Weeks before the badly decomposed bodies of four girls were found in a Southeast D.C. row house, the same child welfare agency that missed desperate calls seeking help for the girls gave itself high marks for service.
The Child and Family Service Agency’s annual Quality Service Review for 2007 gave itself “acceptable” ratings for its handling of child welfare cases. A few weeks after the report was finished — but before it was released to the public — Mayor Adrian Fenty would be accusing the agency of a catastrophic failure to protect Banita Jacks’ daughters.
For many observers, the disconnect is emblematic of an agency that has been lurching from crisis to crisis for decades.
“The reality is, things just keep popping up at that agency,” said social worker Michelle Palmer, who has advocated top-to-bottom reform at CSFA for years. “They could give a lot of reasons why it’s difficult to administer. But it’s probably an infrastructure problem.”
Child welfare officials are due in federal court this week as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit stemming from the city’s failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens. The news will be bleak. Since Banita Jacks was charged with murdering her girls, the agency has been overwhelmed with abuse and neglect allegations.
CFSA Director Sharlynn Bobo has said her agency can’t be blamed for the fallout of the Jacks case. It’s unprecedented to have hotline calls jump by more than 400 percent in a matter of weeks, she told The Examiner recently.
But Palmer and an increasing number of critics say the agency is creating its own problems by continually addressing the last crisis and not preparing for the next one.
