Children’s review meets virtually
Advisory council, formed last fall to study Ohio counties’ service agencies, continues its mission.
An advisory council created by the governor to review how children services agencies conduct their business throughout the state has eyes on different factors that may improve the system overall.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s Children Services Transformation Advisory Council met Wednesday
morning virtually, and the group plans to continue to do so until at least July.
The group was created in November to take a deep dive into how county children service agencies operate, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
The advisory council was created about a month before 10-yearold Takoda Collins was rushed to Dayton Children’s Hospital and was pronounced dead.
The boy’s death launched an extensive investigation by the Dayton Daily News that revealed the boy’s school teachers contacted Montgomery County Children Services multiple times through the years. The investigation also revealed that Dayton Police had been called to Takoda’s home before he died, calls made by his mother, who warned authorities that Takoda was being abused.
DeWine also ordered a review of Montgomery County Children Services “alternative response” cases — those handled outside the courts. That order to review how Montgomery County Children Services handles abuse and neglect cases came after he learned the local agency closed the case of a baby born with marijuana in its system after only 12 days and without talking to both parents, DeWine said.
DeWine ordered the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to conduct the review. Montgomery County Children Services officials said there were 1,236 such cases between Aug. 25, 2019, and Feb. 25, 2020. A message left with JFS about the status of the review was not immediately returned.
The meeting by the transformation advisory council spent the majority of the time discussing plans for how the group will move forward in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. They settled that they will meet virtually in both June and July.
The group said it views its work as important, especially during the coronavirus. Since the pandemic began, tips regarding child abuse and neglect have gone down
statewide, they said.
The group said they are looking at different facets of how children’s services operate, including kinship, foster care and intervention overall. A few issues that were mentioned during the meeting that need further review are why many caseworkers don’t view the job as a longterm career and why there is inconsistency and differences between counties when it comes to the number of court filings by agencies.