State must renew resolve to protect foster children

In large bureaucracies, things can slip through the cracks. But that absolutely cannot include 11-month-old babies. And yet it does.

It is once again glaringly apparent that in New Mexico some children do not fare well within a system that is supposed to protect them. The most recent tiny victim is Ariza Barreras.

She and two siblings, ages 3 and 2, were in foster care with the state’s Children Youth and Families Department. On Dec. 28, the children were placed in the Belen home of a respite licensed foster caregiver because the full-time foster mother was going out of state for a family gathering.

Three days later, baby Ariza was found dead in a car seat with her arm caught in a strap in a cold, filthy house strewn with unwashed dishes, animal feces and urine, and an “unbearable stench.” The fill-in caregiver, Stephanie Crownover, was arrested on charges of child abuse and child abuse resulting in death.

This tragic outcome might have been prevented had other adults paid attention to — and acted upon — signs of neglect.

What is so grievous is that just two days before, Crownover had taken the children to a neutral visitation center so their biological parents could see them. At the Small Steps center, the father expressed concern to a facilitator because the children were unwashed, without socks and shoes and appeared not to be well cared-for. He said Ariza was in a soiled diaper and when he went to change it he found she had severe diaper rash.

However, those concerns were not immediately passed along to CYFD, although according to a criminal complaint the father said the facilitator had told him they would be. Had that been done, perhaps CYFD would have responded quickly and removed the children from Crownover’s care; perhaps baby Ariza would still be alive.

Furthermore, Crownover should have taken the children to see a doctor that weekend because, as she later told investigators, all three children had severe diarrhea, runny noses and coughs; she did not because “it was too cold outside” and she did not want to subject them to the weather.

The children apparently had seen a doctor the week before for earaches, the regular foster father later told investigators. At that time, Ariza was diagnosed with a respiratory virus and given antibiotics. One wonders if that was passed along to Crownover; if it was, it would appear to be negligent not to follow up when the children still seemed to be sick. Another missed opportunity to perhaps save the baby’s life.

CYFD says an agency worker visited Crownover’s home in early December and found nothing amiss. It’s surprising that within weeks the home situation would devolve into the mess deputies found when they responded to her 911 call.

The agency has two investigations underway— one looking into the allegations against Crownover as well as an internal review of the steps and actions CYFD took, including why the father’s concerns raised at Small Steps were not forwarded to CYFD before the child’s death.

Reforms in how child abuse and neglect are investigated were instituted in the state after the December 2013 death of 9-year-old Omaree Varela, who was kicked to death by his mother. Questions and public outcry arose over missed opportunities by CYFD and the Albuquerque Police Department to remove him from his mother’s care.

Now, Ariza’s death calls out for more efforts to close these cracks in communication and judgment. CYFD must again do some serious soul-searching to improve its response and policies to protect these precious children — children already traumatized by situations and adults in their lives, children entrusted to the state to be placed into the care of adults who are paid with public money to ensure each one’s safety.