New Mexico: Only One Report of Child Abuse in 20 is ‘Substantiated’
This is an excellent article by George Chandler, an attorney in Los Alamos, New Mexico (Albuquerque Journal, 5/8/11).
It’s about the behavior of and laws governing the child welfare agency in that state, the Child Protective Services Division of the Children Youth and Families Department (CYFD). That means it only applies to incidents occurring in the Sunshine State, but it contains good advice and information for people elsewhere.
I have several comments to add to this story:
ReplyDelete1] Treatment foster care is contracted out and CYFD has a lessoned level of oversight for these cases. The contracting agency may or may not have appropriately educated supervisory staff and foster parents.
2]Most of the CYFD workers are "underfills", that is, they are not educated in social work, and they are not nationally qualified or licensable as Social Workers. July 29th the State Board of Social Work Examiners will be taking up this problem.
3]Until CYFD workers are Licensed they can not be held accountable to the standards of Social Work. Until they are licensed they can not be disciplined outside of the agency and tort law. Until they have licenses they can not (and do not) carry appropriate malpractice insurance. I am sure a malpractice charge against the supervising workers would help the bereaved family bury their mother/sister/daughter and help the suspects' families get them appropriate care.
Roberta Crone Childs and Tash Robb