Every five years, or so, the largest department in our state’s bureaucracy gets a new leader. And we get a chance at greater accountability in the area of our greatest responsibility: protecting our most vulnerable people.
Susan Dreyfus, former CEO of the National Alliance for Children and Families and Families International of Wisconsin, will take the reins of our state’s behemoth agency, the Department of Social and Health Services, on May 18.
Each year more than 2 million Washingtonians turn to the agency’s five divisions for help. DSHS has 19,000 employees and a combined state and federal budget of about $10 billion a year.
This agency provides an array of social services, including mental health services, child protective services, help for the disabled, and substance abuse counseling.
The agency is too large and needs to be divided to provide better oversight. Hopefully, Dreyfus will agree.
Doling out funding may be the easiest task for DSHS. Where the state fails is in providing protection to children. Let’s look at Child Protective Services.
There is no more visible division than CPS. Turn on your television or read a newspaper. There was the 11-year-old girl who sought help at school and was turned down by CPS. Angry at the plea for help, her parents imprisoned her in her bedroom. She drank condensation from a window through a straw and was getting little food. She was found at age 14 weighing only 47 pounds. There had been no CPS follow-up.
Taxpayers are paying millions in awards to wronged individuals. The estate of Robley Carr Jr., 15, was paid $5 million after he was beaten to death by a foster parent. The only way to stop this waste is to keep children and other vulnerable people safe in the first place.
Last December, just before state Ombudsman Mary Meinig released her September ’06 to August ’08 “annual” report, the CPS assistant secretary resigned along with Robin Arnold-Williams, the previous DSHS secretary.
The report was scathing. It revealed 150 fatalities or near-fatalities in that two-year period. Region 5, Pierce and Kitsap counties, has one of the worst records. During one week last December, two infants were returned to drug houses and died by shaking. In Region 5, children died in fires and by beating. One child was blinded by a parent.
Sixty-three percent of the children who died from abuse or neglect while under state supervision had at least three prior reports in their files.
Yet, on the other hand, CPS fails to consider relative placement to many good biological families. They rush to adopt out non-drug-affected infants and toddlers. It is common for CPS to ignore the law by cutting out highly competent and loving grandparents, aunts and uncles. State law requires placement with family first. That law is consistently ignored. Often, families are maligned by false reports from social workers who seem to prefer adoption to strangers.
During her news conference, Dreyfus said, “I will know those children by name, and I will care for them as if they were my own.”
Dreyfus sounds sincere. However, I don’t ask that she call each child by name. I ask that she protect the rights of children and parents by making corrections in a department that is fraught with lawsuits, routinely disrupts families rather than helping them, and unconscionably takes children from good biological relatives and adopts them out to strangers.
Thus far, DSHS secretaries have taken a bye on the idea of reform. Dreyfus needs to correct the wrong.
Foster parents and court-appointed child advocates need to be better screened. Employees who provide unsubstantiated reports to the court should be held accountable.
Dreyfus should not tolerate false testimony given by CPS to the court. Grandparents need standing in court termination proceedings so they can defend themselves against false accusations.
Secretary Susan Dreyfus needs to start her tenure by leading in the implementation of accountability throughout the huge agency.
Pam Roach, R-Auburn, is a state senator representing the 31st District.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.