Indiana’s Department of Child Services would have to publicly release more information about child abuse cases resulting in deaths under changes moving through the Legislature.
The new requirements include the completion of a public summary on how its staff responded to child abuse reports in cases “involving a child fatality or near fatality.”
Other provisions of House Bill 1257 call for DCS officials to include more details on staff actions in the agency’s annual child fatalities report and allow the agency to release information to the news media in cases of deaths from suspected child abuse or neglect.
Bill author Rep. Julie McGuire, R-Indianapolis, told the Senate Family and Children Services Committee on Monday that the measure will “add transparency” regarding how DCS handles abuse allegations.
“We want to know if there have been calls that have been screened out on cases where there’s a fatality,” McGuire said. “We want to know whether at the time of death, or any time prior to the time of death, there was intervention from a state agency. It’s an important part of that historical case to understand where it went wrong.”
Current confidentiality criticized
Kathleen Moman, an organizer of Champions for Children Indiana, described what she called “egregious” mishandling of abuse allegations by DCS staffers and a judge before last year’s death of 5-year-old Zara Arnold of Indianapolis.
Moman said information about how DCS could have intervened “remains locked away behind the shield of confidentiality created by our current state law.”
“Darkness thrives behind confidentiality,” she told the committee. “We cannot continue to hide the details of child fatalities. When mistakes are hidden, there is no way to improve. Transparency is not about blame, it’s about prevention.”
The committee voted 9-0 on Monday to advance the bill to the full Senate for action. A similar version was approved unanimously by the House last month.
No representatives of DCS spoke during Monday’s committee hearing on the bill and an agency spokesman didn’t immediately provide comment about its proposed changes.
Information requirements to news media
The bill includes a section easing confidentiality rules by allowing DCS officials to confirm or clarify to the news media information released by others about child abuse or neglect cases.
That section would also require DCS to respond to news media inquiries about suspected child abuse death cases within 10 days with information about the child’s age, gender and the agency’s actions involving any investigations of abuse allegations.
McGuire said current law prevents the agency from even responding to incorrect information about its handling of an investigation.
“We want prompt public reporting so that it will also divulge any past or present DCS intervention with that family or with that child,” she said.
Another bill provision would require DCS to provide legislators unredacted reports about how the agency and courts responded to abuse allegations. Legislators would not be allowed to disclose those records to anyone else “except in the interest of a legitimate government purpose in protecting children from child abuse or neglect.”
Committee Chairman Greg Walker, R-Columbus, said it would be important for legislators to be responsible with such confidential information in their oversight of the state’s child welfare system.
“We can’t do our job unless we know what’s going on,” Walker said. “So we just got an extra duty. We just got an extra burden to bear.”
The committee also unanimously approved a second related bill. House Bill 1036 requires the department to have in-person contact with an alleged victim of child abuse or neglect before concluding an assessment or dismissing or terminating a pending child in need of services case with the juvenile court.
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