THE FIELD CENTER
for Children's Policy, Practice & Research

Field Center Editorials

Richard J. Gelles, PhD, Dean, Penn School of Social Policy & Practice
February 2006

The death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, tortured, molested, and starved by her stepfather, is an all too familiar narrative with all the usual suspects. Nixzmary’s ACS caseworker went weeks before seeing the child and failed to update the file in a timely or appropriate manner. The caseworker’s supervisor failed to follow through and obtain a warrant to help find the Nixzmary after the girl failed to attend school for weeks and after the school reported that the Nixzmary showed up at school with a gash over her eye. Although ACS caseworkers and supervisors had multiple opportunities to protect Nixzmary, they failed. It is tempting to conclude that Nixzmary is yet another in a long line of abused and neglected children who fell between the cracks of New York City’s child protective service system.

But so-called cracks are hardly random or unique to ACS. A report issued this week by the U.S. Inspector General found that most child welfare systems fail to see maltreated children who are in foster care at least the once-per-month prescribed by state law. In only 5 of the 17 states that require monthly visits are children in foster care actually seen once-a-month.

Not only do child welfare systems not see endangered children as often as required by law, most states have no information or data management system to determine how often children in foster care are seen. According to the Inspector General, only 19 states and the District of Columbia can even report how often visits occur.

On any given day, there are 500,000 children in foster care and at least as many children who have been abused and neglected but are still in their own homes and whose cases are open to Child Protective Services. It may well tax the manpower of state agencies to physically visit at-risk children. As long as caseworkers and supervisors are over-worked and under-trained, cases such as Nixzmary Brown will still occur. But, to be unable to actually know whether visits are occurring and to blame the lack of information on “manpower shortages” is malfeasant and unforgivable.

The on-line auction site EBay keeps track of 1,000,000 transactions each day. Buyers and sellers can keep track of tens, hundreds, or thousands of transactions, know about the buyer or seller, know whether they have paid or been paid, and have access to volumes of information on each item. Bidders can bid from mobile phones, Trios, and Blackberrys.

If EBay software and electronic communications can keep people in touch with millions of tchotskies, then child protective systems should be able to, at the very least, keep track of one million at-risk children. Rather than fall back on blaming the usual suspects and the “cracks” in the system, it is time child welfare systems evolve from believing that technology is a cell phone and a laptop and implement software programs that can at the very least inform the system and its employees where vulnerable children are and what is being done to keep them safe.