Ex-officials dodge issues

Ex-officials dodge issues

Last month on these pages, I wrote that "accreditation (of child welfare agencies) is a way for agencies to get an unearned seal of approval by keeping their paperwork in order --and then throw it in the face of critics, in order to prevent real change." Turns out I was mistaken. Missouri is only partially accredited, yet prominent leaders of the state's child welfare establishment, from C. Truett Baker, the retired head of an agency that lived off a steady supply of foster children, to Steve Roling, the former head of the Department of Social Services, already are rushing to proclaim this, in Roling's words, "an amazing accomplishment" to be "most excited about." But neither writer denied that accreditors never look at actual foster homes. Neither writer denied that group homes and institutions get advance notice of inspections. And neither writer denied that an agency can provide dreadful care and still pass accreditation.