Mayor de Blasio’s first year in office was marred by the deaths of 58 kids whose families were known to child-welfare officials — and he should lead an “all-out” effort to prevent future tragedies, a new report says.
The study also found that the Administration for Children’s Services dropped the ball in a “limited number” of the 164 cases reviewed amid a rash of recent deaths involving kids with ACS files.
The unspecified failings included cases that “did not get the appropriate intervention, did not receive it in a timely manner (in the opinion of the review team) or were not fully documented,” according to the nonprofit Casey Family Programs foundation.
“ACS followed up immediately to review each situation, and in two cases additional action was required, including the opening of a preventive service case and obtaining mental-health treatment for a child,” the report says.
The Casey foundation revealed that the number of child deaths involving families known to ACS within the decade prior to the fatality rose to 58 in 2014, the highest total between 2006 and 2015.
Figures for last year — when the city was rocked by the beating death of Zymere Perkins, 12, following five abuse probes — were unavailable because the Medical Examiner’s Office had not determined the cause of death in all cases.
The 2014 spike was driven largely by deaths attributed to accidents, natural causes and “therapeutic complications,” which is defined in medical literature as the deadly side effects of “appropriate” treatment.
The Casey report offered 12 recommendations, with the “paramount” proposal calling for de Blasio “to develop an all-out cross-agency effort to improve child safety.”
It also said ACS should “refine” and improve its NYPD-inspired “ChildStat” program — a key reform adopted following the infamous 2006 beating death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown.
In Feburary, The Post revealed that former ACS Commissioner Gladys Carrión had largely turned her back on ChildStat following her appointment by de Blasio.
Last month, new ACS Commissioner David Hansell made good on a vow to re-vamp ChildStat, which involves weekly reviews of high-risk cases by top agency officials.
Perkins’ slaying was followed by that of 3-year-old Jaden Jordan in Brooklyn — despite an abuse tip to ACS two days before he was found in a coma — which led to Carrion’s abrupt retirement.
But her departure didn’t end the fatalities, with 5-year-old Michael Guzman later found dead in Queens following 13 investigations by ACS, which substantiated eight instances of abuse or neglect but never removed him or his siblings.
City Hill spokesman Seth Stein said: “Keeping children safe is a city-wide responsibility, and ACS has already begun implementing reforms to improve interagency coordination.”