Editorial: Child care enters new era

Friday, May 5, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

The sudden resignation Wednesday of Susan Klein-Rothschild from her position as director of the Clark County Family Services Department was not terribly surprising. The department has been a focal point of criticism over the past few years as it has waged a desperate struggle to provide services to a rising tide of children in need.

Rapidly increasing abuse and neglect cases - as many as a fourth caused by parental drug abuse - are hampering the county's ability to find foster homes for the hundreds of children coming into its care each month. Child Haven, the county's emergency home for children, has been criticized for being overcrowded.

Child deaths have brought criticism of procedures used by the Family Services Department. A high-profile case last year, the death of 2-year-old Adacelli Snyder, raised questions about whether the department had adequately followed through on the case. For almost a year the department's Child Protective Services Division counseled the baby's parents after receiving reports of her being underweight and living in squalid conditions. A year after the division closed the case, Adacelli was found dead in her home of horrible neglect.

A state panel, charged with investigating 79 suspicious child deaths in Clark County between 2001 and 2004, commissioned a report from the National Center for Child Death Review in Michigan. The center's report, released last month, criticized all aspects of Clark County's justice system for failing to properly protect children. It also specifically cited Child Protective Services for shortcomings in follow-up care and investigations into allegations of abuse and neglect.

It was not a report that Klein-Rothschild, who has held her position for about 4 1/2 years, could weather, despite her many accomplishments and the fact that resources for her department were not keeping pace with growth. The director of the Center for Child Death Review, in an interview with the Sun after the report was released, said straight out that the county does not have enough staff.

Immediately after Klein-Rothschild's resignation, County Manager Thom Reilly announced her replacement - Thomas Morton, the nationally known founder of Chicago's Child Welfare Institute who has worked with the Family Services Department as a consultant.

Morton is a highly respected, highly qualified child-care expert. We hope, however, that in its willingness to bring someone of his caliber to the job, Clark County is also going to be willing to provide him with the resources he will need to be successful.