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Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, The (GA) September 19, 2003
The director of Georgia's
Division of Family and Children Services resigned under fire
Thursday.
Juanita Blount-Clark's resignation, effective Sept. 30, follows the
departure Tuesday of her boss, Jim Martin, commissioner of the state
Department of Human Resources for the past two years.
Officials have not said yet how they will proceed to fill the two
key positions.
The agencies headed by Blount-Clark and Martin have attracted
intense criticism since the deaths this summer of two metro Atlanta
toddlers who had been in state care.
In August, DFCS fired two caseworkers after the death of 2-year-old
Kyshawn Punter of DeKalb County. The child had been returned to his home
twice although his stepfather had been accused of beating him. The child
died Aug. 14. The stepfather, Shaun Stewart, 25, has been charged with
murder.
A month earlier, 2-year-old Caleb Woods of Douglas County died July
13 after being severely beaten during a two-week period, authorities said.
Daniel Brian Appleby, 23, the boyfriend of the child's mother, has been
charged with murder. DFCS workers previously had received seven complaints
about the boy's welfare. A DFCS case manager resigned over the handling of
that case.
Blount-Clark, 50, has been in charge of the child welfare division
for almost four years. She was paid an annual base salary of $106,636 as
of January. Martin, a former Democratic legislator, was paid $114,264 as
head of DHR.
In a written statement Thursday, Blount-Clark said she plans to
stay in public service, but did not give details. "I am grateful for the
opportunity to have served in this critical position and particularly
appreciate having worked with so many dedicated staff across this state,"
she said in the statement.
Mandate for change
Gov. Sonny Perdue issued a statement Thursday thanking Blount-Clark
for taking on "a tough job at a difficult time. . . . I know that she
understands the need for new leadership and a new vision at DFCS."
DFCS, with 8,566 employees and an annual budget of about $1
billion, is responsible for distributing welfare checks, food stamps and
social services to low-income families and families in crisis. One of its
biggest and most high-profile jobs is to safeguard about 15,000 children
in state custody because of allegations of abuse or neglect.
Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), a vocal children's advocate,
said, "The DFCS leadership had to change."
"Violence in the family, and particularly toward children, is a
very difficult problem, and we all have to be part of the solution," she
said.
Ralph Williams, president of the union that represents DFCS
caseworkers, called Blount-Clark's pending departure "a step in the right
direction."
He said the director had created a climate of "intimidation" among
child welfare workers. "They become the scapegoats, when in actuality it
is the top-level managers' responsibility to implement a system that
allows caseworkers to manage the caseloads," he said.
"Whoever takes over needs to take a critical look at safe staffing
levels and manageable caseloads," he said.
In Georgia, individual caseworkers oversee 25 to 35 cases,
depending on the county, said Renee Huie, a DHR spokeswoman. That's more
than double the number recommended by the Child Welfare League of America,
which suggests 11 to 15 cases per worker, Huie said.
Experience needed
Blount-Clark was appointed to head DFCS in 1999 by Gov. Roy Barnes.
At the time, the agency was under severe scrutiny for its handling of
complaints of abuse in the case of Terrell Peterson, 5, of Atlanta. The
child was beaten to death in January 1998, despite eight reports to DFCS
that there had been neglect and abuse in his home.
In appointing Blount-Clark, Barnes said she would bring "a fresh
set of eyes" to the agency. Her charge was to examine DFCS "personnel and
operations from the ground up," he said.
Blount-Clark arrived at the troubled agency after serving as
executive director of the Family Connection, a private-public agency that
works to build local coalitions to help children. Previously, she had
worked for DHR's Division of Public Health for 18 years.
Lawyer Don Keenan, another vocal critic of Blount-Clark and DFCS,
said the director didn't have the professional experience to run the child
welfare agency. "She was clearly a nice, well-intentioned person who had
never been in the cockpit of the type of bureaucracy that she was in
charge of," he said.
Georgia must name an "experienced leader for DFCS," Keenan said. "A
sign should be erected over the director's office that says, 'No
on-the-job training permitted.' "
Dee Simms, head of the state Office of the Child Advocate, declined
to comment Thursday on Blount-Clark's tenure. But she said the next DFCS
director must "build a better system of assessing risk in families. . . .
They are missing the boat too many times, and we have too many children
that are left in situations that it is not OK."
Repeat abuse rises
Child advocates point to a disturbing trend: The percentage of
abused children who get abused again has been rising since 1999 in
Georgia.
Four years ago, the rate of repeat abuse was 4.2 percent, and this
year it's up to 5.7 percent, said Marcia Lowry, executive director of the
New York-based Children's Rights Inc. The group has filed a lawsuit
against the state claiming the child protection system is putting
thousands of children at risk.
"The agency's performance has been deteriorating for years," Lowry
said Thursday.
"Substituting new people in these positions without fundamental
changes in the resources, the organization and the commitment to these
children is no more than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic." Just a
few weeks ago, Blount-Clark and Martin said they had no intention of
resigning.
Blount-Clark said then that the deaths of Kyshawn and Caleb
highlighted three problem areas that were being reviewed: the way
caseworkers assess the risk posed to children they are investigating;
inadequate safety plans crafted for some children; and the process
followed in closing the cases.
But she also said it was too early to determine whether the
problems reflect systemwide flaws.
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