Reacting to public outrage in the wake of last month’s starvation death of 16-year-old Sabrina Ray of Perry — coming hard on the heels of the death in December of Natalie Finn of West Des Moines, also 16 and also starved — state lawmakers Monday convened a joint Senate-House Government Oversight Committee hearing to look into the safety of the Iowa’s vulnerable wards.
Committee members exercised their own indignation and also heard emotional testimony from a tearful administrator with the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) and an impassioned assistant Polk County attorney.
“Iowans are outraged,” said Sen. Matt McCoy (D-Des Moines), whose agitation for Sabrina Ray helped bring about Monday’s hearing. “They can’t believe this is happening in our state, and they want it stopped.”
“How many more Iowa children are living in a hellish nightmare of abuse right now?” McCoy said.
He noted the DHS employs 1,135 fewer people today than when Gov. Branstad assumed office in 2010. Republican lawmakers in the legislative session ending in April cut $8 million from next year’s DHS budget for field operations, and the cut will be matched by an additional loss of $8 million in federal matching funds to the DHS.
McCoy predicted “there will be more tragedies if things don’t change.” He said “the child protection system in our state is on track to becoming worse, not better. Children are falling through the cracks, and unfortunately that euphemism means children are literally being killed by abuse, neglect and starvation.”
McCoy’s concerns were addressed by Wendy Rickman, DHS division administrator of adult, children and family services, and Laverne Armstrong, DHS division administrator of field operations.
Rickman said the DHS is engaged in a self-review of policies and procedures, and the Montgomery, Alabama-based Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group is also conducting an independent review of the department’s methods.
Armstrong said staffing levels of social worker 2 and social worker 3 positions — the department’s front line in dealing with child abuse cases — has been steady in spite of budget cuts. Armstrong choked up when describing the affect these horrendous cases have on DHS employees.
“This hits us,” Armstrong said, his voice quavering with emotion. He said DHS social workers “care deeply” about the welfare of children.
Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Dubuque) questioned Rickman closely about the number of children who move from foster care with public school attendance to adoption with home schooling, saying such children go “from public schools with people around and having DHS workers to then being adopted and again kind of essentially off the grid.”
Rickman said the number of adopted children who are also home schooled would be difficult to calculate. Iowa law currently requires no reporting or testing of home-schooled children.
The joint oversight committee also heard the judicial perspective from Assistant Linn County Attorney Lance Heeren and Assistant Polk County Attorney Andrea Vitzthum. Society as a whole shares the guilt for abused children, Vitzthum said.
“The responsibility for protecting Iowa’s abused and neglected children falls to all of us,” she said. “When we question what is going wrong at DHS, I think we all have to look in the mirror. This agency has been asked to do more with less for many years, and I can tell you that I believe that morale in Polk County DHS is low. I think that workers don’t feel heard. I think there are insufficient resources to support our workers, and I think it’s a fiscal reason.”
Monday hearing brought both Republican and Democrat lawmakers from the Iowa House and Senate together in a rare bipartisan spirit. Previous hearing on DHS have attracted only Democrats. Vitzthum addressed the agency’s problems in a similar bipartisan tone.
“We are losing really good workers at an alarming rate,” Vitzthum said. “I think they don’t feel they have a voice, and they fear voicing dissatisfaction. I think that as state employees, the elimination of their collective bargaining rights is having an impact on the morale of workers. I think with all of the pressure, and especially now all of the extra pressure following the tragic death of those two girls, they wonder, ‘Why would you stay on as a state employee? What is the motivation?’ They got into this line of work to help people, and I think they feel criticized and chastised and overwhelmed, and I hear that from very seasoned workers who tell me that they’ve had it. They just can’t do it anymore.”
