By Nancy Sutton, Children's Administration, Regional Administrator for Region 5

A recent op-ed by Sen. Pam Roach regarding the new Secretary for the Department of Social and Health Services caught my attention and compelled me to offer a response to the senator's comments and a perspective from within Children's Administration.

Sen. Roach stated in her op-ed piece that Children's Administration Region 5, Pierce and Kitsap Counties, has one of the worst records in the state and listed some examples. Some of the events she mentioned occurred elsewhere in the state. There are no records in Region 5 of other events she mentioned, such as two infants who were returned to drug houses and died by shaking, or children in state care who died in a fire.

Social workers in Region 5 do deal with very difficult issues of child abuse and neglect. We place a high value on child safety and, with our partners in law enforcement, go into many difficult and challenging situations to assess children's safety. We use the resources of the medical community and the courts to reach decisions that will provide children the most protection. In 2008, Child Protective Services in Region 5 investigated 4,486 reports of abuse and neglect. We are committed to training, to improving our skills, and to making tough, timely decisions about how best to protect children in situations in which the facts are often not immediately clear.

Child safety is always the top priority in any situation we investigate, whether the child remains in the family home, is placed with a relative or with a foster parent. When children are hurt or killed and Children's Administration has been involved with the family, we feel tremendous grief. And we immediately begin a review of our actions and practices to assess whether we did everything we could to avoid this tragic outcome and to improve our efforts in the future.

Our social workers place a high value on family and placement of children with relatives: 40 percent of children in Region 5 who are removed from their parents' homes are placed with relatives. We use Family Team Decision Meetings to include family members in decisions about where children should live when they cannot safely live with their parents. Statewide, according to the latest national data available for comparison (2006), Washington ranked third highest of all states in the placement of children with relatives.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than the death of a child – as we have been made so acutely aware with the recent deaths of five children killed by their father in Graham.

Children's Administration Region 5 office has been working for some time with community partners to evaluate child deaths in Pierce County from 2000 to 2008. We have looked at factors, such as poverty, maternal age and substance abuse that influence the rate of abuse-related child deaths. We will be working with community partners throughout April, Child Abuse Prevention Month, to evaluate the services and supports that the community needs to marshal to prevent abuse-related fatalities in the future, as well as reduce and prevent child abuse and neglect in Pierce County. We will begin a similar review process in Kitsap County later this year.

Staff in Children's Administration in Region 5 work hard to protect vulnerable children. We value our partnerships with law enforcement, the medical community, schools, the courts and private citizens as we all work together to keep our children safe.

If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, a 24 hour reporting line is available at 1-866-ENDHARM (1-866-363-4276). For more information about preventing child abuse, visit the DSHS Web site: www.dshs.wa.gov/geninfo/endharm.html.

# # #

DSHS does not discriminate and provides equal access to its programs and services for all persons without regard to race, color, gender, religion, creed, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, age, veteran's status or the presence of any physical, sensory or mental disability.