An error of judgment, a child is lost

Officials acknowledge they sent Kenia Valencia back to her abusive home too soon.

By MELANIE AVE
Published July 13, 2007

BRADENTON - It took 18-month-old Kenia Valencia about an hour to suffocate under the weight of a toppled stove while her drugged out mother slept in another room.

Investigators found a "caked oily residue" under the girl's fingernails, indicating her struggle to escape, and a bag of cocaine next to the stove.

If Maribel Chavez, 19, had awakened sooner, when the stove went down with a bang that likely shook the family's mobile home, the girl likely would have survived, a medical examiner concluded. Manatee state prosecutors charged Chavez with manslaughter last week.

The toddler's Dec. 18 death raises a troubling question for Florida's child welfare system: Why was Kenia even with her mother that day?

One month before her death, Kenia had been reunited with her mother through the state's foster care system despite a neglect charge Chavez faced stemming from burns and bruises found on Kenia.

In hindsight, officials with the three child welfare agencies most responsible for Kenia's safety all agree that she shouldn't have been returned to her mother so soon.

"Am I disappointed? Heck yeah," said Florida Department of Children and Families regional director Nick Cox. "A child has died. A child has died when a reunification should not have occurred."

DCF has called the girl's death a "tragic accident" and noted "serious systemic issues" in how her case was handled by private contractors, the Sarasota Family YMCA and Manatee Glens, according to records released this week at the request of the St. Petersburg Times.

Upset about the girl's death, Manatee Glens chief executive officer Mary Ruiz said, "I'm never going to be the same."

YMCA executive vice president Lee Johnson said his agency has already tightened procedures and created a better system of checks and balances for reuniting families.

"We've changed a lot. We're going to change more," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to not let it happen again."

Cox said he is pleased the YMCA is addressing mistakes but is disappointed its corrective plan is not more detailed.

Cox has asked the DCF inspector general to review Kenia's death.

The case marks the second time in as many months that the YMCA's ability to protect children is being reviewed.

* * *

The YMCA has a contract with DCF to oversee foster services in five counties, including Pinellas and Manatee County where Kenia lived.

The agency also was responsible for supervising Courtney Clark, a 2-year-old former Pinellas County foster child who disappeared for nine months with her mother.

Courtney was found safe in Wisconsin in June, but the hunt to find her - which led to a gruesome murder investigation - has highlighted numerous cracks in the state's public-private child welfare system.

Courtney's case also pinpointed problems with a rushed family reunification, which Cox said his office will be monitoring closely.

Currently, caseworkers must try to reunite families within a year, when possible.

On Thursday, DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth announced the creation of a 13-person task force to scrutinize problems Courtney's case revealed.

* * *

Kenia and her 2-year-old sister were put into foster care in April 2006 after her mother sat Kenia in a sink with hot running water and left the room, according to a criminal affidavit. Kenia fell from the sink after her mother went to tend to another child. Kenia suffered bruises and second-degree burns.

When Chavez took her to the hospital the next day, workers also discovered Kenia had a fractured left elbow, according to records assembled as part of DCF's May 21 review of Kenia's death.

In June 2006, the two children were moved from a foster home to an aunt's home.

The girl's father, Sergio Valencia, who was in and out of the picture, expressed a concern that Chavez was using drugs and having unsupervised visits, the records stated.

In November, the aunt told a caseworker she was overwhelmed and considering returning the children to foster care.

When the caseworker passed along the information, a program director told her to start setting up unsupervised visits between the children and Chavez "ASAP," according to DCF's death review.

The YMCA's Johnson said workers pushed for the visits as a way to keep the siblings together as they would have been separated in foster care.

The court returned the children to Chavez Nov. 21.

DCF said the case went from Chavez having "supervised visits, to unsupervised visits, to four overnight visits and finally full reunification within a period of only 15 days" without workers addressing the mother's alleged substance abuse issues or her ability to properly care for them.

Caseworkers also didn't alert prosecutors about the children's return home despite the pending neglect charge.

After her return home, Kenia's caseworker never saw her again. Her case file showed two to four failed attempts to visit the family. DCF policy requires weekly visits since the children were under age 6.

* * *

The day Kenia died Chavez told investigators she took her children to McDonald's for breakfast about 7 a.m. When they returned, she put them to sleep on living room couches and fell asleep herself.

Investigators believe the stove fell when Kenia and her sibling were playing on it with its door open. Chavez said she never heard the stove fall.

Instead, she got up about 1 p.m. when her older child came in her room to ask for a drink.

Chavez, who had cocaine and marijuana in her system that day, according to a criminal affidavit, is held without bail in the Manatee County Jail on manslaughter and drug charges.

"We're here for child safety," DCF's Cox said. "Obviously this is one of the last things you want to see happen."

Fast Facts:

A plan for change

The YMCA proposed changes in the wake of Kenia Valencia's Dec. 18 death. They include:

-A review of family reunification cases assigned to Manatee Glens caseworkers.

-Improved training to help caseworkers better assess family safety and family reunification.

-Improved communication between agencies, DCF, law enforcement and parenting class providers.

-A requirement that law enforcement be notified when a family cannot be located after reunification following two failed attempts to visit.

Source: Sarasota Family YMCA

[Last modified July 13, 2007, 00:29:15]