FOSTER CHILDREN   

Watching as the children starved

The country was horrified last fall when New Jersey officials found four emaciated children — including a 10-year-old weighing only 28 pounds — who had been systematically starved by their adoptive parents over a period of years, even though the family was supposed to be under the supervision of caseworkers from the state's child welfare agency. The children have gained weight and been nursed back to health since being removed from the home. But thousands of other children will remain at risk until the state restructures its Division of Youth and Family Services along the lines of a plan that was recently approved by a panel of experts and forwarded to the courts for judicial review.

A report by the state child advocate's office shows that caseworkers are poorly trained and unfamiliar with basic department policies. They are also overworked, sometimes handling more than 80 cases at a time, a situation that can cause workers to miss obvious danger signs.

The system failed to act in the starvation case, despite clear signs as far back as the early 1990's that one of the children was being denied food. That child's file contained more than a dozen entries on nutritional problems and noted tips from informers who believed that he was being deprived of food. The file further notes that the emaciated child sometimes pleaded with caseworkers for food and once even ransacked a caseworker's glove compartment in search of something to eat. When he ate away from home, he begged the caseworkers not to tell his adoptive parents. The family was nevertheless allowed to adopt three more children; each came with a government subsidy.

This case was brought to light after the child welfare agency had been sued by an advocacy group, Children's Rights, for failing to live up to its responsibilities. A panel of experts appointed in connection with the lawsuit has guided the state toward an ambitious plan that would lower caseloads and improve caseworkers' training while adding new staff to the child welfare agency. Instead of dismissing reports of neglect and abuse — as clearly happened in the starvation case — caseworkers would be required to check out accusations and take specific actions. The budget for this beleaguered, underfinanced agency will need to be sharply increased.

Atrocities like the New Jersey starvation case almost always begin with caseworkers who are expected to do too much with too few resources, and a state or local government that is strapped for money. Poor children don't have much lobbying clout. The only remedy is a decision on the part of political leaders that protecting the most helpless members of society is the most important thing that government does, and deserves the highest priority when the resources are doled out. If New Jersey's leaders can't do that, the courts will wind up doing it for them.

25 June 2004
 

home / Previous viewpoint