Actions, No More Words: Our Vulnerable Children Need a DCYF Audit
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Since 2016 the House Oversight Committee has been reviewing the operations of the Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF.) The results of these reviews have exposed tremendous failures within DCYF as a direct result of the state’s unwillingness to properly support this agency.
The ambivalence, lack of cooperation and outright disdain that has been demonstrated by administration officials over these past 5 years toward the Oversight Committee and DCYF has sent a strong message to the dedicated frontline workers and the children and families they serve. The frontline staff tries to serve unmanageable caseloads of children in their care and suffer high rates of burn-out and exhaustion while taxpayers are continually asked to throw more money at the agency. The culture of “us vs. them” must end, and we need to place the focus where it belongs.
Deaths, child trafficking, abuse, inappropriate placements, overworked and unsupported social workers, and an inability to provide the obligatory services these children require indicates a clear and present crisis in our child welfare agency. This crisis has been exacerbated by nepotism, unearned promotions, and the creation of unnecessary positions in recent years and have all contribute to the failures of DCYF. These tragedies are not the result of our dedicated DCYF staff – but the one-sided system and its failed leadership over the decades.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe time for reform is now, and for these reasons, we are proposing a two-pronged approach to fix the decades-long mess we know as DCYF.
First, funding is needed to boost the frontline staff, their support staff, and to improve the department’s aged and broken-down vehicle fleet. At this point in time, the children in the care of our state depend on these departmental investments and we must prioritize them until the dysfunction and waste is rooted out and corrected.
Second, and more importantly, DCYF has been a functional and organizational mess for far too long and the failures need to be identified and corrected immediately. To accomplish this, a thorough top-to-bottom performance audit must be undertaken. We asked the Auditor General to assist us with this, and a clear plan has been identified to tackle this imperative task. The children in the care of DCYF are owed at least this much.
In 2019 the Legislature appropriated $500,000 to begin the DCYF accreditation process - a legal mandate since 2010. Regrettably, it appears the administration did its own “assessment” and made the unilateral determination that it would require “too much” to gain accreditation.
Where did the $500,000 go and how was it used? This money could have been allocated to start the audit, yet we were informed that the funds are no longer with DCYF - a perfect illustration of why we need a thorough, top-down audit.
An audit of the processes and organizational structure of DCYF will offer the legislature a clear and unambiguous picture of what reforms are needed, and we can then execute a plan to correct the failures.
How do we know reforms are in order? When we look at our neighboring state of Connecticut – a state with 354% of Rhode Island’s population – their Child Welfare agency costs $600,000 less to run than Rhode Island’s. That tells us all we really need to know.
How many more children must die in the care of DCYF? How long will we accept the merry-go-round of new Directors and “management approaches” offered as excuses for the harm being done to children in DCYF care? When does this all end and it becomes time to act?
DCYF is the last line of support for children who have already suffered so much trauma and uncertainty. They should not be further abused by those who are charged with supporting them. It is not right and the discussions on the failing state of affairs at DCYF have gone on for far too long - it is past time for meaningful reform. Simply put, these vulnerable children not only need an audit of DCYF - they, and the taxpayers of Rhode Island deserve it so we can finally stop the failures and make DCYF the agency it was intended to be for the sake of the children and families they serve.
Rep. Julie A. Casimiro (D), District 31 (North Kingstown and Exeter,)
Minority Whip Michael W. Chippendale (R), District 40 (Coventry, Foster and Glocester,)
Rep. Anastasia Williams (D), District 9, (Providence,)
Rep. Thomas Noret (D), District 25 (Coventry, West Warwick.)
