MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Tuesday, June 12, 2001
CONTACT:
Beverly Steele, Special Projects Coordinator
(703) 838-4966
Alexandria City Manager Presents to City Council Results of Child Welfare League of
America Report in the Katelyn Frazier Matter
On June 12, 2001, City Manager Philip Sunderland presented to City Council the results of the review commissioned by the City and conducted by the Child Welfare League of America of the death of Katelyn Frazier, and the City’s response to the findings and recommendations in the League’s report. At the time of her death, 3 year old Katelyn Frazier was living in her mother’s apartment under the legal custody of the Alexandria Department of Human Services.
CWLA recommends changes in a number of existing policies, practice and procedures of the Department of Human Services to enhance the work of the Department in providing assistance to children in foster care and child protective services.
"Katelyn’s death has been a sobering experience for all of us," says City Manager Philip Sunderland. "We welcome CWLA’s recommendations. We intend to implement them as soon as possible, and to go beyond them, to ensure we have policies and procedures in place that will provide the best protection we can for Alexandria’s children."
The City Manager also informed the City Council that, apart from the efforts of CWLA, and with the assistance of the City Attorney, he had personally conducted his own review of the Frazier matter. This included interviews with a number of individuals involved in the case, and an examination of case and court records. "Based on this review, the views of the City Attorney, and the CWLA report," Mr. Sunderland stated he had concluded that "the Department of Human Services, along with other participants in the City’s overall child welfare system, had acted properly and professionally in their efforts to assist the Frazier family through the provision of a broad range of services, to protect Katelyn and her siblings from abuse or neglect, and to reunify the family."
The Child Welfare League, at the request of the City, conducted its review of the Katelyn Frazier case to:
- Assess service planning and service delivery patterns;
- Identify areas for enhancement in agency policies, practices and procedures; and
- Provide recommendations that will facilitate improvements in service delivery to children and families.
The League’s report is based on a review of the case record and court documents, as well as interviews with individuals who had direct or indirect responsibility and influence on decisions related to the family.
CWLA’s recommendations are not derived from State laws, regulations or requirements, but from what CWLA sets as "best practice" standards. The Child Welfare League of America is the nation’s oldest and largest organization developing and promoting best practice policies for child welfare agencies and is nationally recognized for its advocacy of best practice standards for child welfare.
The League’s report summarizes the "wide array of services . . . offered and provided to the Frazier family" from February 1998 to December 2000. For the Frazier children, these services included foster home care, child care, medical and psychological treatment, respite care, home health care, and court monitoring and oversight. For Ms. Frazier, the services included visitations with children, housing assistance, public welfare, transportation, medical and psychiatric treatment, substance abuse treatment, home management counseling, parental skills training, home health services, prenatal care, and a court appointed attorney, as well as frequent home visits and other contacts by a service provider.
Based on a series of findings, the League recommends a number of changes in DHS policy and procedures. These draw on "best practice" standards to formalize the agency’s risk and safety assessment procedures, to strengthen supervisory oversight of cases, to improve communications with other providers of services, and to expand the criminal clearances obtained for adults residing in homes with foster children. All of these League recommendations will be implemented by DHS over the summer.
The City Manager emphasized to the City Council that the entire Alexandria community must become an active participant in the City’s network of child protection. To this end, a community committee will be established to advise the Human Services Department on the implementation of the changes being taken in response to the League report, and to help plan and implement a community education program on the importance of reporting incidents of child abuse and neglect to the Department.
The League points out at the beginning of its report the complex nature of the child welfare system: "the dual mission to protect children from abuse and neglect and to support family reunification drives the decision making processes of most child welfare agencies, and makes decision making a complex activity." It goes on to state that "Federal and State Laws and child welfare policies and practices are designed to support the public child welfare agency’s mandate to protect children and to provide services that are family-focused and child-centered. Sometimes this is not enough to prevent the death of a child."
Copies of the League report are available in the City Clerk’s office, Room 2300.
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