The tragic deaths of 6-year-old Zymere Perkins and 3-year-old Jaden Jordan in late 2016 weren’t entirely in vain — reports of child abuse, investigations of child abuse, and Family Court hearings all increased sharply after the two widely-publicized abuse cases, the Independent Budget Office found on Tuesday.
The number of child abuse reports that were substantiated jumped 20 percent, from 19,980 in fiscal 2016 to 23,981 in fiscal 2017, even though the number of cases rose by only 7 percent.
Spending at the Administration for Children’s Services also shot up to $127.8 million in fiscal 2017 — up from $110.9 million a year before — a boost of 15 percent that largely went to the salaries and OT of agency investigators.
ACS staffers also filed thousands more petitions of abuse and maltreatment in Family Court — 14,207 in 2017 compared to 9,566, a jump of 52 percent.
But the IBO found that the courts didn’t respond to the public scrutiny by separating kids from their families more often, with the share of petitions resulting in foster care placement actually declining in 2017.
Instead the judges found ways to often have at least one parent care for the child or children, under what’s known as court-ordered supervision, according to the IBO.
“As has happened after prior deaths of children known to ACS, Zymere Perkins’ and Jaden Jordan’s deaths in September and December of 2016 led to more abuse and maltreatment investigations, in part because of a spike in reports from mandated reporters. Their reports are also more likely to be substantiated,” the report concluded.
“It is also important to stress that the share of abuse or maltreatment petitions that results in foster care placement have declined over the years, while the share of petitions that results in court-ordered supervision have remained relatively constant. This implies that Family Court judges have not changed how they handle abuse and maltreatment petitions in response to the public pressure that follows high-profile deaths of children known to the child welfare system.”
ACS officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
But they told the IBO the increase in court petitions came at least partially because of better protocols in the highest-risk cases.