The District’s child welfare system is failing the city’s abused and neglected children in critical ways, a D.C. inspector general’s report has found. More than three years after four girls were found murdered by their mother in their Southeast Washington home, problems continue at the city’s Child and Family Services Agency, the report found. The Banita Jacks case and its fallout led to the firing by then-Mayor Adrian Fenty of several city officials and promises of major reforms.
But the inspector general found morale remained low at CFSA, case loads for social workers are still too high, and there is too much pressure to close cases quickly, all of which erodes care for the city’s vulnerable youths.
| Schools fail in training |
| The D.C. inspector general also found the city’s school system has not been properly training teachers to recognize and report abused children. |
| Teachers are required by law to report abuse and neglect, and they’re often in the best position to recognize it. |
| But the District’s public schools don’t have a method of tracking whether teachers have been trained and the charter schools don’t require the training at all. |
| In its response sent to the inspector general in March, the city’s public school system said it would develop an internal tracking program. |
| The public charter school board said it will ensure information will sent to charter schools, but under city laws it can’t require the charter schools to train teachers. |
“The children are endangered if these issues go unresolved,” D.C. inspector general spokesman Roger Burke told The Washington Examiner on Thursday. “Social workers will not be able to protect the children.”
A Child and Family Services spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the agency’s responses included in the report.
Ward 1 D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, whose committee oversees that agency, said he’ll give a “serious” look at the inspector general’s report, which was released Thursday.
“I am deeply concerned about any kind of repeat of the gross neglect that lead to the death of Banita Jacks’ children,” Graham said.
The inspector general made 23 recommendations to improve the system. Key among them was improving the city’s child abuse hot line so investigators spend less time on frivolous cases.
In one case, a father reported that his child’s mother was spending child support dollars improperly, the report said. The father’s complaint was sent to an investigator, even though there was no report of neglect or abuse, the inspector general wrote. An investigator then had to meet with the family and school.
“Unnecessary investigations can be disruptive to children,” said Matt Fraidin, a University of the District of Columbia law professor who focuses on child welfare. “They stretch investigators thin, which can allow abuse cases to slip through or result in kids being pulled from their families who shouldn’t be.”
CFSA said in the report that it is developing tools to improve the screening and classifying of hot line reports.
The inspector general also recommended rewriting District regulations to give case workers more time to close cases. The current 30-day time frame makes investigations “superficial in nature because the social worker’s main objective is to determine a disposition for the case rather than arranging and coordinating care,” the report said.
The agency agreed to add more time on the investigation clock.
“Hopefully the recommendations will be followed and the children will be OK,” Burke said.
