BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country Now

A harsh state audit of the St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services that was kept from legislators for months found more than a dozen issues requiring correction as complaints against the department continue to mount.

The report was essentially a routine audit by the state as part of its regular oversight. The report was particularly critical of the Child and Protective Services where it showed in multiple cases that DSS agents had failed to assess risks, vet allegations, make safety visits, compile information and meet with children and families.

A spokesperson for the Office of Children and Family Services noted that it would be uncommon for a report to find no areas in need of correction, but it is not clear to what extent the findings in this case deviate from the average number of issues found.

What is clear is that, in some cases, areas identified for needed correction lined up, at least in a general sense, with complaints made about the department.

The findings would have been relevant to actions discussed and taken by legislators over the past few months, but neither they nor the county administrator had seen it.

Buried Report

County Administrator Ruth Doyle said the report was submitted to the DSS in February, but wasn’t seen by her or the legislature until mid-August.

She said the report will be discussed Sept. 20 at the committee meeting and so will future protocols for ensuring state reports are shared with the board.

When asked, Doyle said she believed the findings in the report would have been helpful and relevant to various decisions made by her and legislators over the past several months. She noted that some of the required actions listed in the report have been a focus for DSS staff as evidenced in recent reports.

So why was the report kept from legislators and the county administrator?

“That’s a great question,” county Services Committee Chairman Joseph Lightfoot said.

“Obviously the commissioner had the report back in February,” he said.

Commissioner Cynthia Ackerman resigned just weeks ago, around the time the report was discovered and just after her probationary term expired.

She did not provide a reason for her resignation.

Lightfoot also questioned why the Office of Children and Family Services didn't make sure the report was shared with the administrator and legislators.

“It’s not a self-serving report. It was done outside of the control of the department and it was critical of the procedures that DSS was engaged in. OCFS didn’t tell us about it,” he said. “They should have notified the administrator. They only notified the offending agency.”

Lightfoot said that it appears the report had languished in a “drawer” despite its relevance to ongoing issues.

Lightfoot said legislators were “left in the dark” as they attempted to make decisions about staffing, DSS legal matters and how to address mounting complaints.

The problems occurred between October 2019 and November 2020, with the majority of samples used for the CPS portion of the report taken from April 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2020 while Ackerman was at the helm of the department and David Haggard was serving as general counsel.

In March of 2021, legislators were aware of issues at DSS, though to what extent is unclear. Since then, they’ve sought to hire well over a dozen people in the department, have asked for regular reports from the department, and transferred the legal counsel to the county attorney.

Despite all that, they were never presented with the OCFS findings.

Lightfoot said the information in the audit was and is relevant to the decisions made over the past several months regarding hires, changes in the legal structure and whether or not allow Ackerman’s probationary period to expire.

Scolding assessment

The report was completed using random sampling of cases. While some cases were handled properly with the department receiving 100%, other areas scored 0%. The report can be viewed here.

A brief, but vague, summary of the issues was included which showed that Child and Protective Services failed to see and interview children for safety checks, failed to explore domestic violence and risk elements in some cases, and failed to evaluate need for services.

The report showed that in many instances case workers weren’t gathering enough information to assess risks, dangers and in determining allegations. And “when sufficient information was gathered to make safety and risk decisions, safety factors were incorrectly chosen.”

It showed that gathering “succinct information to assess safety was not completed in some cases and safety decisions and safety factors were not consistent with case circumstances.”

It should be noted the county has been working to improve these areas since the report was issued, even if it was kept from legislators. The county has been focused on improving 24-hour and 7-day safety checks over the past few months, according to reports shared with legislators.

Regarding Foster Care, the report was much kinder.

The report did not require corrective action for gathering case related information. It did show that in some cases, the frequency of visits between case worker and mother were not adequate to meet case goals and that frequency and quality of visits with siblings were not adequate to promote a relationship.

In preventative and protective services, the department also had many flaws, the report says.

The report showed that in four cases, assessments of safety were not completed and in three cases safety concerns were not adequately addressed.

The report showed that insufficient initial and ongoing assessment of needs were not documented and said concerted efforts to involve all fathers in case planning was not adequate. Additionally, the report stated that the quality of visits was not sufficient to address case goals and identified services that were not provided to meet identified needs.

The review included a sampling of 50 cases including 12 CPS investigations, 8 FAR cases, 15 preventative and protective cases and 15 Foster cases.

The report will likely be shared at tonight’s public meeting.

Ongoing complaints

A letter obtained by North Country This Week showed that 34 children were in homes of St. Lawrence County DSS employees and one of those employees had eight children in care as of April 30 2018, which “exceeds regulatory capacity,” OCFS said.

The letter was sent to Ackerman on Aug. 13, about a week prior to her resignation.

This lends credence to one of the many complaints made against the county, but leaves unanswered the questions regarding the rate for care being received by the employees.

Allegations have been made, but not yet substantiated, that children in care by DSS employees were receiving higher rates than they received at previous homes.

St. Lawrence County did provide data that only 3% of the county's children in care currently were being fostered by county employees as of May 31. It also notes that none of those employees are receiving the maximum reimbursement rate falling within the “exceptional” category.

The department has been under a magnifying glass since June when more than a dozen citizens submitted letters to legislators alleging misconduct at the department.

The group has found support from the Law Firm of Michael Phillips and an organization called CHILD, which is run by Courtney Fantone, who was among those accusing the department of unethical, discriminatory and retaliatory practices.

CHILD recently told North Country This Week that more than 50 complaint letters were being compiled and vetted and will soon be sent to legislators, the attorney general and state legislators.

Public comment at county board meetings has come to routinely include complaints regarding the department of social services.

For its part, legislators have taken some actions. Recently they approved funding for the hire of an independent agency which Doyle confirmed will be looking at practices within the department as well as specific complaints being made against the agency.