In 2020, headlines across the commonwealth shared news of the horrific death of a 14-year-old boy with autism that prompted calls for reform at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. That office had signed off on allowing David Almond to return to the care of a parent with a long history of abusive behavior under uncertain circumstances. Almond’s death was ultimately ruled a homicide as a result of neglect, starvation, and abuse in a squalid Fall River home.
“David Almond’s case had gone through six foster care reviews, and not at any time was it suggested that he wasn't safe to go back home. And that's crazy, because there were so many red flags in that case, and it just showed that the foster care review system was not working," said Democratic State Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier of the 2nd Berkshire District. “Foster care review is an important part of what happens when a child is in placement, and it's a federal requirement that a child's case is reviewed every six months. I have had for a long time a concern that DCF is reviewing itself and that it should be pulled out of DCF and put in a more independent agency. And so that was the original intent of one of the bills that I had put forward and is in this bill.”
The bill in question passed earlier this month is titled “An Act Enhancing Child Welfare Protections,” which in part increases the role of the state’s Office of the Child Advocate.
“The child advocate, in theory, is supposed to be an independent person that can act without repercussions from the governor or the legislature or anything, and we needed to do some things in statute to strengthen that independence," said Farley-Bouvier. "And so, we did that. We've also done some work to require more reporting and accountability, but also, many times the legislature asked for reports, and we just layer one report on top of the other. And this time we went in, we looked at all the reporting that DCF has to do, and after several years of work, really clarified the data that we need, taking those accountability measures and putting it in statute so it's not dependent on who the commissioner is at the time, for example.”
In addition, the new legislation increases the number of eyes on young people in the state system.
“What is happening now is that there are three reviewers, and one of the reviewers is a volunteer reviewer, volunteer from the community, and that reviewer is getting a whole different kind of training to be able to give a stronger voice in the review process,” said the state representative.
Farley-Bouvier stresses that Massachusetts still has a lot of work to do regarding the welfare of children and the foster care system.
“I've been working in this space for many, many years, and I think we need to do more to support foster parents," she told WAMC. "And I say that because we have a great need for foster parents in the system, and the very best way to recruit more is one, retain, keep a hold of them because they're having a good experience, and two, then they tell people that this is a good experience, you should do this. And that is our best recruitment tool, and by taking care of or supporting the foster parents that are actually taking care of the child. So that's something I've always been very much in favor of. I also think we need to look at the complexity of families and do everything we can to support children safely in the home. Not every child can stay at home because they are not safe, but there's many things that we can do as a community, as a government to support these families so that kids can stay at home, because safely at home is the best place for a kid.”
