Law to help child welfare

INDIANAPOLIS -- State lawmakers have proposed a bill that would require child welfare case managers to visit clients' homes once every 30 days.\nThe legislation was triggered by the death of an 8-year-old disabled Elwood boy.\nFirefighters found Mark Norris II dead Jan. 21 after a fire burned his family's Elwood home. Officials originally thought he died in the blaze, but an autopsy showed he died of pneumonia the day before the fire.\nEvidence of child neglect, malnutrition and bedsores was also found.\nSupervision by Indiana Child Protection Services has failed to save the lives of dozens of abused and neglected children, say legislators hoping to revamp the agency's procedures.\n"It appears that the department is not conducting thorough investigations, and children are dying as a result," said state Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville. "After an initial investigation, there is no follow-up."\nJohn Hamilton, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, said he had not seen the legislation and declined to comment on it.\nBut he defended the agency.\n"Every day our 730 case managers go to work with a child seat in the back of their cars in case they have to remove a child from a home," he said last week. "We handle a thousand calls a week. Even when we do our job as well as possible, there are things we can't predict."\nSince 1997, at least 76 children have died while under the supervision of Child Protection Services. The agency substantiated more than 19,000 complaints of abuse and neglect in 2002.\nThe proposed bill also would add an abuse "indicated" category to investigative findings. Such a category would allow social workers to monitor cases in which abuse is suspected but not proven.\nChild advocates support the legislation, but it likely will have little effect unless lawmakers attach funding, said Lee Ann Harper, development director for Prevent Child Abuse Indiana.\nMoney is needed to hire case managers and provide training, she said.\nAdding an "abuse indicated" category for court action could raise costs by increasing workloads for prosecutors, courts and county child welfare offices, the Office of Fiscal and Management Analysis reports.\nCosts would go up $3,600 for each additional court petition filed. Faced with a budget deficit, lawmakers likely will not allocate more money, Hamilton said.