More than 1,600 children in the US die at the hands of abusive parents and caretakers every year. Many, many more children experience serious physical and developmental injury from abuse and neglect. In every state, child protective services (CPS) agencies attempt to keep children safe, but strict confidentiality laws make it almost impossible to assess their successes and failures. Such laws protect the privacy of children and parents, but also shield CPS agencies from evaluation by legislators, the press, and the public who need to know the facts behind these deaths in order to prevent such tragedies in the future.
In California, a coalition of groups, led by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL), has long advocated for legislation to mandate public access to CPS files in cases where children have died. The efforts finally resulted in a new law, Senate Bill 39 (2007), co-sponsored by NCYL and the Child Advocacy Institute, which went into effect in 2008. The bill's larger purpose is to provide access to information that is vital to improving CPS policies, practices, and results. NCYL is now testing compliance with the new law.
Child Deaths
Jahmaurae Allen is one of at least eight children who died from parental or caretaker abuse in Sacramento in the first seven months of 2008. Records released to NCYL by Sacramento County CPS pursuant to SB 39 reveal that 4-year-old Jahmaurae died on July 21 from a brutal beating. His mother's boyfriend, Jonathan Perry, has been arrested. Less than five weeks earlier, on June 17, Jahmaurae had been struck in the chest so hard that his mother brought him to an emergency room. The hospital notified the police, and the police notified CPS. When a caseworker then visited Jahmaurae and his mother, the caseworker saw no need for intervention. She apparently did not check Perry's criminal history. If she had, she would have discovered that he had been charged as a juvenile with lewd and lascivious conduct, indecent exposure, and assault. The caseworker interviewed neither Perry, who had been in charge of Jahmaurae when he was injured, nor the hospital physicians who treated him.
The documents provided to NCYL by CPS stated that the June 17 report of child abuse had been "substantiated," but according to an article in the Sacramento Bee, CPS altered its records after Jahmaurae was killed. The CPS caseworker originally had concluded that the June 17 report was "unfounded" or "inconclusive."
None of this information—not even the fact of Jahmaurae's death—would have been available without SB 39.
Three-Stage Process
SB 39 sets up a three-stage process for disclosure of child fatality records. Stage 1 is a request for "SOC 826" forms – bare-bones documents that provide the age, gender, and date of death for children whose deaths are reasonably suspected to have been caused by abuse or neglect. (California Welfare & Institutions Code, sec. 10850.4(a).) The SOC 826 forms are filed in each county as well as centrally, at the California State Department of Social Services (CDSS). CDSS has taken the position that anyone who wants data must request it from each of California's 58 counties. NCYL believes that CDSS has misunderstood SB 39 and will ask CDSS to reconsider its position.
When officials "substantiate" abuse or neglect as a cause of death, the substantiation is recorded in an updated SOC 826 form. After substantiation, a request can then be made for additional information (Stage 2), including previous "referrals" for abuse or neglect, the emergency response referral form, reports by law enforcement agencies, CPS risk and safety reports on the child and his or her family, police reports, and most of the child's health care records. If the child was in foster care, one can also request licensing data, records of licensing violations, and records of the foster parents' training. (Section 10850.4(c).)
One can also petition the dependency court (Stage 3) for release of the child's entire court file, whether or not he or she has completed Stages 1 or 2. Senate Bill 39 radically changes the factors that a judge may consider when deciding such a petition, and the changes favor disclosure. The law now "favor[s] the release of documents . . .," and "no weighing or balancing of the interests of those other than a child is permitted." (Welfare & Institutions Code, sec. 827(a)(2).)
NCYL intends to request child death documentation at all three levels and to follow the efforts of others, especially the news media, to do so. So far, SB 39 requests have been made successfully by the Sacramento Bee (hit link for related news coverage) and the Contra Costa Times. It will become apparent that officials do—or do not yet—understand the new process. The larger purpose, of course, is to encourage improvements in CPS policies, practices, and results. Public access to the facts is an essential step in that direction. NCYL attorneys Bill Grimm and Edward Opton, and Communications Director Tracy Schroth are heading NCYL's efforts to ensure full and effective implementation of SB 39.
