Child welfare changes its rules

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The District has made changes to its troubled child-welfare agency since four girls were found dead in a row house in January, including a requirement that cases remain open until a child who could be at risk is located.

The changes come after U.S. marshals serving an eviction notice found the decomposing bodies of Banita Jacks’ four daughters in a Southeast home. Mrs. Jacks has been charged with their murders. A school social worker initially raised concerns about the family in April 2007, after she visited the home and thought Mrs. Jacks was holding the girls hostage. But an investigation into the family was closed weeks after the visit because child-welfare officials thought the family had moved to Maryland — though the family was never found.

As a result, the agency has reviewed cases closed as incomplete last year and has provided additional training to hot-line workers and supervisors. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, a Democrat, announced the changes Friday.

Child and Family Services Agency Director Sharlynn Bobo said that since January, the agency has received 9,990 hot-line calls, about one-third of which were reports of allegations of abuse or neglect. Mrs. Bobo also said the agency has roughly 2,000 open investigations, which she described as a “historic” number.

“We’ve never had so many investigations at any one time,” she said. “What’s good about it, is it means that community awareness about child safety has been raised to a high level, to a good level.”

Mrs. Bobo said city law requires investigations to be completed within 30 days, but many have been open for about 60 days because of the current high volume. She said the agency also is looking at whether to discuss changing legislation to increase the number of days a case is open.

The agency has worked with other organizations to review the 306 cases that were considered incomplete and closed last year. Mrs. Bobo said 84 of the cases were reopened, including six that were immediately referred back to workers because officials thought there was a risk to the children’s safety.

“The message that we want you to get is that we paid attention, we are learning lessons from this tragedy,” she said. “We moved quickly to improve our procedures. Our investigators cannot, cannot anymore close an investigation without ensuring that children have been located.”

Hot-line workers and supervisors also have received customer-service training, and investigative social workers will begin specific training in investigation techniques next month, she said.

The agency is also working with the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services to evaluate and recommend improvements to its hot line. It also has added 20 cars to its fleet to ensure workers are able to reach children quickly and regularly, Mr. Fenty said.

Shortly after Mrs. Jacks’ daughters were found dead, Mr. Fenty fired six child-welfare workers, saying they didn’t do enough to follow up on complaints about the girls’ care.

A union representing three of the workers has appealed the decision, and the case has gone to arbitration.