Declaring that child fatalities in Los Angeles County should be viewed as a crisis, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas today called for a thorough release of data on child fatality trends to better understand the extent of the problem and to address it with the urgency it deserves. “Obtaining all critical information that can inform us of the true scope and severity of this crisis is not only important, it is our duty,” said Mr. Ridley-Thomas.
“The Dept. of Children and Family Services needs to provide the Board of Supervisors with essential information on children’s deaths in the County. Doing so will help the Department understand, plan and provide better services.”
Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s motion is to be considered at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting tomorrow. It directs the CEO, Dept. of Children and Family Services and the County Counsel to compile a broad package of information on deaths of children with prior Los Angeles County DCFS history from 1990 to 2010.
“We must do a better job of preventing child deaths,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said. “The first step is collecting adequate data and using it in the interest of protecting children. We have a moral obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us.” At a minimum, the data would include the total number of fatalities involving children with DCFS histories (either reported or substantiated abuse or neglect) for each year, along with such information as the cause of death, age of the child and whether the child resided with parents or in a foster arrangement.
“Sound policy decisions cannot be made without complete data,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said. “One cannot determine, for instance, if a year-to-year spike in child deaths is due to numerous fatal shootings of teenagers or a spate of infants dying in their homes. Nor is it possible to spot geographic trends that could affect resource distribution.
“This motion will hopefully enable us to make judgments based on facts, not conjecture and speculation,” he said.
Mr. Maddox may be contacted at emaddox@bos.lacounty.gov
