This week, a report from the Des Moines Register revealed that confirmed cases of child abuse in Iowa are skyrocketing after the well-publicized and preventable deaths of two teenage girls Des Moines. At the same time as these reports were soaring, increasing the need for the state to intervene on behalf of at-risk kids, Governor Reynolds slashed the Department of Human Services’ budget for just the rest of FY 2018 by $4.3 million.
Since Reynolds took office in 2010, more than 800 jobs at the Department of Human Services have been eliminated, significantly reducing the DHS’s ability to protect Iowa kids. To make matters worse, the tax giveaway Reynolds signed yesterday will undoubtedly mean more cuts to the DHS’s budget.
“Governor Reynolds’ mismanagement of our budget and the DHS is putting Iowa kids in danger. It’s sickening. We have an obligation as Iowans to look out for our neighbors, especially our most vulnerable children, and Kim Reynolds has failed to live up to that obligation at every single turn,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price.
DES MOINES REGISTER: Confirmed child abuse in Iowa is skyrocketing. Here’s why.
“Confirmed child abuse in Iowa skyrocketed 26 percent from 2016 to 2017, the most dramatic one-year spike in at least a generation.
‘We’ve just never had an increase like this. I don’t know how you absorb that,’ said Stephen Scott, a consultant and former Prevent Child Abuse Iowa director who analyzes state abusedata annually. ‘These figures are beyond what I expected.’
The explosive upturn in abuse findings has widespread implications for Iowa families, social workers, juvenile court workers, drug treatment providers and state leaders wrestling with a major budget shortfall.
In March, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed legislation cutting $35.5 million from the state budget. That included slashing $4.3 million from the budget of the Department of Human Services, which oversees child protection.
‘I do not see how DHS can keep up with this demand with such limited resources,’ Scott said.”
“But Foxhoven has said little publicly about how investigators and case managers are managing with a dramatically increased workload.
Human Services failed to respond to multiple requests last week for interviews about the spike.
A consultant’s review of child welfare practices in Iowa released last December found childabuse investigations in Iowa had increased by 43 percent.
The Child Welfare Group report, initiated after the deaths of Finn and Ray, found mandatory reporters of abuse, which include educators, were unhappy with the state’s failure to investigate their reports.
They also found poor morale, an antiquated data system that made it difficult to get needed reports, and high turnover of child protective workers in Polk and Linn counties, where social worker caseloads were particularly high.
The consultant’s report was critical of state policies and spending priorities: ‘Child welfare intervention should not be viewed as a substitute for universally available basic health, mental health and supportive community services that can help families, especially those in poverty … keep their needs from escalating to the point that they result in a report of abuse or neglect,’ the report said.”