the state for having one of the worst computer systems in the nation for
tracking abused and neglected children.
“Can we find every child in the foster care system? The answer in Maryland
is no. It’s not necessarily that they’re lost, they’re just not in the
computer system as they should be,” said Susan Orr, a spokeswoman for the
federal Department of Health and Human Services, which by June 10 is scheduled
to release a report on Maryland’s child welfare system.
Questions about the adequacy of Maryland’s information system were raised
recently in the case of Sierra Swann, a 17-year-old foster care runaway who
was charged with murder on May 16 after her twin infant daughters suffered
fractured skulls.
When Swann gave birth to the babies April 12, Johns Hopkins Hospital called
the Baltimore Department of Social Services to inquire about her. But the
worker who researched her history on the state’s computers failed to discover
or report that she was in the records for abusing a previous child and having
a foster care runaway warrant out, state officials said.
As a result, the hospital released the babies with Swann. The children were
found dead May 11.
Floyd Blair, the interim director of the Baltimore Department of Social
Services, suggested in an interview last week that a new computer software
system being developed by the state might have made a difference in the Swann
case. Others have doubted this, pointing to human error in the handling of the
call.
Since 1998, the state has spent $35 million developing a software program
called “Chessie,” which is meant to better track foster children like Swann,
as well as child abusers and adults who receive welfare.
New system delayed
The program was to have been in operation by June 2003, but budget cuts by
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and the legislature that year slowed the project to
a near standstill, state officials said.
Since then, the schedule for installing the computer system has been pushed
back to 2006 and 2007. Its total projected cost has grown from $48 million to
$64 million, and the price could rise by millions more, state officials said.
More than a year before the deaths of Swann’s children, legislative
analysts warned in a February 2003 report that if the state didn’t finish the
computer project, more children could die.
“The proper and timely development of the MD Chessie system is critical to
the state’s ability to ensure the well-being of the vulnerable children under
its care,” the report stated.
`Big Iron’
The Chessie project is meant to replace an older mainframe computer system
– which features a huge, van-sized IBM called “Big Iron” – that was installed
between 1992 and 1998, said Donald Carter, manager of the Chessie project.
The system doesn’t have nearly enough terminals for all social workers. It
uses columns of obscure codes – such as “LA-Type….04” for a runaway foster
child – and requires many social workers to go through the time-consuming
process of filling out paper forms to hand to data entry clerks.
Chessie is intended to be easier to use, with quicker access to information
from about 2,500 desktop computers operated by all child welfare workers.
Budget issues
But with sharply reduced state funding, the project has slowed. The
Department of Human Resources kept it creeping forward this year by paying for
software designers through $3.3 million in cuts in other areas.
The agency has tightened its belt in many ways over the past year. It saved
about $2.7 million this winter by temporarily halting new approvals for cash
assistance for disabled poor people.
A continuing hiring freeze has meant that the department has 204 fewer
child welfare case workers than recommended as adequate by the Child Welfare
League of America, according to state analysis.
Some advocates for children, including attorney Mitchell Y. Mirviss,
complain that the department seems to be cutting services for poor people and
abused children to pay for a software project that may not even prove as
useful as advertised.
“Cutting necessary programs just for an information system that might not
work is moving very badly in the wrong direction,” said Mirviss, who
represents foster children in a class-action lawsuit.
Norris West, a spokesman for the department, said that the money for
Chessie this year came not from programs for the poor, but from cuts in
administrative areas such as travel, conferences and consulting contracts.
Department Secretary Christopher J. McCabe has put a priority on finishing
the computer project and has “kept Chessie from the graveyard by making these
cuts,” said West.
State Del. Van T. Mitchell, chairman of the House subcommittee that
examines the department’s budget, said he has asked for a state audit of
Chessie and other software projects whose costs and management seem to have
snowballed out of control.
But federal officials say that Maryland clearly needs to improve its
computers. Federal auditors gave “Big Iron” a low score – with Maryland
ranking below 42 of the 47 states whose audits have been released so far, and
no state scoring lower, Orr said.
