The state has fired two child-welfare investigators who failed to remove a 5-year-old from his South Side home, despite documenting that he was severely malnourished and being abused, officials said Thursday.
The Department of Children and Family Services notified Sarsfield Deaver and Paula Corona that they had been fired for failing to take the boy into DCFS custody after they went to his home in April and June and found evidence of mistreatment.
On Thanksgiving, the boy’s mother brought him to a hospital weighing only 18 pounds, the normal weight of a 1-year-old, and standing only 35 1/2 inches tall, the normal height of a 2-year-old. He was fading out of consciousness and nearly died from what physicians described as long-term malnutrition.
The boy is in good condition at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. His mother, Aretha McKinney, 25, and her live-in boyfriend, Eddie Lee Robinson, 34, have been charged with felony cruelty to a child.
In December, DCFS Inspector General Denise Kane recommended that Director Sterling “Mac” Ryder fire Deaver, 41, and Corona, 46. Kane also recommended suspending investigator Danny Pippion, 41, who made the initial April 13 visit to the boy’s home, 6161 S. Michigan Ave., after DCFS had received calls alleging that children there were being abused.
Agency spokeswoman Martha Allen said Pippion “was exonerated” in a subsequent investigation and would not be punished. She said confidentiality rules prohibited her from commenting further.
Deaver had worked for the state for nearly four years. He was assigned the boy’s case for further inquiry April 14. Deaver failed to conduct a thorough “risk assessment” of the 5-year-old and his 7-year-old brother, who also showed signs of physical abuse, Kane said in December. The 7-year-old later went to live with relatives in Mississippi.
McKinney and Robinson insisted that the 5-year-old suffered from a condition similar to dwarfism and other ailments that explained why he was so skinny and short. But Deaver failed to verify this at the hospitals where the mother and boy-friend said the boy had been treated, Kane said.
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s physicians later said the 5-year-old had no genetic problems that would explain his small size.
Deaver wrote in one report that he found credible evidence of abuse in the home and, in DCFS jargon, “indicated” the case for abuse. But the two boys never were removed.
In June, Corona went to the apartment after DCFS received another call alleging abuse.
Corona wrote in a report that the 5-year-old was so small that he appeared to be only 2. She also said he seemed “isolated” from the rest of the family. But Corona never indicated the case for abuse or removed the children. Corona had worked for DCFS for nearly six years.
Deaver and Corona could not be reached for comment, but their union will fight the firings, said Steve Trossman, a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The firings came as DCFS released results of its first client evaluation, a survey of 252 children in DCFS care, 250 foster parents and 190 biological parents.
The survey was required by a 1991 lawsuit settlement in which DCFS promised reforms.
The study found 63.9 percent of children said their lives were always better with DCFS than with their parents, 20.5 percent said sometimes better, 2.4 percent said not better and 13.3 percent didn’t know.
Also, 59.9 percent said their caseworkers checked on them at least once a month, as DCFS requires, while 18.3 percent said less frequently and 21 percent didn’t know.
The surveyors and DCFS, which paid $73,000 for the study, hailed the results as evidence that the agency is doing a better job than the public perceives.
“From what we read in the papers, this is a system that is not working well. But when we go out and talk to these kids, we find it’s working better than expected,” said Leslie Wilson, whose Tulsa research firm did the survey.
Wilson said questioners took pains to try to elicit objective answers and did not tell participants that the study was for DCFS.
Wilson noted that 41.4 percent of foster parents declined to answer when asked how they felt about the DCFS “permanency goal” for children in their care. That response raised questions about whether the foster parents figured that what they said would be reported to DCFS and feared retaliation.
The survey also found that children generally were confused about what was happening with their Juvenile Court cases and expressed dissatisfaction that they didn’t play a more active role in planning their lives, Wilson said.
