As ACS awaits new commish, an exodus of workers
ing the child to death.
As the spotlight again focused on ACS, Carrion had to admit that she had yet to implement any of DOI’s recommendations. During an October City Council hearing looking into the agency’s handling of the Zymere case, the commissioner broke into tears and promised once again to implement a series of reforms.
Then, in December, came the death in Brooklyn of 3-year-old Jaden Jordan, who prosecutors would later say was fatally assaulted by his mother’s abusive boyfriend.
It was revealed that ACS had tried to check out an abuse tip two days before the child died, but visited the apartment next door. It was later disclosed that the agency had access to a database that would have given them the correct address, but didn’t use it and didn’t intervene until after the child was dead.
On Dec. 12, Carrion her resignation.
The next day, the state Office of Children and Family Services — which runs the central register that fields all child abuse allegations — blasted ACS with a scathing report detailing a series of failures that preceded Zymere’s death.
Carrion stayed on for several weeks while de Blasio searched for a replacement, but finally left the job Feb. 3. ACS has been without an appointed commissioner announced since.
ACS acknowledges the increased caseload, but blames that on the publicity generated by the high-profile cases of Zymere and Jaden.
“We recognize that caseloads rise temporarily following highprofile cases, and averages fluctuate at various times throughout the year, which is why our continued focus remains building on the 600 workers we’ve recently hired,” said Acting Commissioner Eric Brettschneider.
The mayor has yet to confront his own role in ACS’ failures. Grilled by Albany legislators last month, he blamed the media for inflating problems at the agency.
During his State of the City speech last week, he didn’t talk about the agency at all. Questioned by reporters, he explained that he didn’t feel the need to address all the city’s issues at once, choosing instead to focus on a new push for job creation.
In addition to the 600 new caseworkers, de Blasio hired 12 liaisons to work with district attorneys in handling the cases of troubled families. There are now about 1,800 caseworkers in all.
And he’s addressing DOI’s concerns about “conflicts of interest” due to a lack of independent monitoring of cases by bringing in 12 staffers to audit cases “where case concerns are identified.”
ACS and the NYPD have also teamed up to use data to measure performance through a system known as ChildStat, a spinoff of the wildly successful CompStat used by the Police Department.
But Local 371 President Wells says still more front-line staff is needed to keep up with the rising tide of abuse calls and what he calls an increased need for paperwork.
Asked if he was told when a new commissioner would arrive to move things forward, Wells shrugged.
“I guess they’re taking their time,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re doing.”