Mecklenburg reveals plan to fix ‘systemic’ problems after 6-year-old found dead
Mecklenburg County rolled out its plan Tuesday to address “systemic” problems within its social services department that were found after a child’s death triggered a state investigation.
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The Department of Health and Human Services ordered the county to develop a corrective action plan in May after a review of child welfare cases found “a broad, systemic lack of appropriate safety planning.” The order didn’t mention 6-year-old Dominique Moody by name. But it said the review began when the state was notified of a December child fatality, the same month Moody died.
Moody weighed 27 pounds when she died and showed signs of abuse and malnutrition. County leadership said previously 12 county employees have left the county or been disciplined following Moody’s death. The case also sparked a change in state law and multiple investigations, as well as a state House Oversight Committee hearing where legislators floated pursuing criminal charges against county employees. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Moody’s aunt, her legal guardian when she died.
According to the DHHS report, four out of five previous reports in the case “met the definition of abuse and neglect” but “were screened out with no further assessment of safety of the children.” Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and the county’s Social Services department received numerous reports about Moody’s home before she died, the Observer and other news outlets reported previously.
When the state looked into a larger sample of cases, it found safety assessments had adequate safety plans “in only 43% of the cases” and that “ongoing contacts with families were not sufficient to ensure safety and risk.”
On Tuesday, county staff presented to county commissioners their plan to address the state’s concerns. The county worked with state DHHS officials to develop the strategy, which will be implemented over the next year, Deputy County Manager Kimm Campbell said.
It addresses four findings from the DHHS report: deficiencies in how the county conducts child safety assessments, the need to improve how staff assess safety and make decisions, a lack of supervisory oversight and notifications not going out to law enforcement and the district attorney.
The county plans to:
The county is also increasing staffing in social services department, Campbell added. Mecklenburg’s budget for the new fiscal year that began July 1 included a $2.5 million investment in Child, Family and Adult Services, including funding for 18 additional child welfare positions.
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“We know there’s no perfect child welfare system, but we are working diligently to improve ours,” Campbell said.
The county will provide regular updates to the state on its progress over the next year, she said.
At-large Commissioner Arthur Griffin, who chairs the board’s Health and Human Services Committee, called for staff to develop a color-coded dashboard where commissioners can track progress.
“That’s the governance role for the board,” Griffin said.
Fellow at-large Commissioner Leigh Altman said she’s still “really concerned” about the state’s findings about the number of “inaccurate case decisions that resulted in no services being provided to ensure the safety of children,” Altman said.
“I don’t have clarity about how this happened and how it existed systemically,” Altman said.
Commissioners did not discuss the specifics of Moody’s case but voted to go into closed session following the presentation of the corrective action plan to talk about “confidential” matters.
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