Back on December 29, 2009, I wrote how the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) has not produced a child fatality task force report for fiscal years 2008 or 2009, though we’re now in 2010.
If lawmakers cannot assess our progress and challenges in child protection, they cannot suggest changes to those priorities or funding, which might very well be why this doesn't seem to be a DCS priority. DCS ostensibly knows more about how we're doing than anybody, but for some reason, it can't (or won't) get a report to the public.
Accordingly, in the (dashed) hopes that these reports come out before the session ends (they won’t), I am introducing a new iPOPA feature called: “Days Past Due.”
Whenever you see that phrase in a blog post, it refers to the number of days past the end of fiscal year 2008 before completion of these reports.
DAYS PAST DUE: 584
2 comments:
Great post on an ugly topic. These are things we need to know if Indiana is ever to emerge from the pack of sub-average. Transparency is promised often and then not delivered. Does someone have a legacy to protect from bad statistics? Keep up the important work.
Not only is this relevant for children in-care in general, it's even more relevant for children of color in-care. Children of color are disproportionately represented in cases of child welfare and any statistics that relate to children in-care will likely speak of children of color even more.
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