Children’s protective services lacking

Saturday, April 22, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

Las Vegas has a lot of growing up to do to ensure that children at risk of abuse and neglect are cared for appropriately, a national child welfare expert said Friday.

Clark County still operates like the small rural community it once was - not like a metropolis of 1.5 million people - when it comes to investigating suspicious child deaths or otherwise protecting its children, Theresa Covington, director of the National Center for Child Death Review, said in an interview. "Cities similar in size to Las Vegas, like Riverside, San Jose and Sacramento, do a better job because agencies in those cities talk to each other," Covington told the Sun on Friday, one day after presenting troubling findings to a panel reviewing child deaths in Clark County.

In Las Vegas, little coordination exists. "Rural areas do not do any better than Clark County, while major metropolitan areas do a much better job investigating deaths of children at risk by getting involved from the very beginning and working together throughout," she said.

What's more, Covington said, the county does not have enough staff to do the work.

So not only must communication and cooperation improve, but elected officials must take responsibility for ensuring that the agencies involved have the resources they need.

Her comments gave a broader context to the detailed findings she presented to the panel. Those findings were based on the study of 79 suspicious local child deaths between 2001 and 2004. At times, she said, Child Protective Services was not alerted by police for as many as three to four days after a death.

The findings were included in a report showing a general breakdown of the system, including in law enforcement investigations into child deaths, apathy of some child welfare officials and coroner's rulings regarding kids' deaths.

"The report was eye-opening, but it also provided some comfort that in some of the areas where we have made changes, we did the right thing," Assistant County Manager Darryl Martin said.

"We have to do things differently because we have grown so fast and, on all levels, we are trying to keep up. But when we are talking about children's lives, it is a priority that we catch up quickly."

Changes made in the past two years include a new policy that the coroner's office review or conduct an autopsy on every child 18 or younger who dies.

Getting all agencies to work together, especially because they all have different bosses, will be a challenge but a doable one, Martin said.

"The sheriff and the DA are elected by the people and do not answer to the county manager or commissioner, but both also are vested in making sure we work as a team," Martin said, predicting that the damning report will spark closer ties among the appropriate agencies.

The study also spotlighted the failures of the Clark County Family Services Department, including Child Protective Services, to adequately protect children and to provide follow-up care and investigations into allegations of abuse and neglect - proactive efforts that Covington said could save lives.

"CPS handled matters in a lackluster fashion," Covington said Friday.

The panel recommended that child welfare record-keeping methods be changed.

At Thursday's meeting, the Family Services Department provided the panel with case files for dozens of child deaths. Some records were either incomplete, wrong or, in some cases, dated long after the death.

Another suggested change, Covington said, would be to revamp the "highly flawed" hotline to report incidents of child abuse . Covington said panel members called the hotline several times to test its effectiveness and had waits each time, including one of 57 minutes.

Another problem is inadequate staffing of the agencies, Covington said.

She noted that each medical examiner in the coroner's office handles 400 cases a year, compared with the industry standard of 250 . Martin said the county is seeking to hire an additional medical examiner.

Covington also said that child welfare investigators carry as many as 15 new cases at a time, compared with the national standard of eight.

Local agencies also can no longer treat drownings and incidents of children being left in cars on hot days as accidents, Covington said.

Police don't always investigate such incidents thoroughly and the district attorney's office does not always prosecute because it feels the "parent has suffered enough" by the loss of the child.