BOARD APPROVES SUPERVISOR RIDLEY-THOMAS' REQUEST TO PROVIDE AUDITOR-CONTROLLER APPROPRIATE ACCESS TO DCFS CASE FILES INVOLVING CHILD DEATHS

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 1, 2009                           Contact              Aurelio Rojas 213-280-6579

                                                                                                James Bolden 213-200-5314

 

BOARD APPROVES SUPERVISOR RIDLEY-THOMAS’ REQUEST TO PROVIDE AUDITOR-CONTROLLER APPROPRIATE ACCESS TO DCFS CASE FILES INVOLVING CHILD DEATHS

 

LOS ANGELES – The Board of Supervisors today approved Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas’ request to ensure the County Auditor-Controller has appropriate access to Department of Children and Family Services case files to properly test the accuracy of demographic and case management information collected and analyzed as part of a report ordered by the Board.

 

“Such testing will allow the Auditor-Controller to finalize its report and for the Board of Supervisors to have comprehensive information regarding the trends, issues and DCFS policies surrounding child fatalities as well as information regarding specific fatality cases,” Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said.

 

In July, the Board of Supervisors instructed the Chief Executive Office to work with the Auditor-Controller and the DCFS Director to gather the demographics of all children in the system and their fatalities -- homicide or accidental -- for the past three years.

 

“This access is necessary to modify the special investigation previously ordered by this Board,” Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said.

 

The Board also requested the CEO to identify any underlying trends or issues and analyze those trends and issues to determine how they may contribute to deficiencies in existing policies, as they relate to the identifying, assigning, reporting, and monitoring of cases.

 

The Auditor-Controller’s Office report is expected to report the outcome of its investigation in a confidential report to the Supervisors within 90 days.

 

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