[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 137 (Thursday, October 17, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1937-E1938]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CHILDREN IN PERIL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 17, 2002

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, the story below, from 
Sunday's Pittsburgh Post Gazette, offers yet another example of a child 
welfare system's failure to provide children and their families with 
necessary services and safeguards--even in one of the nation's best 
child welfare systems.
  The story below discusses several examples of bad casework that are 
frightening, and some examples of good casework that are inspiring. But 
most frightening is the fact that these stories come from one of the 
best child welfare systems in the country. In most other jurisdictions, 
the child welfare system is worse.
  While this story describes caseworkers that failed to use resources 
available to them, in most communities, resources and supportive 
services are not available at all. In other jurisdictions, not only 
have child welfare workers been found derelict in their duties, but 
children have died under agency supervision. We cannot continue to 
spend billions of federal dollars on a system that does not provide 
what children need to thrive, or in some cases, even to survive. The 
government must require greater accountability to ensure the health and 
safety of every child in its custody.
  The article follows:

           [From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Oct. 13, 2002]

       Dana Perkins wasn't looking for any help, though she'd 
     admit getting by as a single mother of three was a relentless 
     struggle. Sometimes, too tired to argue, she let her children 
     skip school. Sometimes, too tired to face reality, she numbed 
     herself with cocaine. Then, about 18 months ago, a judge 
     informed her that she'd accept help whether she wanted it or 
     not.
       Common Pleas Judge Cheryl Allen decided the combination of 
     truancy and drug abuse endangered the Perkins children. That 
     meant the judge could place them in foster care. But she 
     didn't.
       She said Perkins could keep her children as long as she 
     cooperated with Allegheny County's Office of Children, Youth 
     and Families. Allen directed CYF to help Perkins get off 
     drugs and get her kids to school.
       Perkins' first caseworker reached into the treasure chest 
     of tools and services available to Allegheny County 
     caseworkers with one hand and grasped Perkins with the other, 
     in a focused attempt to pull her and her family up to the 
     solid ground of sobriety and school success. Perkins' second 
     caseworker, however, seemed to have no reach at all.
       The quality of a caseworker can make or break a family. It 
     can be the difference between reunification and termination 
     of parents and children. Some caseworkers are renowned in 
     juvenile court for their ability to solve problems and bring 
     together strengthened families. Others are notorious for the 
     opposite.
       Frustrated juvenile court judges have tried to crack down 
     on such workers. Last month, Common Pleas Judge Kathleen R. 
     Mulligan directed CYF to pay a $150 penalty because a 
     caseworker had failed for 30 days to formally explain why 
     she'd placed children in foster care and neglected to call 
     witnesses for a hearing to determine whether the removal was 
     justified.
       Lawyers who practice in juvenile court say casework has 
     improved over the past five

[[Page E1938]]

     years as workers' salaries have risen and a promotional 
     ladder was constructed within CYF to retain the best ones. 
     Still, they say, bad casework happens all too often.
       Allen, who has the longest tenure on the juvenile bench at 
     nearly 11 years, and who worked as a lawyer for CYF for more 
     than a dozen years before that, recognizes the stress under 
     which caseworkers labor, with high caseloads and constant 
     fear that a child will be hurt.
       ``Most caseworkers try to do the best they can under 
     horrible circumstances,'' she said. But, she added, ``You 
     just never know how far away from a disaster you are.''


