There’s no pecking order to how the state responds to causes for concern.
Be it roads, public health, the environment, education, elections, poverty, ethics and so on.
However, the one concern that cries for a sense of urgency above all others are reports of child abuse or neglect.
It’s not just a case of protecting our world’s most valuable resource or its best hope for the future, either.
Indeed, it’s the legal and moral obligation of every adult, but especially those who are licensed and paid to protect children, to do so.
Last week, a legislative audit’s findings of the state’s Child Protective Services indicated rather than a sense of urgency to reports of child abuse and neglect, it’s more like “we’ll get back to you.”
Let’s be clear, we are not atempting to denigrate the efforts of hundreds of overtaxed social workers and others within CPS or under the state Department of Health and Human Resources umbrella.
Instead, this audit and our review of it points to the misplaced priorities of not just DHHR’s leadership, but our state’s executive and legislative branches.
How can anyone accept that half the time CPS is not meeting with children who are the subject of reports of abuse and neglect within the federally prescribed 14-day time frame? Even worse, CPS is not conducting a face-to-face interview with children in cases of imminent danger within 72 hours 49.9% of the time.
It stands to reason these numbers on face-to-face meetings in a timely manner should never rise beyond the single digits.
Other statistics in this audit are just as telling. For instance, referrals were up from 20,998 in 2015 to 26,870 in 2018. That’s about a 30% increase.
The numbers of drug-related referrals are up nearly 80% in that time span — from 2,700 to nearly 5,000.
Meanwhile, inadequate numbers of social worker graduates, yo-yoing numbers of vacant CPS positions, low pay and high rates of turnover all underlie this crisis.
The audit also points out lack of five-year background checks of CPS employees and though its employees are required to be licensed there is little to no proof most are.
Some argue we are failing our children in everything from allowing for unchecked consumerism to paying more attention to our cellphones than our kids.
Yet, few would argue that failing to provide children with protection from abuse and neglect points to a statewide system in crisis.
Much like efforts to sanction charter schools this year, we urge lawmakers to take up the cause of children in harm’s way next year.
If there is a hierarchy of who comes first we put children’s safety before any cause.
