Senate Bill 39 made it possible to open files detailing child deaths that happened because of abuse or neglect. Legislators and advocates hope by lifting the veil of secrecy around these tragedies, they can help get a better idea of how these children slip through the cracks and how to prevent it from happening to more kids.
There are plenty of statistics about abuse and neglect, but there is a lot of pain behind the numbers. "I just woke up one morning and I was laying next to her, and it was like a nightmare. Every 20th of the month it's like, brings back from when she passed away," said a mother who spoke to us on the condition that we not use her name. She's undergoing parenting classes with the Alliance Against Family Violence. Nine months ago her two-month-old daughter died while she was doing drugs. The baby's cause of death was undetermined, but she went to jail for substance use and CPS determined her other three kids were at risk for abuse and neglect and took them away. "It hurts," she said. "But at the same time I know eventually we will be back together. That's the way I see it. Eventually I'll get them, I will get them."
Programs at the Alliance can help parents reform and regain custody if the court has taken their children away. They also have a hotline you can call anonymously if you need advice on stresses you're dealing with or if you're in an abusive situation. Officials at the Alliance say they want to reach parents before tragedy strikes. "Truly it should be a community response. We need to be accountable as parents and we need to be accountable as friends and neighbors to those that have children that are being abused," said Raye Bugnosen with the AAFV.
21 out of every 1,000 children in Kern County are referred to CPS; 825 of those because of possible neglect. Every county reports differently, but that's the highest rate in the state.
"When you look at that number, 82 percent of the referrals that come into our system are due to neglect, a lot of that's the economy. A lot of that is the need to give parents the tools, the skills, or maybe that little extra help to keep the family stay whole," said Tom Corson with the Kern County Network for Children.
Kern County has a unique program called "differential response", which is designed to give families that little extra help. When CPS is called and they determine the parents are not legally doing anything wrong, they will sometimes ask differential response to go to the home to offer support services, programs and resources. The idea is prevention.
"It's person to person, it's relatives, it's friends. We all have seen people in grocery stores where mom's losing her temper. If there's a way maybe we can distract mom and say 'hey, don't worry about it, it's just a kid,' or maybe get the kids attention. But as family members and as neighbors we have to be willing to get involved," said Corson.
A clinical psychologist says prevention of child abuse and neglect needs to start before people become parents. "You have to have a license to fish, have to have a license to drive a car, but basically anyone can parent. There are no standards when it comes to parenting. Education would be a big part of this because many people aren't prepared and they aren't educated, they just do what they know, and sometimes that's not always what's healthy," said Dr. Corey Gonzales, a licensed clinical psychologist.
Pat Cheadle, Director of the Department of Human Services, says what's not healthy is the amount of funding the state gives Child Welfare Services. Last year Kern lost $1.2 million in state funding. The county was able to fill the gap, but they may not be able to next year and more cuts may be coming. "We've already learned that the state plans to cut an additional $80 million in child welfare services," said Cheadle. "If the department loses $1.2 million next year, plus an additional $1.2 million that the county can't make up, that equates to 24 social workers. The department only has 413 to begin with."
"As funding is reduced, case loads go up," said Cheadle. Right now Kern CPS is not meeting anyone's standards for the optimum number of cases per social worker. In 1999 state legislators commissioned a study identifying the ideal number of cases each social worker should have. Across the state social workers have roughly three times the number of recommended cases. "It's very sad. It's sad in the sense that children and families are our priority and children, particularly young children who don't have a voice for themselves, deserve to have the services the department provides," said Cheadle.
Cheadle says funding is crucial for stopping the child abuse and neglect happening around our community, but it will take community responsibility and education to prevent it from happening again.
If you're in a situation where you think a neighbor or family member may be abusing or neglecting their children, you can call the CPS hotline at 631-6011. Or if you feel like because of a stressful situation you may be at risk for abusing your own children you can anonymously call the AAFV hotline at 327-1091.
