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State has looked into complaints of St. Lawrence County Social Services

Posted 7/25/21

BY JIMMY LAWTON North Country This Week CANTON — The state Office of Children and Family Services has done some oversight review of the recent complaints made about the Department of Social …

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State has looked into complaints of St. Lawrence County Social Services

Posted

BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

CANTON — The state Office of Children and Family Services has done some oversight review of the recent complaints made about the Department of Social Services,  St. Lawrence County Administrator Ruth Doyle told legislators Monday.

“We’re working with them now to understand what that looks like,” said Doyle at the Services Committee meeting. “ I believe they have not found anything with regards to the complaints received about DSS employees.”

Doyle said the county is reviewing complaints brought forward in which allegations of retaliation and other misconduct were made in regard to DSS employees.

At a recent legislature meeting, several people shared stories of problems they experienced personally with the department. Prior to that, the county received a dozen letters, some from the same people, which described various problems.

Doyle said the county is also reviewing the “practices that were involved in that situation.”

Her comments followed a presentation from DSS Director Cynthia Ackerman that provided some statistics regarding case loads and children in care rates.

The data presented lacked context in some cases but provided some insight into the department’s situation.

One point lauded by Ackerman was in regard to completing safety checks on time. Although the presentation only provided data from March 2021 to May 2021, it showed that DSS went from having about 60 percent of its safety checks completed on time to about 90 percent.

The state median is 89 percent.

A safety check is essentially when county DSS workers follow up on a report regarding the safety of a child. The county is supposed to respond within seven days of the complaint.

Although the data showed the county was only doing this in about 60 percent of cases in March of 2021, Ackerman indicated that the low response rate had been the norm since at least August of 2020.

However, the report did not show just how long that had been the case.

The report showed that the county has 327 children currently in care. Of those children, 136 are with relatives, 157 are with foster parents and 18 are on a home trial basis.

The report showed that the number of children in county care has risen from 184 in 2017 to 333 in 2021.

It also showed that in St. Lawrence County, the children remain under county care for an average of 656 days in 2021. That's up about six days from 2017.

The report did not indicate what the normal or average time children remain in care statewide, making it hard to know if the county’s numbers were higher or lower than what is considered normal.

Children receiving services at home decreased from 263 in December of 2019 to 212 in June of 2021.

The report also showed that between January and June of this year, the county has freed about 30 children to be available for adoption. The number rose from 20 to 50 children over the six-month period.

About three children were adopted in the six-month period and 10 children are without an adoptive resource.

The report from Ackerman was the first of many expected in coming months and while the information lacked context and comparable data in some cases, she sought insight from legislators to help adjust the report in the future.

She noted that it was a lot of information and that many people would see the data differently. She urged legislators to ask any questions or give suggestions on what information should be included in future reports.

Legislator Joseph Lightfoot offered praise for the report. He said it’s something the county has needed for a long time and would help legislators better understand the situation at DSS in the future.

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