Gold Dome Live is moving!
Our new spot will allow us to get the news to you even faster and make commenting easier. Please bookmark the new site and sign up for our rss feed:
http://blogs.ajc.com/gold-dome-live/
AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March > 23
Friday, March 23, 2007
Fulton DFCS director removed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The manager of Fulton County’s child protection office was ousted from that post Friday afternoon, days after a report that strongly criticized operations there.
The head of the county office of the state’s Division of Family and Children Services, Kenneth Joe, is being replaced by his superior, Mary Dean Harvey. She is director of the state agency, which oversees county offices throughout Georgia. Harvey also will retain her position as statewide director.
A report released this week from the Office of the Child Advocate was highly critical of Fulton County DFCS and pointed out that many case workers in Fulton complained that Joe’s management style was too severe and belligerent and contributed to an exodus of employees. The Child Advocate’s investigation began after the death of 2-year-old Nateyonna Banks in November. The report concluded that children in the Fulton County system are in danger and it called for immediate improvements.
In addition to Joe’s removal, other changes announced at a news conference today included recalling up to 25 retired case workers to help with Fulton’s case overload.
An audit released Wednesday blasted the Fulton County DFCS office, which is responsible for protecting children from abuse and neglect. Fulton DFCS leaves abused children in homes without checking on their safety, places children with drug abusers and others who have not been sufficiently screened, and labors under a backlog of about 300 cases, according to the report from the Office of Child Advocate, which monitors the state’s child welfare efforts.
Georgia Senate Democrats today followed up on the critical audit by saying Gov. Perdue has not fulfilled his promise to fix the state agency. They also called for similar audits of all Division of Family and Children Services offices in the state.
Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) said, “This report raises serious questions, not only about DFCS in Fulton County, but what DFCS is doing around the state. We need a comprehensive statewide review of the department to determine if the kind of malfeasance going on in Fulton is going on around Georgia.”
Sen. Horacena Tate (D-Atlanta) laid blame for the problems in Fulton at the feet of the governor, saying that Perdue had long ago pledged to fix DFCS but has failed.
“It’s now up to the Democrats to take action and we plan to aggressively push for a statewide review to protect Georgia’s children,” Tate said.
The senators also called for more funding for the state Office of the Child Advocate to further review other DFCS offices.
Perdue released a statement earlier this week saying that while DFCS has largely improved, more work needed to be done. He said his office would review the audit with DFCS officials and take appropriate action.
Permalink | Comments (96) | Categories: Miscellaneous
Services »
