Editorial: Openness that is overdue

Saturday, March 24, 2007 | 7:01 a.m.

There are volumes to say about the state's beleaguered child welfare system. For starters, it is simply overwhelmed and doesn't have enough money to truly protect the children under its care.

State and county officials are working to overhaul the system and need more money to do so. Money alone won't solve the problem, however. The officials need to be more open about their work.

After a tragedy happens in the child welfare system - when a child dies or goes missing, for example - state and county officials won't release details of what happened. They say state and federal privacy laws prevent them from divulging more than a meager dose of information.

Nonetheless, the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law last year accused the Nevada Child and Family Services Division of violating federal law by not providing detailed information on child deaths. The nonprofit group has been one of the harshest, but hardly the only, critics of the way Nevada handles child welfare issues.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley is pushing a bill that would force officials to release more information about child tragedies.

The bill would mandate that in child deaths or near-deaths child welfare agencies report more specifics about the child, what happened, and any of the agency's past dealings with the child or family. It would also require the agency to report what its plans are regarding the case.

Also, the bill would mandate that a child welfare agency give out detailed information, including a photograph and physical description, about a child who is missing.

Assembly Bill 261 is a common sense approach to part of the problems facing the child welfare system and should be approved by the Legislature.

Making such information public will help hold child welfare agencies more accountable, which will mean the state and county will better protect the children in their care.