FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 29, 2009

CONTACT: Mary Helen Cervantes Press Office: (609) 63308507

DCF / DYFS HAS NOT RETREATED IN PUBLIC RELEASE OF INFORMATION
Absolutely No Changes Made to Limit Public Information

Improving New Jersey’s child welfare system and maintaining transparency are paramount to the mission of the Department of Children and Families. It is that strong and focused commitment that has helped the Department to achieve tremendous progress over the past three years, ensuring the safety and well-being of New Jersey’s most vulnerable children and families.

Therefore, it is important to clarify misinformation about changes in what information DCF, the state’s child protection and welfare agency, releases regarding a child fatality or near fatality due to abuse or neglect. DCF has not proposed to make, nor will it make, any changes limiting its public information.

“Let me be clear, DCF has made absolutely no change that will limit the public’s access to information surrounding the tragic loss of a child as a result of abuse or neglect,” said DCF Commissioner Kimberly S. Ricketts.  “In fact, Governor Corzine has asked that DCF now provide the same information that has always been available in a more proactive and easy to access way for the public.”

Under federal and state statutes, the state is required to release specific information regarding a child fatality or near-fatality resulting from child abuse or neglect.  This information includes:

• details about the child victim, including full name, gender, age, and home county
• the nature of the incident and cause of death
• information on who the alleged perpetrator is and relationship to the child victim
• the entire family history (if applicable) of a child victim, including the date and disposition of each prior referral received about the family, investigation findings, case closure dates, and any services provided to the family (i.e. domestic violence services, substance abuse counseling, parenting classes, etc.)
• the last date of contact DYFS had with the child victim’s family prior to the fatality (if applicable).

DCF receives regular requests for the detailed information above, particularly from the media and has always made it available upon request. To provide even greater access, DCF will now proactively post these reports annually and will, in the coming month, post reports on all abuse/neglect fatalities that occurred in 2006, 2007 and 2008. 

In addition to the detailed information noted above that is released by DCF, the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) – an independent office housed in the Department of the Public Advocate - has decided to collaborate more extensively with the New Jersey Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Board and conduct a unified and independent review of all child fatalities and near fatalities instead of issuing its own report on select child fatalities.  The board is a multidisciplinary panel (which includes medical examiners, state police, prosecutors, law guardians, pediatricians, psychologists, social workers, and OCA) that was established in 1997 by the state CAPTA statute to review and report on child fatalities and near-fatalities and provide meaningful recommendations on system-wide improvements that may be needed to prevent future fatalities or near-fatalities, and improve services to children and families. 

Over the past six months, OCA and the Board have been engaged in an intensive process to strengthen the work of the Board, improve its operation, expeditiously review serious cases of abuse and neglect and marshal the significant expertise and resources of the Board. 

As a part of this process, OCA and the Board together plan to create in the coming year a more comprehensive assessment of each case and issue a unified report on child deaths that will provide recommendations for proactive steps to address immediate concerns involving any system that serves children. 

While DCF agrees with OCA and the Board’s decision and welcomes a more robust review by this multidisciplinary team, the decision does not and will not restrict or change any information currently released by the DCF surrounding the cases of child fatalities or near fatalities resulting from abuse or neglect. 

Since 2006, DCF has reduced caseloads for child welfare staff, begun and made significant progress on an ambitious initiative to improve the way DYFS keeps children and families safe and strong, moved children to permanency more timely, recruited record numbers of safe and loving foster homes for the state’s most vulnerable children, improved health care outcomes for children in the state’s custody, built a robust network of prevention and family support services statewide, and increased capacity in the child behavioral health system, bringing hundreds of New Jersey’s children back home to receive the treatment they need.

Our commitment to build a stronger child welfare system to safeguard and improve the lives of our state’s most vulnerable children has not waivered, ever,” added Commissioner Ricketts. “Under Governor Corzine’s leadership, we now have a very different child welfare system – one that is, in fact, more transparent and partnering with families in a more collaborative and approachable manner to achieve real and enduring results for New Jersey’s children.” 

 

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