Abuse missed in children's deaths, report says

The state isn't taking into account clear signs of abuse or neglect when kids involved with the child-welfare system die, according to a report by the Office of Family and Children's Ombudsman.

The report, released Tuesday, is an intensive examination of child deaths and complaints from 2004 and 2005. It says 87 children who either had an open case or were the subject of a complaint to the child-welfare system died in 2004. Abuse or neglect were "clear" factors in 25 cases and were "concerns" in an additional 36 cases, according to the report. Other children died of illness or in accidents.

The state Department of Social and Health Services, (DSHS) which oversees the Children's Administration, classifies fewer than 10 deaths as due to abuse or neglect.

"I think it's a lot," Mary Meinig, director of the ombudsman's office, said of the total number of fatalities. "We're looking at things maybe with a different lens."

The report called for more thorough outside reviews of child deaths, including statewide standards for such investigations. It is the first time the ombudsman so closely examined the underlying causes for every child-death case in a year.

DSHS disputed some of the report's findings.

"It's very easy for anyone to review a case and say in their opinion that this death is caused by neglect," said Tom Stokes, child-fatality program manager for the Children's Administration. "You could argue back and forth on a neglect case. It can be based on someone's opinion."

He noted that the department records indicate 83 fatalities, not 87.

In addition to examining the child-death cases, the report detailed scores of cases in which it says the agency erred in smaller ways.

For example, the report said DSHS failed to require a foster parent to undergo a sexual-deviancy evaluation, even after receiving 17 complaints connected with the home. (After the ombudsman's office intervened, children were removed from the home.)

There were delays in placing children with adoptive families, in investigating complaints and in getting foster parents approved.

One child was living in a home where the caregiver had been accused of raping another child; another experienced unnecessary pain as he waited for his dental surgery to be approved; a third was reportedly working for a registered sex offender, yet the agency did not act quickly.

The report included a number of recommendations, including lower caseloads, better support for foster parents and more access to relatives for kids removed from their homes.

Meinig noted that previous recommendations, including those that followed high-profile child-abuse deaths, were sometimes not fully implemented.

"We continue to have grave concerns that the recommendations that arise from these and other fatality reviews are not being sufficiently and consistently implemented," she said.

DSHS, however, said the department has instituted many new safety policies over the past few years and is implementing some others.

"We agree with all these recommendations," Stokes said. "In some form they are all being addressed and worked on at various levels."

Material from the Associated Press is included in this report.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com