                          Fault on both sides

       The Perkins case was relatively simple for CYF. The 
     children weren't in foster care and hadn't missed so much 
     school that they were failing. The mother used drugs but 
     wasn't so addicted that she sold the children's toys to pay 
     for them. And the family had a home, even if it was in a 
     Garfield public housing project liberally splattered with the 
     brown of boarded windows.
       Perkins' first caseworker, Juanita Bryant, signed her up 
     for a drug treatment program and set her up with a recovery 
     sister--a former drug addict who acts as a mentor. Bryant 
     also got the family an in-home service worker to visit 
     several days a week and help with budgeting and getting the 
     kids to school.
       At that point, however, Perkins' cooperation was not as 
     good as Bryant's casework. She started one treatment program, 
     then left. She attended another, but quit it too. Good 
     caseworkers, like Bryant, know such behavior is typical of 
     addicts. But Bryant would remain on the case only a few 
     months because she is an intake worker. She investigates 
     allegations against parents, then begins help. In August 
     2001, Perkins' case was moved to Bill Besterman, a family 
     service worker, the kind who assist families through 
     recovery.
       Soon after Besterman was assigned to her case, Perkins 
     decided she wanted to go into a 28-day in-patient drug 
     treatment program. She says Besterman frustrated her efforts 
     by losing papers, failing to sign forms and missing 
     appointments.
       Besterman is prohibited by CYF policy from speaking about 
     the Perkins family, but CYF is sanctioning him for his 
     handling of this case.
       In a review hearing last May, Allen again ordered Besterman 
     to help Perkins get in treatment, to enroll the two younger 
     children, Brandon, 12, and Brittany, 13, in summer camps and 
     help the oldest, Bryan, 15, get a summer job. Juvenile court 
     routinely orders CYF to send teens to camp or summer school 
     to keep them busy and out of trouble. Allen also repeated an 
     order that was by then more than a year old. She wanted CYF 
     to arrange for psychological evaluations of the children.
       By July, Besterman hadn't enrolled the children in camp or 
     Perkins in treatment. So Perkins signed up for Zoar New Day 
     program herself. She told Besterman it would require her to 
     be gone for several hours a day, and he told her not to leave 
     the children home alone.
       Perkins did it anyway, reasoning that they were old enough, 
     especially since her brother and sister lived in the same 
     housing complex. On Perkins' second day of treatment, 
     Besterman showed up on her doorstep to take the children.
       Only the intervention of Perkins' brother and sister, who 
     said they would watch over the youngsters, kept them out of 
     foster care.
       Perkins stopped going to treatment while she pleaded with 
     Besterman for a letter permitting her to leave the teens 
     alone. He finally wrote it, she says, but by then the 
     treatment program had discharged her.
       When the case returned to court for review on Sept. 4, 
     Besterman told Allen that Perkins had dropped out of another 
     drug treatment program, but he never mentioned that it was 
     because he'd threatened to take her kids away while she was 
     there.


                      Information, disinformation

       The kind of information--or dis[chyph]in [chyph]for 
     [chyph]ma [chyph]tion--case[chyph]work[chyph]ers give judges 
     can be crucial in deciding a case. ``If you do not trust the 
     case work done by CYF, and you are not sure of the 
     information presented in court, then you are in a quandary,'' 
     Mulligan said, ``You could get involved in a case with no 
     basis, and that is not fair to the parents. Or you could end 
     up dismissing a case that does have a basis, and that is not 
     fair to the child.''
       ``In a civil case,'' she said, ``if the plaintiff attorney 
     does not present enough evidence, I dismiss, and the 
     plaintiff can go after the attorney for malpractice. But in 
     these cases, the consequences are so scary. You have 
     children's lives at stake. You cannot say, `I will just 
     dismiss it.'''
       One caseworker who simply didn't have the information a 
     judge needed arrived in Allen's courtroom Aug. 21. In March, 
     the caseworker had placed a teenage girl, a runaway who was 
     working as a prostitute, in what was supposed to be a 
     temporary shelter until the teen could be moved to a 
     therapeutic group home. Five months later, the girl remained 
     in the shelter, not placed where she could get help, and the 
     worker couldn't tell the court whether she was receiving any 
     therapy.
       The child's lawyer asked, ``is she getting therapy.''
       The caseworker replied, ``I know she is in a shelter.''
       Allen pressed, ``You are not sure if she is getting mental 
     health services?''
       ``I am not sure. She should be getting it,'' the worker 
     said. She told the judge she did know the child was taking 
     medication. ``For what,'' Allen asked. ``I am not sure,'' the 
     worker said.


