New Jersey Reviews Care for Neglected Children

ANTHONY DEPALMA

Three months after a 5-year-old Newark girl was beaten to death in a state-approved foster home, New Jersey officials are re-examining the way the state cares for abused and neglected children.

Legislation introduced last week would, in essence, create a bill of rights for abused and neglected children. It would also establish an independent agency to oversee the state's handling of child welfare cases and to investigate incidents like the death in March of the 5-year-old, Dyneeka Johnson, in which mistakes by state workers were found to have led to her death.

The couple who were caring for the girl were indicted Wednesday in her murder.

The legislative package also includes measures to limit the work load for social service caseworkers, give parents full access to information about abuse that children suffer while in foster care and create regional diagnostic centers to treat abused children. Matter of Legislative Priority

Although parts of the legislative package were proposed before Dyneeka's death, her case is expected to provide an impetus to their passage.

''I'm afraid that children's issues never have high enough priorities in the Legislature,'' said State Senator Gabriel M. Ambrosio, Democrat of Lyndhurst. Mr. Ambrosio, who sponsored several of the bills introduced last week, is vice chairman of the Children's Services Committee.

Care for neglected and abused children has become a pressing issue throughout the New York metropolitan region. When abused children are removed from their homes, they are often placed with foster families.

But agencies, faced with a critical shortage of foster homes and a rising incidence of child abuse, are also placing troubled children with friends and relatives. In Dyneeka's case, she was placed with a friend of her mother. Level of Attention at Issue

Agencies say they place children with people who know them to balance the children's safety with families' rights to care for their own children without excessive intrusion from government.

But advocates for children have questioned whether children in such arrangements, termed para-foster care, receive the same level of attention as do children in other foster-care placements.

''These kids are placed in homes where it's anyone's guess as to how safe they are,'' said Deborah A. Daro, director of research for the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that has chapters in every state.

In New Jersey, where the shortage of licensed foster homes became so severe last year that children were being kept in motels, the system of naming friends and relatives as guardians has been used more than in many other states. #654 Para-Foster Homes New Jersey officials say the system was developed to give parents flexibility when they can no longer care for their offspring, but children's advocates and caseworkers say it also provides a relief valve when regular foster homes are in short supply.

The state's 654 registered para-foster homes are distinguished from regular foster homes in that children are placed with friends or relatives by the parents rather than by the state.

If they can prove they are related, family members who take in the children can receive $162 a month in welfare payments. The payments are provided without an inspection of the home or a review of the guardian's appropriateness. But if the family relationship cannot be proved, the child's new guardian would not qualify for welfare but he could qualify for a $162 monthly stipend if he wins state approval to be a para-foster parent. Friend in Newark

In the case of Dyneeka Johnson, her mother, 25-year-old Carol Johnson of East Orange, said she could no longer care for her daughter and asked a childhood friend to take her in.

The friend, Stacy Smith, 25, of Newark, agreed and brought Dyneeka to live with her at Riverview Court, a public housing complex in Newark's heavily industrial Ironbound section.

Workers are supposed to check criminal records of the adults in a para-foster home before payments can be approved. The state's policy is to reject para-foster parents who have been convicted of child abuse or neglect, sexual abuse or violent crime.

But social workers and children's rights advocates say the process for para-foster homes is less rigorous than in a foster care setting.

''The evaluation may not be as thorough because the child is already there in the home,'' said Cecilia Zalkind, assistant director of the Association for Children of New Jersey, a nonprofit agency based in Newark. Felony Charges

Mrs. Zalkind and other experts said the evaluation in Dyneeka Johnson's case was not thorough. After Dyneeka's severely beaten body was found March 4 lying on a mound of garbage in an empty lot, police records showed that Stacy Smith had been convicted of drug possession charges and that her boyfriend, Willie Grant, 39, had a long criminal record, including convictions for assault and distribution of drugs.

At the couple's indictment last week, Ms. Smith was charged with manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. Mr. Grant was charged with murder. Ms. Smith is being held on $150,000 bail, and Mr. Grant is being held on $500,000 bail at the Essex County Jail.

After the girl's death, the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services, which operates the state's child-care network, began a confidential investigation, which resulted in disciplinary action against seven state workers.

William Waldman, the division director, said state laws prevented him from giving a full account of cases like Dyneeka's, even though he felt more information should be released so similar incidents do not happen again. Efforts Elsewhere

Other states that have tried to broaden the field of care givers for children have also run into trouble.

Until last year, relatives in Connecticut who took in children did not have to go through the rigorous evaluations of regular foster parents. But the law was changed after the death last year of 18-month-old Cassandra Deming of Wallingford, who was beaten to death. Her aunt's estranged husband has been convicted of her murder. The man had a criminal record, but at the time the law did not require a background check. Now the police records of all adults in the relative's household must be checked.

New York City amended its foster care system in 1986 and included $66 million in the municipal budget to provide foster-care stipends for relatives who take in 9,000 children, a system referred to as kinship foster care.

The relatives were supposed to go through rigorous screening and monthly visits from social workers. But a recent investigation of foster care by relatives by the New York State Department of Social Services found that family background checks were spotty and children placed with relatives were not getting the services to which they were entitled.

William J. Grinker, head of the New York City Human Resources Administration, said conditions would improve as 115 newly hired caseworkers begin inspections and regular visits. An additional 85 workers will be hired by the end of the month, Mr. Grinker said.

Source: query.nytimes.com

Publication date: 1989 May 28