Injured child merits DHR investigation

ANY TIME a child in foster care is harmed, the Department of Human Resources should investigate whether its actions or policies may be at least partially at fault. In the case of a 2-year-old boy severely abused in Conecuh County, the questions go beyond what happened to this one child.

Foster parents Lonnell and Joyce Sims are charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery in the case of the little boy, whom police found at the Sims home last month suffering from a severe head injury.

Doctors told authorities the head injury could not have been an accident. It was reported that the child also was severely dehydrated and apparently had not eaten in several days.

Conecuh County District Attorney Tommy Chapman called the case "likely the most horrendous child abuse case I have prosecuted." He has made serious allegations against DHR in Conecuh County, saying that too often, children are removed from their homes and placed in foster care when there are relatives who could take over. Mr. Chapman also contends that some people are taking in foster children just for the stipend DHR pays.

Indeed, the Press-Register reported earlier this week that a relatively higher number of children are in foster care in Conecuh County than in surrounding counties. For example, Conecuh County has some 13,000 residents and 30 children in foster care, while Covington County has just three kids in fos ter care even though its population is 36,856.

The Sims couple had four other foster children living with them, including two siblings of the injured boy. All have been removed from the home.

Officials said relatives of the three siblings had tried to obtain custody of the children and get them out of foster care. Their father died of a drug overdose and their mother has been in drug rehabilitation.

DHR has come a long way since the so-called "R.C." lawsuit filed about 20 years ago resulted in federal court oversight of the child welfare system. The case, which was named for an 8-year-old boy in Jefferson County, was an example of how abuse and neglect could develop when caseworkers were overloaded, children were moved frequently and a state psychiatric hospital served as a warehouse.

Reforms forced on the state turned DHR into a model for other states, with an emphasis on keeping families together, quick investigations of abuse and neglect, and rapid placement of children in permanent homes where possible.

Certainly, in the Conecuh County case, the investigation should be handled quickly and the results should be made public. The privacy of children in the child welfare system must always be respected and protected, of course, but DHR must not use privacy rights as an excuse to hide wrongdoing, misconduct or procedural failures if they exist in or out of Conecuh County.

When a mistake is made in the child welfare system, the consequences too often can be tragic.