If there were a sitting Governor Romney or Baker and we saw this headline:
Massachusetts ranked 38 out of 50 states in the percent of foster children visited each month by caseworkers, according to 2012 data from the US Department of Health and Human Services, the most recent data available.
In the category of children not mistreated again within six months, the state ranked 45th.
Now, read the article and many caveats apply. The data are from US Department of Health and Human Services, but somewhat foolishly, the Globe article mentions “rankings” from a laughably right-wing Florida think tank that’s mostly interested in pointing out “failures” of Obamacare Medicaid rollout. Yeah, haters gonna hate.
But they’re not the only ones. Let’s remember Judge William Young, who blaming Massachusetts’ “penury” in a searing jeremiad, asking taxpayers and our political leaders, “Do you care?” Indeed, DCF’s budget has been cut from $836.5M in FY2009 to $737.1 million in FY2012. This with Democratic everybody: House, Senate, Governor. If that lower figure is enough to do good work … well, prove it.
I don’t blame our political leaders directly for the problems of DCF. But I do hold them accountable to make things better. That means adequate funding; adequate training; adequate supervision; a culture of support, responsibility and compassion in management, not bean-counting austerity; and transparency and cooperation with good-faith evaluators in the academic community [EDIT: not to mention the federal government].
If being in a “progressive” state means nice schools and health care for the middle/upper classes, but vulnerable kids get neglected and lost, count me out. If we believe in a social safety net, we need to fix the holes.
jconway says
Is appalling understaffed, underresourced, and varies in competency depending on where you are. My brother and a good friends mother each had a terrible time with the foster care system. Reforming this and our long time abominable children’s mental health system should be top priorities. My dad was a child mental health counselor for almost 30 years and would tell you the administrations he worked under were wholly indifferent and just looked to cut and squeeze efficiencies rather than address the problems compassionately. He retired before Patrick took office, but said government under either party at the state and national level prioritized these kids last. That has to change.
JimC says
Good to see this addressed.
mannygoldstein says
First off, chidren neither vote, nor have cash for campaigns and/or for generous gifts for a job well done when politicians return to the public sector.
The parents of children in crisis sometimes vote, but DCF can only anger these people, not win their votes.
Therefore, it only makes sense that we divert funding towards other endeavors that have a greater upside. C’mon people: time to put on your big-boy and big-girl pants and face reality; the Job Creators are the ones who count, we must ensure that they continue to have low, low taxes so that one day they’ll create a job.
Regards,
Third-Way Manny
(Normal Manny’s doppelganger)
Charley on the MTA says
Modest Proposal Manny.
mannygoldstein says
on how we can save many millions of dollars while also reducing the misery of the little wretches… hmm…
merrimackguy says
unless of course they had lots of excess funds.
Still hasn’t gone to trial. Apparently “still investigating” three years later.
This is WBUR but there were many sources. Coakley?….Coakley?
Mark L. Bail says
from his thumbs, but the budgets are completely unrelated. Education collaboratives are supported by member schools.
Where is Coakley on this?
Trickle up says
where “you” is the legislature and the conventional wisdom and all those smart powerful people acting on our behalf.
Dysfunction harms the innocent and fixing it will not come cheap.
Keep that in mind when you hear a candidate or other Very Important Person solemnly explain how there is no money and no revenue options and the solution is to cut the Department of Waste in a government that needs to Run Smarter Not Bigger.
bob-gardner says
DCF only gets in trouble when a transgression is so spectacular that it cannot be hidden.
The day to day oppression of the agency is hidden–embargoed. It is literally illegal to complain publicly about a specific case.
A close friend of mine lost her three small children to DCF (then DSS) almost 10 years ago. She has not been allowed any contact with them since. It is illegal for her to even know their names.
Did she beat her children, endanger them, abuse them? No such claims were ever made. But she gave the DSS workers a hard time, constantly calling them to demand longer visits, and dragging out her visits with her children.
Does that sound too far fetched to be true. Check out the decision in “adoption of Betsy”, or read the trial transcript. Except that you can’t read any of this stuff. It’s illegal.
Christopher says
Privacy is also a legitimate concern.
dave-from-hvad says
DCF caseworkers and DDS service coordinators, while at the same time, state-funded corporate service providers are paying their executives bigger and bigger salaries. But I suppose that’s to be expected since caseworkers and service coordinators are state employees and are therefore an easy target for elected officials of both parties eager to show everyone how capable they are of cutting government.
Better just to ignore the private contractors living more than comfortably in their unmonitored “outposts of government” (as merrimackguy reminds us above).