Reform of child agency pledged

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The Fenty administration yesterday pledged to reform the city's long-troubled Child and Family Services Agency, a day after the mayor fired six child welfare workers for failing to help four girls found dead last week in a Southeast row house.

"This is not a case in which everyone is to blame so no one is to blame," interim Attorney General Peter J. Nickles said during a D.C. Council hearing on the city's efforts to locate the children of Banita Jacks. "This government failed this family. There are no excuses."

Miss Jacks, 33, was charged with killing her four daughters, ages 5, 6, 11 and 16. Their decomposing bodies were found last week by U.S. marshals serving an eviction notice at the home in the 4200 block of Sixth Street in Southeast. Miss Jacks told investigators that the children were "possessed by demons."

Mr. Nickles — along with CFSA director Sharlynn Bobo, Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso and others — testified before the council's Committee on Human Services about the failed efforts of city officials to reach the Jacks children.

The officials pledged to improve training for call takers at the CFSA abuse hot line and form a truancy-reporting agreement for charter schools in the city.

Last year, 8,900 students in the city were truant at least 15 days from school, Mr. Nickles said.

Officials have said that proper procedures in the city's truancy and home-schooling policies — particularly in charter schools — could have helped save the girls' lives.

"We have a situation where apparently there's no requirement for charter schools to report attendance data," said council member Mary M. Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat. "So that's a process failure."

Josephine Baker, executive director of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said schools under the board's jurisdiction notify CFSA if a student is absent for 10 days.

She said some school officials have indicated that the agency is "unresponsive" to truancy complaints from charter schools and that they handle complaints only from D.C. Public Schools.