Governor Peter Shumlin has announced changes in the Vermont Department of Children and Families in the wake of the death of two toddlers whose families had been under the review of the agency.
In February, 2-year-old Dezirae Sheldon died. He stepfather is accused of second degree murder after police say he crushed her skull. Her mother had previously been in the courts and charged with cruelty to a child. Dezirae had been returned to her parents’ custody.
In April, 15-month-old Peighton Geraw died from trauma to the head and neck. His death has been ruled a homicide but no one has yet been charged. A social worker had visited one hour prior and had reported bruises on his neck, but took no other action.
Now, Governor Peter Shumlin is moving to revamp the state’s Department of Children and Families. He tasked the Human Services Agency, which the department falls under, to “narrow the department’s focus to its core mission of protecting children...” The governor announced the immediate recruitment of 18 social workers and targeted training.
After the first child’s death, the governor called upon the Vermont Citizen Advisory Board for Child Protection Services to investigate. Co-chair Dr. Joseph Hagan explains that each state is required by federal law to have such advisory boards to oversee work regarding the safety of children. He says their external investigation will now probe both deaths. “Tragically it’s not rare. Now, we don’t have many deaths in Vermont and to have two in a short period of time is double the tragedy. I think one must be very cautious in leaping to the conclusion that because these happened temporally close together that they are somehow indicative of a deficiency or a problem. Are we going to look for that? Are we going to try to assess that? Of course. Because even if we’re doing a good job, and national statistics say that Vermont is, can we not always do a better job? That’s an angle we’ll be looking at as well.”
Hagan does not think the governor’s most recent actions will impact the work of the Citizen Advisory Board. “One of the things that we’ll talk about is the caseload of individual workers. So I was very pleased to see that Governor Shumlin took the step to right away create 18 new social workers and six additional workers working around substance abuse. The other thing that he talked about was asking Secretary Racine to look at the overall structure of DCF. I think that’s what strong organizations do.”
A special Senate panel has also been formed to assess potential policy changes at the Department of Children and Families. Co-Chair Senator Dick Sears says the key function of the department must focus on child protection. “I’ve had a lot of concern expressed by people regarding the idea that many times they called with a concern and they don’t feel that concern has been addressed about a particular child being in danger. We’ve heard concerns from people regarding the desire to have families reunited when it may not be in the best interest of the child. Those are some of the things that we’ve been hearing preliminarily.”
Calls to the Commissioner of the Department of Children and Families were not returned in time for this broadcast.
The investigation by the Vermont Citizen Advisory Board is confidential and results will be reported to Human Services Secretary Douglas Racine. The special Senate panel will conduct three days of public hearings at nine locations in Vermont beginning on June 3rd.
The action in Vermont follows months of turmoil in the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families that resulted in the resignation of commissioner Olga Roche, who was forced out after facing intense pressure over the deaths of three children.
