Consolidation a good start

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must have more accountability and

coordination to work efficiently.

Gov. Mark Sanford's announcement that he will consider cutting the number of agencies that serve troubled youth in our state is a tacit acknowledgment that fragmented, disjointed efforts have made many children worse off instead of better. While the governor offered no specifics, other than to say he wants cut the number of agencies responsible for monitoring group homes, he has provided a good start to overhauling a dysfunctional system of duplication and failure.

Greenville News reporter Tim Smith uncovered state documents earlier this year that revealed the needs of thousands of emotionally disturbed children in the state are overlooked partly because the care for those children rests with a least 10 separate agencies. A report from the Children's Services Study Committee buttressed those findings. It cited a lack of central oversight and no consistent quality control.

Responsibility for these children is primarily split between the Department of Social Services and the Continuum of Care, which is part of the Governor's Office. But other agencies — ranging from the Department of Juvenile Justice, to the Department of Mental Health, to the Department of Health and Environmental Control — also play a role.

This diffusion of responsibility contributes to these abused and neglected children being moved from home to home and subjected to multiple case managers and evaluations. Often treatment is duplicated or it lapses.

This is frustrating for caregivers, loved ones and, surely, the children themselves.

South Carolina spends $140 million a year on troubled children, and this well-intentioned commitment must be matched by an improved organizational structure that puts treatment first, holds treatment and residential providers accountable and facilitates better interagency communication. Right now that is not the case as some agencies even disagree on what defines a troubled child.

This organizational overhaul is needed to produce what is obviously lacking: cohesion and interagency communication that will guarantee each child has someone principally responsible for managing care.

Sanford aptly characterized what's happening when he boiled the problem down to the "right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing." The governor is, admittedly, short on specifics. But he is acknowledging there is a problem and committing to a solution, which in the best case will result both in each child having the treatment he or she needs and the state best using its $140 million a year.