New DCS Director’s 1st Interview

McKay sits down with 9OYS

http://www.jrn.com/kgun9/news/New-DCS-director-sits-down-with-9OYS-294132721.html?lc=Smart

A foster mother who subsequently adopted several children was charged in the death of a severely disabled child who could not escape the fire set by a 6-year old.  It all sounds like a horrific tragedy until you learn that documents show that the foster mother was keenly aware of the younger child’s propensity to start fires, and that the foster mother has been the suspect in child abuse cases dating back to 1999.

Additionally, between 2009 and 2010, the now deceased child was the subject of three child abuse reports, but remained in the home. According to 9OYS, those abuse allegations were not disclosed to them when they specifically asked earlier in the month, but four allegations of neglect were.  9OYS says this took place under former Director Charles Flanagan.

Now that Greg McKay has taken over, he says the department needs to get better at detecting red flags, claiming “Our workforce is underdeveloped sometimes, they’re inexperienced sometimes, they don’t detect these things that somebody that had the blessing of a long career and a lot of exposure knows so we need to somehow get that to them and get it to them fast.”  That thinking could prove naive when further investigations reveal that only the smallest amount of abuse and neglect in foster care even makes the radar, let alone get properly addressed.  But McKay as much as acknowledges this under reporting when he tells 9OYS that the “percentage of claims the department has found to be substantiated is ‘artificially low'”.  He said this in reference to licensed foster and adoption homes.

There is a culture in DCS that allows for, even encourages, ignoring red flags, and sweeping as much as possible that occurs in state care under the rug.  This emanates from the concerted effort to suppresses anything that does not go along with the image that CPS, (now DCS), never makes mistakes, is never wrong, and can’t look bad in anything they do – – – until, of course, it comes out in the press due to a death that can no longer be covered up.  Until this culture is rooted out, and transparency replaces cover ups, all the training in the world is not going to compensate for common sense, and doing right by children and families.  Rogue behavior within DCS is not accounted for, and instead, being right regardless of the facts to the contrary, is the priority.  It doesn’t take any special training or skills to recognize the obvious.  It takes accountability, and there is none.

That in no way disparages McKay for anything that has gone on before, but rather taps into his law enforcement/former police detective background and investigation experiences to get into how these things did happen, were allowed to happen, and what is really going on within the department.  Very much has to do with policies that are willfully ignored and improper practices that have become widely accepted. Hopefully what will be discovered in short order is that the good, honest social workers, there to do things right, get discouraged from doing so, even retaliated against, if they do not follow the agenda, which all too often is not what’s best for the children.  This has caused for high turnover in those that enter the field of social services to do good, and few in charge that will break with tradition to change the ways of DCS.

Focusing on past cases where the department has made mistakes will not go anywhere towards fixing the culture if accountability is not mandated, and examples made of those who didn’t take appropriate action, or make appropriate calls under circumstances that literally affect children’s lives, and in this case and more, lead to their deaths.  To take any investigation to its natural conclusion when it comes to any child in foster care requires that circumstances surrounding how and why these children ended up in foster care to begin with be analyzed, and determinations made as to whether or not things were done right throughout to have possibly averted where they ended up, e.g., did they come from a loving home where providing the same services and support the foster mother received could have kept these children with their natural families and averted death?

Scrutiny of every case worker and their practices is long overdue so that the rogue culture can be weeded out, before they can be judging the removal of children from families, often shattering lives forever.  Without extensive inquiry into all aspects of this case being sought, and everyone who contributed to this tragedy investigated, and held accountable, little will be learned or gained to prevent the next one.  It’s the investigations and holding people accountable that will yield the most return in fixing and changing the system, and it is therein that McKay should be well suited for this job.

According to the interview, McKay’s immediate agenda is to implement stringent requirements on the office that grants foster and adoptive licensing.  That’s all fine and good, but foster homes are in short supply, and “good” ones even more scarce.  That fix is readily available when serious efforts are made to only remove high risk children in imminent danger from their homes.  Clearly that has not been the case as Arizona has lead the country in taking children from their homes, and non-victims of abuse and neglect are swept into the system, inundating it to the point that children have been discovered sleeping in DCS offices.  There are simply too many instances of children in foster care that should not be there, and until that critically important issue is addressed, marginal, or worse, foster homes will continue to be used by necessity to warehouse these children.  THIS, i.e., the removal of children from their home and families is where all true reform and fixing needs to start.

Investigating the Diegel case would go a long way in serving to show that investigations, and holding those accountable who have lied, or sought to cover for DCS incompetence, mistakes and/or outright violated or ignored policies and procedures is the only way to move forward to change the culture and stop the carnage of families.  Too much is concealed in these cases that would otherwise prevent so much damage from happening to the children of Arizona.  Indeed, what McKay says about the percentage of claims the department has found to be substantiated is ‘artificially low’ is right there.  Three independent sources have documented their concerns of the Diegel children in their current foster care environment, and two of those sources have recommended the children be moved – – – almost 6 months ago!  It’s all there.  The atrocities committed by DCS in the Diegel case, properly investigated, serve as a road map of all that is wrong in DCS and the courts that continues to allow an agency to wreak so much havoc and destruction on innocent families and children.

“Those licensing agents and people need to know the entire history behind the people that they’re considering for licenses to include unsubstantiated cases and substantiated cases,” McKay said.  So too does McKay need to know the history behind, and all about the people taking children from parents and making life altering decisions of putting them into state care, and even recommending their parental rights be severed PERMANENTLY.  It all starts with them, often times with as little as an uninvestigated phone call taken at face value.  Those are the people who can most dramatically affect and change the system, stop overburdening it so that only the best foster homes are needed for children actually in need of them.  The alternative is to continue the status quo, and be driven by only cases that end in death, when so much more suffering and devastation happens well before that tragic result.  DCS is an agency that has full reign over people’s lives and future, and effects generations.  McKay has one of the most critically important and difficult jobs there is. We believe investigations, accountability and transparency is KEY, and an investigator’s background in law enforcement might just be the solution to overhauling a department that was said to be overhauled a year ago, (and many other times before that).

We wish McKay Godspeed, and ask him to
SEND THE DIEGEL Sisters, and all children, unjustly taken, HOME.

A Miracle for Two Sisters

For more information go to https://amiracle42sisters.wordpress.com/

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