Oregon Public Broadcasting

Child welfare officials have had to respond twice in recent weeks, when children have died from physical abuse.

In the case of teenager Jeanette Maples, multiple accusations of abuse had come to the Department of Human Services before she was killed.

In Sandy, authorities say that a 3-year-old girl died of physical and nutritional abuse.

Rob Manning visited a DHS call center recently to learn what happens when complaints of child abuse come in.

If you call the hotline in Multnomah County and you don’t have a child abuse complaint, you may be referred elsewhere. But if you are reporting abuse or neglect, you’ll reach a screener, like Allison Wilson.

Allison Wilson: “OK, what’s a good phone number for you?”

The calls that OPB monitored on a recent evening came from mandatory reporters. Those are teachers, daycare workers, and other professionals who are required by law to report suspicions of abuse.

State officials say that three quarters of abuse complaints come from mandatory reporters.

This call relates to a four year-old at a Portland-area daycare, who reportedly said he’d been spanked with a belt.

Allison Wilson: “So the teacher was actually able to see if there were any injuries?”

The teacher saw no injuries, but didn’t undress the child. That wasn’t the only gap in information. Screeners say such gaps are typical.

Allison Wilson: “So we’re not quite sure who did the spanking. Do we know if this has happened before, or...? No previous reports, OK.”

Wilson checks her database, and sees the child in question is in the system. But she needs to do more research, and talk to a supervisor.

Allison Wilson: “Well I’ll get this written up, I’ll give you a call back, if it’s not tonight, if we don’t have a decision immediately, I’ll call you in the morning. Thanks, bye.”

Wilson has reached a preliminary conclusion – that field workers should check into this, and probably right away. She checks with supervisor, Ida Sanders.

Ida Sanders: “That sounds somewhat concerning to me. I think we might want to assign that one.”

Allison Wilson: “That’s what I was thinking!”

Ida Sanders: “So we’re in agreement.”

Allison: “Great minds! – yeah, I was thinking we’d want to do a 24.”

Twenty-four means 24-hour response. The only thing faster would be to go out right away with law enforcement. Of the calls that get referred to investigation in Multnomah County, about half are the 24-hour variety. The rest get five days.

Miriam Green: “It’s not saying wait five days – it’s saying you can triage your work for up to five days.”

That’s Miriam Green – the call center manager who supported Wilson’s five-day recommendation on a different call. That one related to a years-old accusation of sex abuse from a 12 year-old against her mother’s ex.

Miriam Green: “Her assumption is that there’s not going to be contact at least within the next 24 hours, and the field is going to have the opportunity to make some calls and get the lay of the land and make some decisions about a timely response.”

Officials say that response decisions have to weigh the value of going in “fast” versus going in “smart.”

But close to half of the calls that reached screeners don’t result in that debate. Screeners close them without investigation.

Lynn Davenport worked for child services in the 1990s. She reviewed hundreds of hours of child abuse calls as part of a research project. She found that some cases that she thought were suspicious were closed.

For instance, children she knew from her experience were wards of the state weren’t identified that way. And then there was this one.

Lynn Davenport: “Someone called and described how a family member whose child had died and said that the parent was admitting to having caused the child’s death, whereas it had been concluded in the initial investigation that the death was an accident. That was a call screened out because the police investigation was the final say in the matter.”

The law requires that supervisors review closed calls within five days. With well over 6000 closed calls in Multnomah County alone last year – that’s a tall order. But supervisors say that when there are well-publicized problems – for instance, when children known to DHS are killed – they agonize over closed cases even more.

Supervisor Bob Gibbs says the recent cases don’t change clear-cut decisions.

Bob Gibbs: “Um, some of those that are a little grayer, I don’t know. We also use each other, the screeners will use us more, as far as consulting with a supervisor. There’s several times, I’ve talked to the other supervisor about a ‘closed-at-screening’ I wasn’t comfortable with.”

Davenport says that in her research years ago, she found it far more likely that screeners would recommend too little, rather than too much, intervention.

The two calls Wilson got the other night went in two very different directions. The four year-old didn’t show any signs of injury, but there’ll still be some follow-up with the parents.

However, officials say the 12 year-old’s sex abuse allegation is headed toward a criminal investigation.

DHS workers like screener Allison Wilson say that cases can stick with them. Wilson says she hasn’t been close to a case where a kid died, but she has been haunted by cases where she’s wished she could’ve done more.

Allison Wilson: “One of my old co-workers referred to them as your ghosts. And everyone’s got some.”