Another voice/ Child welfare
Gladys Carrion: State will take steps to ensure group home safety
Renee Greco’s death at a not-for-profit agency-operated boarding home in Lockport last month was tragic.
According to all of the published reports, she was precisely the type of young person we are encouraging to become child welfare workers in New York State.
She was smart, engaged and willing to devote her career to improving outcomes for children. As commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, I will unequivocally say that there is no higher calling. All of us at Children and Family Services are deeply saddened by this loss and offer our heartfelt condolences to Greco’s family.
Child welfare is an extremely challenging field. To honor Greco’s memory, we must not allow this incident to distract from the ongoing mission of improving outcomes for children and adolescents.
From what I’ve been reading in the local newspapers, according to her friends this is not what she would have wanted.
We must learn all we can from this tragedy to prevent any harm coming to other child care workers who, like Greco, have dedicated themselves to working with children.
The Office of Children and Family Services started this process on June 8. Just hours after getting the call about the incident on East Avenue in Lockport, the agency immediately started providing the local police department with any and all information it requested.
Within 24 hours, our office’s chief of investigations and agency experts were on site to initiate our own comprehensive review.
In conjunction with this review, I soon will formally announce the membership of a work group to review the regulations governing the 69 agency-operated boarding homes operating across the state.
I am currently considering candidates from the Office of Children and Family Services, the local counties and the not-for-profit agencies that run these homes — including direct care staff.
We want policy recommendations. And we want them no later than the end of the summer.
Thirdly, I’ve directed special teams to start making unannounced inspection visits to these homes, as an extra safeguard, to assess compliance with current regulations.
The Office of Children and Family Services’ three-pronged response to this tragedy — the comprehensive on-site review headed by our chief of investigations, the formation of a policy work group and the new policy of unannounced inspection visits to these agency-operated boarding homes— should support the office’s ongoing mission to improve services for children and families across New York State.
Gladys Carrion is commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.
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