Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | 8:47 a.m.
The nonprofit National Center for Youth Law has accused the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services of violating federal law by failing to provide detailed information on child fatalities in its annual child death reports.
At issue is the child welfare agency's alleged noncompliance with a federal law that requires states to disclose "findings or information" about cases of child abuse and neglect when those cases involve a fatality or near fatality.
Officials outside of Nevada have said that their findings on child death cases are made public.
These discoveries and recommendations have helped to prevent other child deaths by providing social workers and others with details on how a child fell through the cracks and what could have been done to prevent the death, officials said.
According to William Grimm, senior attorney with the Oakland-based National Center for Youth Law, the state's child welfare agency has failed to include any detailed information about child abuse and neglect cases involving deaths in the annual reports, as required by law.
"Nevada is grossly out of compliance with the congressional requirements to make information available in cases of death or near death," Grimm said. "It's outrageous that they have been able to work for years without informing the public of cases involving deaths of children in abuse and neglect cases."
He said the National Center for Youth Law will formally request that the state release information on child abuse and neglect deaths.
The child welfare agency denies the accusations.
"The Nevada Division of Child and Family Services does not believe we are not in compliance with the (Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act)," said Chrystal Main, social services advocate for the child welfare agency.
She said that the agency has never received a letter from Grimm or the Oakland-based nonprofit.
The child welfare agency, however, welcomes any discussions that would "enhance our practise regarding child services," she said.
She declined to comment further.
Under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, states set up child fatality review panels that are charged with publishing reports with "information, findings and recommendations on each case, and this report is made public," according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The information must be made public even if it contains typically confidential child abuse and neglect information, according to the federal agency.
The most recent 2002 to 2003 child death report from the Nevada child welfare agency doesn't include this information.
The report states that from 2002 to 2003, 12 children died because of abuse and neglect but does not say if the children were in the foster care system or received social services.
It also provides no information on the death other than the age and gender of the victim and the cause of death.
The youngest child who died of abuse and neglect in 2002 to 2003 was 2 months old, while the oldest was 8, according to the report. The 2-month-old died of cerebral injuries, and the 8-year-old was struck in the head with a baseball bat, according to the report.
The report lists recommendations, including improving data collection tools and pushing for new laws that "mandate team participation and the availability of records," among other recommendations.
"The agency just conducts the investigations in secrecy," Grimm said.
John Fudenberg, assistant Clark County coroner, represents the coroner's office on the county's Child Fatality Review Team, the group that reviews all child fatalities in the area and sends its findings to the state.
The team is made up of officials and representatives from law enforcement, hospitals, social service agencies and the coroner's office.
"We thoroughly review each case," he said.
Fudenberg said the committee meets once a month at a county's coroner's office and reviews every death of a minor.
The team has an open discussion on how to prevent the deaths in the future but the meetings are closed to the public, he said.
He was not aware of the actual report and what information it contained.
By contrast, the Department of Social and Health Services for Washington state publicly releases individual reports on every child who has died because of abuse and neglect if that child has ever been involved by a child welfare or social service agency.
Byron Manering, the executive director of Brigid Collins, a nonprofit child abuse and treatment program, served on a child fatality review committee looking into the death of Emerald Champagne-Loop in Bellingham, Wash. Champagne-Loop, who was 2 1/2 years old, died from brain damage after being shaken due to abuse at home, according to news reports.
Day care workers reported the child's injuries but state workers allegedly did not remove the child from the home.
"Children do die -- we can't stop that from happening. But we can learn and learn what we can do differently," he said.
The 22-page report on the Champagne-Loop case is nearly as long as Nevada's entire 2002 to 2003 report and includes both detailed recommendations as well as a six-year chronology of the incident. While some of the material is blackened out to the public, much of it remains.
The importance of making these reports public is that social workers and others can take the information and recommendations and discover what not to do in the future, said Carla Grau-Egerton, who also served on the Champagne-Loop fatality review committee.
Grau-Egerton is also the manager of the Court Appointed Special Advocates program for Island County in Washington.
"The panels are not formed to be fault seeking but to look at the situation and look for ways to prevent the situation from happening again," she said.
She said the reports should be made public because they "should serve to inform the public and help de-mystify the problem. The reports show social workers what could be done so they don't repeat the mistakes."
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