South Bend Tribune
In January, Terry Stigdon left Riley Hospital for Children, where she had worked in nursing and supervisory positions since 1998, to become director of the Indiana Department of Child Services. She inherited huge problems. Her predecessor, Mary Beth Bonaventura, left the job with a searing warning for Gov. Eric Holcomb: his administration’s cost-cutting decisions, Bonaventura wrote, “all but ensure children will die.”
Holcomb responded by hiring Stigdon and commissioning a study by a consultant: the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group. In June, it reported workers were underpaid, overworked, undersupervised and, consequently, demoralized. Holcomb freed up $25 million in extra funds for DCS, and legislators vowed to take up the challenges in a summer study committee.
The changes recommended are just beginning to be implemented; many were suggestions from previous studies that were subsequently ignored. Meanwhile, the agency’s annual report showed the state had 59 deaths from abuse or neglect in the year preceding June 30, 2016, the latest period for which statistics are available — 18 fewer than the 77 deaths reported during 2014-15.
The Child Welfare Group also reported that the department needed more attorneys with more experience, and that staff training needed to be upgraded. A pair of court rulings this month offered further reasons to take those findings seriously.
This month, Stigdon has appeared twice before the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary to talk about her department’s responses to the consultant’s proposals. She and Assistant Director Todd Meyer told the committee they are making progress on hiring more staff to lower the supervisor-to-caseworker ratio and promised “significant salary adjustments” for staffers, including attorneys, as well as improved training.
“We’re ready for positive change,” Meyer told legislators.
During the committee’s last two meetings, scheduled in October, some key recommendations need to be explored more deeply. How will the agency address the finding, for instance, that Indiana children are taken out of their family homes at a much higher rate than in surrounding states? What specifically can be done to eliminate what the study called a “culture of fear” among the staff?
The governor and legislature need to give Stigdon all the help they can as she tries to address such concerns. Previous attempts to put the agency’s house in order have fallen short. But in June, Holcomb pledged the state would act on his consultants’ recommendations. For the safety of Indiana’s children, that pledge must be kept.
