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Backlog of abuse files 'appalling'
By CURTIS KRUEGER, Times Staff Writer Despite spending millions and hiring outside help, Florida has 6,447 child abuse investigations which have been open for more than a year. Critics called the number appalling. "There's no excuse for the number being that high, if that's the number," said attorney Karen Gievers, a longtime child advocate and critic of the state system. Child abuse investigations normally should be completed in 60 days, according to state law. But state officials, saying a backlog of year-old cases had reached 10,377 by this time last year, said the latest numbers are evidence of progress. Under scrutiny for its backlog and the quality of its hired help, the state's Department of Children and Families social services agency now is scrambling both to evaluate its efforts at investigating child abuse and to defend its record. DCF director of Family Safety Mike Watkins said he was not alarmed that so many investigations remain open for a year, saying investigators have good reasons for keeping the cases open. "It's not important to me what the number of cases" is, Watkins said. "What's important is what is the current situation in those investigations, that children are safe in those cases." Florida's child abuse investigations have come under scrutiny in recent weeks since DCF canceled multimillion-dollar contracts with a nonprofit Pinellas Park company called the Florida Task Force for the Protection of Abused and Neglected Children. The move came after state reports criticized the nonprofit's work and a former employee charged that workers with high caseloads and tight deadlines may have falsified records. Investigators try to finish initial child abuse investigations within 60 days. Workers label the cases as backlogged if they take longer. After the death of Kaylea McKean, a 6-year-old killed by her father in Lake County in 1998, calls to Florida's child abuse hotline skyrocketed. The Department of Children and Families responded by hiring the Task Force and by beefing up and reorganizing its own staff. The effect was dramatic. Total backlogged cases, which surged over 51,000 in January 2001, have dropped to 28,581 this month. Watkins said DCF staff closed the majority of the cases. Watkins calls the drop in the backlog an improvement, though he says, "it's not acceptable for us to have 28,000 investigations in backlog, but we will continue to improve that." He acknowledged DCF would not make its previously stated goal of reducing backlogged cases to 15,000 by July. As to the 6,447 cases that have remained open more than a year, Watkins said the reasons could include: Complex cases in which the state goes to court to terminate parental rights. In such cases, the children are removed from home and put in foster care. The investigation remains open as the court case progresses. Cases in which the parents seem to be complying with child welfare workers but later don't. For example, workers may ask a mother to sever ties with a boyfriend who has abused children. If she agrees, her chances for keeping her children are increased. But if she later invites him back to her home, workers may go to court and seek to remove the children relatively late in the process. Cases in which much of the investigation has been completed and "we just have not administratively closed the files." Watkins said he did not think the 6,447 cases that have remained open a year included many that the department has initially labeled high-risk. Watkins said he is preparing a strategy for reviewing 13,000 cases handled by the Florida Task Force to make sure they were properly investigated. He said he planned to present options to DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney this week. -- Staff writer Curtis Krueger can be reached at krueger@sptimes.com or by calling (727) 893-8232.
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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