and families, will make some mistakes and have room for improvement,'' Daniel wrote Carol A. Brunty, commissioner of the state Department of Social Services.
``I believe the agency has already moved toward remedying some concerns noted in this report, and all of the issues can be addressed by this very resourceful agency and community. A number of the recommendations are simply suggestions for best practice, not indictments of current practices.''
Brunty wrote to Spore that the report, despite identifying past problems, showed the agency's program ``to be a good one.''
``The report is intended for a tool for improving child welfare service programs in the Virginia Beach Department of Social Services,'' Brunty concluded. by CNB