Sheriff Jones — September 6, 2006, 3:16 pm
Children Services Policies
I recently sent a letter to the Director of the Children Services Board asking for their policies and procedures regarding background investigations. My intent is to assist Children Services with identifying deficiencies involving criminal background investigations of those person(s) who are responsible for operating as foster parents.
Sheriff R.K. Jones
Letter To The Children Services Board
Journal News Article - Indictment of Foster Parents
Filed under: BCSO News
Please tell me why in God’s name hasn’t Donna Trevino been charged with manslaugther? It is her neglect that led to the ultimate death of her birth son.
This case has seemed to wake a lot of people up the issues surrounding children’s services. First, the social worker’s case load is far to large to be managed efficiently. That is pathetic. How can you begin to put the blame on children’s services when it is the tax payers who dont want to pay to have more of them to take on the ever increasing work load. I think that the blame should be on the foster parents who hurt that poor child and the biological mother who does not even deserve the title of “mother.” It is despicable that the social workers who go to work everyday trying to find a better life for children in abusive homes are being blamed for ANYTHING. The system is far from perfect but I dont see anyone else working that hard in a thankless job for little pay. I am not saying that mistakes werent made, but I think that people should know all of the facts before they are so quick to throw out blame. People should be mad at the fact that there are not enough social workers to give the proper attention to each case. They should also be putting the blame on the suspects and the biological mother. It is a tragedy that a special needs child or any child for that matter lived and died and such a sad and violent way. We need to put into place a better system with more social workers and more of a background check for foster parents. We need to have a strategy for constant check ups on the children that are placed in these homes. That is the bottom line. We should not allow another child to live and die the way poor Marcus did. We should all be ashamed.
Well said, ‘aeb’.
Most folks don’t realize how few Social Workers there are and how many cases they are held accountable for managing.
One must imagine how they feel when a case of theirs comes to an end such as this.
I also feel the foster ‘parents’, who apparently had no jobs, just were living off the money paid them to ‘care for’ foster kids, should be tried for murder. Give ‘em a fair trial and find them guilty. And do to them what they did to this kid.
My question is: Are the Children’s Services workers even “Social Workers”? Are they licensed by the State of Ohio Counselor and Social Worker Board? The last I checked, the CSB workers are not necessarily licensed social workers. Maybe that could make a difference, since an LSW has additional requirements. I know the work is stressful and thankless, I’ve been an LSW (in another field) since 1997. There are some wonderful CSB workers out there. I don’t know what the answer is.
One more thought: I work in a program that provides in-home services to the elderly. EVERYONE who comes in contact with these elderly folks has a background check; from the one driving them to the doctor, to the person scrubbing their toilet. Background checks are quick, easy and cheap. There is no excuse for not running a background check.
Have any of you ever delt with CS? They don’t care about the kids. I delt with them once where I received the child from and alcoholic mother and they weren’t concerned at all that the mother refused to to go to AA and she continued to work at a bar! All they cared about was getting this case off of their hands! Not what was best for the child. They acted as though I was the criminal and any of my concerns were not important! Now I have a friend dealing with them and when her children come to visit they are sick and full of marks. These kids were rarely sick when she had them and they only had typical kid marks! When she says something to her social worker he turns the other cheek!They no longer do surprise visits. Why would you call ahead to make sure a child is being taken care of? That is what society used to be afraid of, surprise visits from children’s services. Now they know when they are coming and they can prepare! That is the problem with BCCS! They don’t care! Maybe if they cared and took matters seriously then soicety would go back to being scared of them and take better care of their kids! Then they wouldn’t have as many cases!
IT IS AMAZING WHAT YOU WILL FIND IF YOU ONLY DIG DEEP ENOUGH.