3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018
Children: 10 days to complete reviews
Continued from Page 1A
“I believe that children slip
through the cracks of our social
justice system, to the benefit
of the financial interests of the
state,” Timothy Wood wrote
on behalf of the estate of a
McMinnville infant who died
in 2016. It was once his job to
help defend the Department of
Human Services against such
lawsuits, he wrote. Now retired,
he works on behalf of surviving
siblings.
By law, the Department of
Human Services must com-
plete an initial fatality review
within 70 days after state
officials learn neglect or
abuse likely contributed to the
death of a child. If the team
assigned to look into a death
can’t finish its report on time,
it must publicly disclose that
it is reviewing the death and
explain the delay. Review
teams also must post updates
or finalized reports every 30
days after that or explain why
they need more time, state law
says.
The public summary reports
refer to children who die only
by their initials and leave out
their hometowns and other
‘IT COULD HAVE SAVED HIS
LIFE. IT MAY NOT HAVE,
BUT IT COULD HAVE’
Brenda McKune | grandmother to Trevor Secord
who wonders if her grandson would still be alive if child welfare
workers investigated his near-death from alcohol poisoning at 14
New leader, less
transparency
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6 PM
Q: Does the
Oregon Health
Plan cover
chiropractic
care?
The Oregon
ASTORIA A: Yes!
Health Plan does cover
CHIROPRACTIC
Shining a light
Fatality reviews are meant
to help prevent deaths of vul-
nerable Oregon children.
The process, formally
known as critical incident
response teams, started after
the 2005 death of Karly Shee-
han, a 3-year-old from Corval-
lis who child welfare workers
left in a home where she was
later killed. Lawmakers recog-
nized the reviews as essential
to saving more children like
her.
Department of Human Ser-
vices staff members carry out
the reviews. The teams can also
include doctors, police, judges
or lawmakers appointed by the
agency’s director.
As recently as April 2017,
reports that the teams produced
detailed every interaction the
agency had with a child or other
member of their household.
The reports concluded what, if
anything, went wrong at each
point and outlined preventive
steps for the future.
In 2017, legislators gave the
agency more time to complete
the reviews. Officials now have
10 days, rather than 24 hours,
to begin a review after they
learn about a child’s death that
likely was caused by abuse or
neglect.
Lawmakers also expanded
the department’s scope of
responsibility to publicly report
child deaths. Until then, offi-
cials did not have to review the
deaths of children if a brother
or sister, but not the child who
died, had been the subject of a
recent allegation of abuse.
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THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
A
Consult a
10TH STREET
Brown’s pick to lead the
agency, Fariborz Pakseresht,
has pledged since taking over
in September 2017 to bring
about change. But transparency
in reporting the agency’s role in
child deaths has lessened on his
watch.
Delaying release of fatal-
ity reports can stymie wrong-
ful death lawsuits brought on
behalf of children killed after
case workers knew they might
be in peril. State law makes
it extremely difficult to sue
if families don’t file a claim
within a year after the child’s
death. But if they don’t know
about mistakes by the state until
after that year is up, any claim
could be derailed.
A former top civil attorney
for the state wrote in a Nov.
16 court filing that large settle-
ments both prompt lawmakers
to press the agency for positive
change and help pay for needed
care for surviving siblings.
identifying details. The Orego-
nian independently determined
which child’s death each of the
reports discusses, including the
one on Secord’s death.
Five of the six reviews
issued this year falsely indi-
cate they were made public ear-
lier than they were and at least
two withhold the agency’s full
case history with the families in
question. The very small num-
ber of public reports also raises
questions about how many
abuse deaths have gone unac-
knowledged. The department,
for example, has said nothing
in the year since Payshience
Adams was shot to death in her
Douglas County foster home,
nor has it acknowledged that it
investigated allegations a Lane
County teen was being abused
just months before he died in
April 2017.
Department of Human Ser-
vices officials declined to
answer all but two questions —
about the 70-day deadline and
the inaccurate dates — for this
story, saying they would treat
the bulk of the detailed ques-
tions provided to them Nov. 14
as a public records request. The
Oregonian did not ask for any
records when it sought explana-
tions of department actions and
inaction.
“The tragedy of a child’s
death is taken very seriously by
the Department of Human Ser-
vices,” spokeswoman Laura
McGinnis said.
ASTORIA
TRANSIT CENTER
But state officials omitted
that determination, as well as
specific details about their past
investigations into Secord’s
safety, from the report shown to
the public.
Brenda McKune wonders
if her grandson would still be
alive, a junior in high school
pursuing his goal of profes-
sional football or baseball, had
child welfare workers investi-
gated his near-death from alco-
hol poisoning.
“It could have saved his
life,” she said. “It may not have,
but it could have.”
Child fatality reviews serve
two purposes: They uncover
systemic problems that need
to be corrected and hold the
Department of Human Services
accountable for missteps that
end in tragedy.
The agency is highly secre-
tive about the steps it takes to
protect vulnerable children,
in part to protect privacy. The
fatality reports are one of the
few, and perhaps most crucial,
windows into an agency that
has consistently failed to meet
nearly every federal benchmark
for child safety.
Officials are required to
carry out the reviews quickly
so the problems they find can
be fixed to save other children
like Secord.
The delayed, brief review of
his death reflects a widespread
pattern that has emerged over
the past year and a half. Depart-
ment of Human Services offi-
cials have failed to meet legal
deadlines to report child deaths
and, when they finally have
published them, excluded sig-
nificant facts about most of the
children’s lives.
The state didn’t release a
single fatality report for the
first five months of this year.
Since then, the department has
made public just six summary
reports. In five, the state con-
cluded that the agency made no
significant errors that contrib-
uted to the death. In all but one,
more than a year had passed
since the child had died.
Leaders of the Depart-
ment of Human Services con-
tend that changes to reporting
requirements in 2017 give the
agency an indefinite amount of
time to make public the report
of a child’s death, as long as
they are conducting an inter-
nal review. But state Sen. Sara
Gelser, D-Corvallis, who lob-
bied for the changes, said inter-
preting the law that way vio-
lates its spirit of transparency
and its plain language.
“Without publishing those,
there is no way for the public to
know the department is follow-
ing the statute,” she said.
The agency posted two
of the six summary reports,
including the one on Secord’s
death, during the final two days
of Oregon’s contentious race
for governor, and one more
since then. Gov. Kate Brown
drew criticism from her Repub-
lican challenger, state Rep.
Knute Buehler, for failing to
improve Oregon’s child wel-
fare system.
The governor’s office said
it did not ask the child wel-
fare agency to delay reports
highlighting the department’s
involvement in children’s
deaths.
Case after case of children
dying or being left in foster
homes where they were starved
or abused made child welfare
a central issue in the election.
Turnover among case work-
ers is high. The department
completed just 11 percent of
its child welfare investigations
on time this summer, far short
of the federal standard of 90
percent.
Evening listings
WEDNESDAY
N OVEMBER 28
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