COMMENTARY
Public's help needed to help protect children from abuse
| • | No record in Hawaii of girl being starved |
By Lillian Koller
The case of a 12-year-old girl found severely malnourished and emaciated has many people asking what could have been done to prevent this tragedy. As the director of the Department of Human Services, the agency charged with protecting children from parental abuse and neglect, I take every suspected case of maltreatment seriously. What happened to this little girl strikes a chord with everyone, and as a government agency, we continually strive to ensure this horrible family situation never happens.
The Advertiser is way off the mark (Advertiser Editorial, July 19, 2007) when it cites shocking child abuse cases from the 1990s and findings from audits in 1999 and 2003 that suggests that nothing has been done since to improve the safety of children in the Child Welfare Services system. We have not been standing still.
This year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognized DHS for our state's successful completion of all 350 benchmark "action steps" along with 19 performance indicators and five systemic improvements in our 2004-2006 Program Improvement Plan.
The federal audit in 2003 cited by The Advertiser was part of a national review of every state's child welfare system and federal mandate to complete a PIP, to aggressively reform CWS and measurably improve outcomes in child safety, permanency and well-being.
In fact, Hawai'i's children are safer today than they were in 2003. The most recent data (January through March 2007) shows Hawai'i's rate of children being re-abused is only 0.2 percent, far below the allowable national standard of 6.1 percent.
DHS continues to attain significant program improvement goals including:
Since 2004, DHS has invested more than $10 million dollars in new prevention, family support and family strengthening services for children who may be at risk of harm and for their families.
These voluntary services are now available to assist families by strengthening their abilities to provide a safe and nurturing home for their children. These services also provide an effective way for DHS to monitor any escalation of risk to children and take action.
There is still much more to do as we continue our work to ensure that all children in Hawai'i are safe and have access to services they need for success.
As for the Wright case, we understand the public's frustration that no severe criminal action was taken back in 2000 and no follow-up occurred after the child was returned home to prevent this tragedy.
Rarely does a single confirmation of child neglect lead to a severe penalty such as termination of parental rights, especially when the parents are willing to admit their wrongdoing and complete rehabilitation services. This is why it's so important for people to report every time they suspect child abuse and neglect. Reporting of repeated abuse or neglect establishes a stronger record that escalates the risk of harm and causes a stronger response from law enforcement, DHS and the courts.
However, a comprehensive review of CWS records dating back to the original incident in 2000, including reports from police, a medical professional at Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and a witness statement from neighbor Nicole Jordan, did not indicate the girl was malnourished, emaciated, sick nor injured.
Every year, DHS receives about 5,000 reports of suspected child abuse or neglect from the public. We rely heavily on family members and the public to let us know when there are suspected cases of child abuse or neglect, and we work in collaboration with local law enforcement and the Family Court. Our network of prevention and response is dependent on cooperation from everyone — mandated reporters that include police, school officials, doctors and Family Court as well as the public — for the system to work.
A child protection system will not work well without active public participation. That is why DHS created the Missing Foster Children Web site, sends weekly news releases to the media with the names and pictures of missing children, and changed our confidentiality rules to release CWS records to the public when it is helpful to share information for better protection of children.
Whenever a child is harmed, we all share in the pain and face the nagging question of "What if?" I am not taking this incident lightly. I have already met with Honolulu Police Department Chief Boisse Correa and Hono-lulu Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle to review this case and find ways to strengthen the system to prevent this kind of tragedy. One case of child abuse is one too many.
Going forward, we have agreed to work closely together to do more than what is required in the state's mandatory reporting law to ensure that information pertinent to child safety is shared among law enforcement and DHS. I also believe that amending the state law to include the child's family as mandatory reporters is a good idea.
I want to personally assure everyone that our department will continue digging into our own records and procedures to see if this tragedy was preventable and how we can stop future cases like these from ever happening.
Any case of child abuse and neglect will never be tolerated, and our attitudes and actions at DHS remain focused on keeping children safe.
Lillian Koller is director of the state’s Department of Human Services. She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.