                       Frustrations on the bench

       As Besterman testified at the Perkins review hearing in 
     September, Allen grew increasingly red in the face. It wasn't 
     so much what he didn't know as what he hadn't done.
       Allen asked Besterman if he'd set up drug screens for 
     Perkins at the Allegheny County Health Department, as the 
     judge had ordered repeatedly for a year. ``It was never done, 
     I don't think,'' Besterman said.
       Had Besterman arranged psychological evaluations of the 
     Perkins children? Allen asked. That was never done either, 
     Besterman said. How about helping the older Perkins boy get a 
     job? Besterman had done nothing more than get a copy of his 
     birth certificate.
       Besterman also admitted he never enrolled the two younger 
     children in camp.
       Finally, Allen told him, ``Mr. Besterman, it just seems as 
     though nothing happens in this case. We drag these people in 
     here every three months and nothing has happened.''
       That frustration is a common one for judges and families 
     alike: The work just doesn't get done. Caseworkers don't 
     return phone calls, don't process payments, don't follow 
     court orders.
       The claims of ignored phone calls are so commonplace that 
     judges don't doubt them. In one case, CYF wanted Common Pleas 
     Judge Robert Colville to relieve the agency of its duty to 
     work toward reunification for a father who hadn't visited his 
     baby. Colville refused after the father testified he'd 
     repeatedly called his caseworker, left message after message 
     and none was returned.
       ``It is a plausible, credible scenario that he called 
     through December and no one answered his phone calls,'' 
     Colville said. The failure of the agency to make various 
     types of payments is just as problematic.
       In one case, a judge ordered CYF in June to cover the rent 
     of a 17-year-old girl for three months until she turned 18. 
     CYF was responsible for her until then, and the program that 
     was supposed to teach her independent living skills while she 
     lived in an apartment had closed down. CYF did not pay the 
     rent, however, and the landlord threatened to evict the girl 
     and her 10-month-old baby. Though ordered again in September 
     to pay, CYF still hasn't done it.
       In another instance, a caseworker refused to provide bus 
     passes for a low-income mother who needed to take two buses 
     to get to her court-mandated drug screens. Though the agency 
     routinely provides such passes, this caseworker refused. The 
     mother pleaded for Allen to order it. She did.
       In a more egregious case, CYF failed to provide payments to 
     a woman who was caring for her three nephews, even though 
     they received Social Security, which was forwarded to CYF 
     when the boys were removed from their mother. For months, the 
     aunt cared for the boys without getting either foster care 
     payments or the Social Security money.
       Finally, the financial stress in the household prompted the 
     aunt to ask the caseworker to move the boys. A month later, 
     CYF paid the $4,392 it owed her.
       Marc Cherna, Allegheny County's director of Human Services, 
     conceded casework could be better. ``Not every case is 
     handled as well as it should be,'' he said. ``I am very 
     realistic about this stuff. I get the stack of complaints 
     from the Director's Action Line.''
       Still, he noted, the agency is always trying to improve the 
     quality of casework, and the good work of the agency should 
     not be forgotten.
       ``We do things that other places do not do,'' he pointed 
     out. And if the agency is a little slow in providing these 
     services--such as bus passes--it should still be commended 
     for doing it at all.
       He stressed that he believes most caseworkers handle the 
     job with empathy and professionalism.
       Perkins' new caseworker, Nadiyah McLendon, is among those. 
     She took over the case after Besterman was removed in 
     September.
       She helped get Perkins re-enrolled at Zoar, which will also 
     do the drug screens, saving Perkins extra trips to get them. 
     And she got the psychological evaluations of the three 
     children done.
       She did everything she was supposed to do, fulfilling the 
     duties of CYF. Allen reminded the agency at Perkins' 
     September hearing that it must be accountable: ``Once kids 
     are brought to court, CYF has some responsibility.''

     

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