Posted on: Friday, April 22, 2005

EDITORIAL
Stop finger-pointing and fix the system

The case of Akila Keona Nihoa is a frightening example of how at times confidentiality laws can hurt the very ones they are designed to protect.

The 12-year-old developmentally disabled child who was in foster care disappeared from a state shelter while trick-or-treating last October. Child welfare officials only this week asked for help in finding the boy. State confidentiality laws, state officials said, prohibited them from making the boy's disappearance more broadly known sooner.

While it's understandable and legitimate that confidentiality rules are in place to protect the child, it's unconscionable that six months lapsed before the situation came to full light. It's well-known that the precious window of opportunity for finding a missing child are those crucial hours shortly after the disappearance. And with each day that passed, state officials and the court system allowed that window to slam shut.

Akila had been in and out of foster homes since he was 6 years old, according to the state Department of Human Services. He had been living in state shelters, most recently an 'Ewa Beach shelter that provides care for children waiting to be placed in foster homes. The state ultimately became the child's guardian in 2003.

Court records show the agency first wrote the Family Court asking for permission to release information on the missing boy on Dec. 28 — two months after his disappearance. Permission was granted by a Family Court judge on Feb. 8, yet another appalling time lag. Still, the judge's order was not filed until March 8.

The judiciary insisted it is the responsibility of the attorney making the request to file the document, while the attorney general's office turns it back on the judiciary.

There's far too much finger-pointing and far too little accountability.

State Rep. Dennis Arakaki is right on the mark: "Something is wrong and something is broken," Arakaki told The Advertiser. "We need to find a solution."

Akila was returned to state custody yesterday, apparently having been with relatives. Regardless, the child was the state's responsibility and he should not have been allowed to slip through the cracks —Êwith his whereabouts unknown for months.

Administrative rule changes approved in December allow the state Department of Human Services to now bypass the Family Court process and get vital information out when a child, like Akila, goes missing, says director Lillian Koller.

That's a positive change, but the buck must not stop there.

State officials must examine the failures in this child's case — and there appear to be many — and determine who is accountable and whether more changes are needed to ensure this never happens to another child again.