Posted on Thu, Aug. 24, 2006

email this

print this

reprint or license this

State lags in addressing child abuse, neglect cases

Audit shows DSS failing on staff requirements and procedures

By RODDIE A. BURRIS

rburris@thestate.com

State workers are not intervening as quickly or as often as required in child abuse and neglect cases in Lexington, Kershaw and three other S.C. counties, according to a report released Wednesday.

Child victims and their families also may be receiving inadequate treatment from the state Department of Social Services, the Legislative Audit Council report found.

The review focused on how closely procedures mirrored state requirements and studied staffing levels and procedures for investigating and disciplining employees. It also included cases in York, Bamberg and Marlboro counties.

Among the shortcomings:

• Child victims and their families in treatment cases are often not visited every 30 days as required.

• Individuals who commit certain acts of abuse and neglect are often not entered into the agency’s Central Registry of Abuse and Neglect as required.

• Individuals who are criminally convicted of child sexual or physical abuse are not always entered into the registry.

• The Department of Social Services is short-staffed, leaving overworked caseworkers.

• The agency failed to take actions against employees, including discipline or termination.

• Agency actions to correct shortcomings did not produce needed improvements.

The audit covered cases from January 2004 to June 2005. It reviewed 216 cases out of more than 17,000 cases of abuse and neglect investigated by Child Protective Services.

Social Services director Kim Aydlette, in a written response, agreed with most recommendations but noted her agency had sustained cuts in staff and spending. She wrote the agency, including child services and the range of other programs it handles, had about a third less money to spend in 2005 than four years earlier and 1,300 fewer people. She did not define how many staffers lost were involved in child services.

Lawmakers said the procedural problems went beyond money.

“This audit shows it wasn’t just a funding issue,” said Rep. Gary Simrill, R-York, one of two legislators who called for the audit.

Rep. Herb Kirsch, D-York, said an agency that deals with sexual and physical abuse of children must do its job, regardless of circumstances.

“Even if you don’t have enough help, you cut something else out and do what’s required,” he said.

Child Protective Services failed to make a 30-day visit in Lexington County cases in half the 16 cases reviewed, according to the audit.

“We want compliance with the rules,” Kirsch said. “We’re not asking to fire anybody.”

A tragic York County case in 2004 prompted Kirsch and Simrill to call for the audit. In that case, workers did not meet monthly with a Nicaraguan family, the Mezas, did not follow up on allegations of child sexual abuse, and did not properly handle translation of a safety plan for the family.

Jose “Denis” Meza was accused of sexually assaulting his 14-year-old daughter. Social Services was called in May 2004 and a safety plan was devised that barred Meza from further contact with his family.

In July 2004, Meza was arrested on two counts of molesting his daughter. In August, as a court date neared for Meza, his three children were drugged and their throats were slit.

The children, Meza, and his wife, Marbely, were all found in the family’s burned-out home, reports stated. The 14-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted before her death, accounts said.

Pat Patrick, chief operating officer of From Darkness to Light in Charleston, an advocacy agency, who also is a retired Social Services regional director, said the number of caseloads typically is higher than recommended.

Aydlette said the 2006-07 budget contained enough new funding to raise staffing levels for Child Protective Services to the level of the nationally recommended average number of cases per worker, but she did not specify what that number is.

Patrick said the audit suggests the state needs to provide more training to adults on how to recognize, prevent and react to sexual abuse of children.

Simrill said the audit highlights what can happen now, rather than in the past, and gives Gov. Mark Sanford, who oversees the Social Services agency, the chance to improve the way the agency responds to cases like the Mezas’.