Tallies of abuse-related cases tied to improving Nevada child welfare
Twelve children died from abuse or neglect in Nevada over the past two years, according to a recent legislative auditor’s review.
Another nine abused children almost succumbed to their injuries during the same time period.
Those 21 children had prior contact with a child welfare agency. The figure doesn’t capture the abuse- or neglect-related deaths of children who lacked a case history with the system.
“Our review found, in some cases, the agency had prior contact with certain members of the household, but did not have any contact with the person who committed the abuse or neglect that caused the fatality,” according to a review summary sent to the Nevada Legislature in February. “Therefore, we do not believe that the agency’s actions regarding allegations prior to the fatality could have prevented the fatality.”
The Legislative Counsel Bureau conducts ongoing reviews of such child deaths and near fatalities with the goal of improving child welfare services. The bureau summarizes its findings every two years to provide lawmakers with an update, said Paul Townsend, an auditor with the Legislative Counsel Bureau. State lawmakers in the past have requested a presentation of such information.
Legislators in the current session have yet to do so, Townsend said last week.
“We want them to know what’s going on in case they want to make a change in legislation or policy,” he said.
IDENTIFYING FAULTS
The latest review examined 66 case files from Jan. 1, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2014. The majority of the deaths or near fatalities, where abuse or neglect was found to be the primary factor, came from Clark County — the state’s largest county — which had 14 of the 21 cases. Of those 14 cases, eight were fatalities and six were near fatalities.
Washoe County — the state’s second-largest county — had a total of five cases over the two-year period, with three fatalities and two near fatalities.
The rural counties reported two cases, with one fatality and one near fatality, according to the review.
In the other 45 cases that came under scrutiny, the files didn’t indicate that abuse or neglect was the primary factor in the fatality or near fatality, according to the review.
Every time a child fatality or near fatality occurs and there has been prior child welfare involvement, the bureau gets a report, Townsend said. The bureau has conducted reviews since the 2007 legislative session after a law was passed requiring them. The law stemmed from concerns about lack of availability of information in such deaths.
“The (most recent) report was about as positive as we are going to get,” he said.
That wasn’t the case for the bureau’s last review, which examined 89 case files from Jan. 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2012. Serious issues were identified involving “faults with the way cases were handled” by the child welfare agencies, Townsend said.
For example, that review identified a Clark County case where the Department of Family Services did not initiate a child protective services investigation immediately upon receiving an abuse report. The agency waited 24 hours to investigate and the child died during that time, Townsend said.
Clark County management agreed that staff would be retrained by Feb. 15, 2013, on policies and procedures “with a special emphasis on what type of information requires a Priority I response,” according to the 2013 review.
Although documents don’t mention names, that case involved 7-year-old Roderick “RJ” Arrington, whose severe abuse at the hands of his mother, Dina Palmer, and stepfather, Markiece Palmer, led to his death in 2012. The stepfather in January was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the boy’s death. For her role in the beatings, Dina Palmer was sentenced in December 2014 to 16 to 40 years in prison.
Clark County commissioners on March 17 approved an $85,000 settlement with RJ’s father, Roderick Arrington Sr., who sued the county in 2013.
Clark County Department of Family Services officials in late 2013 said the hotline worker who took the child abuse report didn’t follow policy and misclassified the call. The employee was terminated, but an arbitrator later ruled to reinstate the worker.
County spokesman Erik Pappa said staff members were retrained around the time specified in the 2013 review. It’s common practice to retrain all staff when there’s a serious error and policy wasn’t followed, he added.
“It’s a best practice,” he said Wednesday.
That same review also found that Washoe County’s policies could be revised to better ensure the safety of children when multiple allegations are made, and that the rural areas could provide more comprehensive disclosures on child fatalities.
PREVIOUS REVIEWS
The 2011 review looked at 93 case files from Jan. 1, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2010. In 24 of those cases, abuse or neglect was found to be a contributing factor in the injury or fatality.
The 2011 review found no evidence that fatalities were caused by agencies not complying with laws, but it did note a rural case where insufficient information was released to the public in a child fatality.
The 2009 review looked at 45 case files from July 1, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2008. In seven of those cases — all from Clark County — abuse or neglect was a factor in the fatality.
Denise Tanata Ashby, executive director for the Children’s Advocacy Alliance in Las Vegas, said each fatality and near fatality where abuse or neglect is a primary factor will have different circumstances. So each case offers different lessons to be learned by child welfare agencies.
“Each of those cases, it’s a little bit different,” she said last week.
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