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The Office of Inspector General of Nebraska Child Welfare published its annual report, painting a picture of challenges and difficulties. Nebraska Public Media’s Dale Johnson sat down with Inspector General Jennifer Carter to talk about factors contributing to a noticeable increase in reports of deaths and serious injuries in the child welfare system.
Jennifer Carter: This year, we had 21 child deaths reported to us. That's compared to 11 reported the last fiscal year. We had 27 serious injuries of children reported to our office this last fiscal year, compared to 15. I do want to clarify, it's important when I say reported, because there is a baseline of what has to be reported under the statute, and the Department of Health and Human Services always does that. I believe in this last fiscal year, they chose to be a little broader and include some deaths and serious injuries that may technically not have had to be reported under the statute. But as a result, I can't fully compare the data in terms of knowing for sure whether we're seeing an increase in deaths and serious injuries overall, or if it's just more were reported to us.
Dale Johnson: To explain that deeper, DHHS reported deaths that happened outside the system, but then were told about the deaths.
Carter: Correct. There were at least three of those deaths where the department didn't even know about the family, so they weren't offering services. They weren't able to provide supports because they weren't even aware of the family until the death or serious injury happened.
Johnson: The back story that I want to get into now, Jennifer is the fact that your work was significantly impacted by the Department of Health and Human Services response to the Attorney General questioning the constitutionality of laws governing your office.
Carter: Correct.
Johnson: Briefly explain that.
Carter: So on Aug. 16 of last year, the Attorney General issued an opinion that the acts governing the Office of Inspector General of Child Welfare and of corrections were unconstitutional based on separation of powers. Within a couple of hours, we lost access to all information, and we did not receive our usual notifications. We could not access the normal information we would to do investigations for about seven months until a memorandum of understanding was signed between the department and the legislature, which has allowed us to get information. Since February, we have been able to receive information, request information, do most of our work. It is cumbersome, frankly, for us and for the department, but we are able to access information at this point.
Johnson: So for a seven-month period, your office was not receiving any notices of deaths or serious injuries from the Department of Health and Human Services, even though your Office of Inspector General for Child Welfare was appointed by the legislature. Is that correct?
Carter: Correct.
Johnson: What does that tell you about the importance of your job and being able to access records of death and serious injuries?
Carter: I mean, the most foundational part of government oversight and accountability is access to information. When we are talking about providing that level of transparency and accountability for government agencies, for any agency, but these agencies who are helping some of our most vulnerable children and residents, it's critically important. I mean, you can't even begin to do the work if you don't have access to the information. And I think it's important for the legislature to understand how the system that they have created is working. It's important for the taxpayers to understand that.
Johnson: Again, the Attorney General's opinion is that the investigative power supposedly given to your office by the legislature violated the separation of powers clause of the state constitution.
Cater: Correct.
Johnson: What is the relationship now? Are you able to do your job as Inspector General for Child Welfare?
Carter: We are, but as I mentioned, it is harder to do our job than it was before. We are receiving notices and information that is affirmatively supposed to be sent to us, and that is critically important. Requesting documentation and other information that we need to conduct our investigations after we receive those notifications is just a little bit more cumbersome. We used to be able to actually look. We couldn't make any changes in the system, but we were able to look at a case file on our own. Now there's a lot of process to getting that information.
Johnson: Isn't part of your job to report deaths and serious injuries of children?
Carter: That is the most central piece of our work.
Johnson: Frustrating for you?
Carter: It was absolutely a very frustrating and difficult seven months. We very much believe in our mission of transparency in government and accountability for government, and so to not access any of that information, to not know what was happening in the system to children and youth, was extremely frustrating. So we are happy that we are now able to do some of that. This memorandum is going to last until the end of the session.
Johnson: Inspector General Jennifer Carter has been joining me today, Inspector General of Nebraska's Child Welfare System. Thank you for taking time, for sharing that information with us today on Nebraska Public Media. I'm Dale Johnson.