Category Archives: DCFS News

Practice of Deliberate Indifference: How L.A. County DCFS Failed a Ten-Year-Old

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Anthony Avalos had a long life ahead of him. Notice how we said “had.” Los Angeles County failed this young man as we – Robert and Kathleen Raskin – will show you. Imagine being a child in an abused home in 2014. Imagine your aunt’s family stepping up to fill in the role that your mother couldn’t: potty training, consulting with your teachers in preschool, hearing about how someday you’re going to be a fireman. Imagine that you confided in them that your mother and her boyfriend abusing and neglecting you and your siblings over several years. Imagine the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services not hearing your aunt and uncle’s reports, turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering you endured while you waited for a solution.

Imagine being your aunt, hearing of your torture and death in 2018.

9,000 employees at L.A. County’s DCFS handle 30,000 family and child welfare cases. They claim not to take their commitment lightly, yet there was an interaction recorded on the department’s hotline where a DCFS social worker laughed while describing abuse against Anthony. What has become the standard – as previously reported here – a contracting service is involved. The lawsuit named Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services, a Pasadena-based contractor for the DCFS that offers mental health and welfare services.

Not only that, but in 2013, the same company worked with the family of Gabriel Fernandez. He was an 8-year-old Palmdale boy tortured and killed by his mother Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre. The red flags were flying for this, because it became his case a symbol of bureaucratic failure and propelled what were meant to be far-reaching reforms within the county’s child welfare system.

Here’s a quick video about the abuse in L.A. County: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCZ04clgWdU

Where Are Your Tax Dollars Going? Private Companies Paid Millions to Manage DCFS Cases

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We expect our government to take care of its citizens. But we – Robert and Kathleen Raskin – want you to know that private sector companies exist who take on those roles instead. Their sole purpose is to manage the caseload of workers under the Department of Children and Family Services in Springfield, Illinois, just one of many places with this system in place.

And who is paying for this? You! The office of the Governor of Illinois reported that an ineffective supervisory structure, inadequate procedures for closing high-risk cases, and significant communication gaps are what hinders the employees of DCFS from doing their job. Who would stand for that? No one would, so they abandon their cases and the children they are trained to protect.

300 private agencies take 85% of the workload off DCFS

This figure is unacceptable for America. 300 private agencies! This systemic bureaucratic abuse of the system needs to stop immediately. We’re reminded every day to trust the process and believe in the government to do the right thing. The sole purpose of the Department of Children and Family Services is to keep an eye on the children, the same people who will make your community great someday.

Imagine not having the right tools to do your job. You’d do something about it, wouldn’t you? What if you couldn’t even get into the system because there wasn’t anybody to help you? No one wants an apathetic person who is only in it for the paycheck, but no one wants someone paid so poorly that they were unable to do their job at all.

98 Children’s’ Lives Lost Due to Incompetence From the Top Down

The system must be agile, innovative, and modernized in Illinois. It’s time for an overhaul.