‘That’s concerning’: Nebraska’s child welfare report shows disturbing uptick

By Bill Schammert

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    LINCOLN, Nebraska (KETV) — Nebraska’s watchdog over child welfare is out with an annual report that shows upticks on a variety of concerning topics.

The Nebraska Office of Inspector General of Child Welfare released its report on Monday.

It includes 21 child deaths reported to the office for fiscal year 2023-24, compared to 11 the previous year.

“That’s always a concern,” said inspector general Jennifer Carter. “I don’t know what it means ‚ if it’s happenstance of sad news from this year — or if it indicates something about the health of the system.”

Of the deaths reported, eight were because of medical issues or an accident, three were being investigated, three were the result of abuse or neglect, but the family wasn’t known to DHHS at the time, and seven involved co-sleeping or unsafe sleep.

Carter said some of the unsafe sleep deaths were accidents, but two involved an intoxicated person.

“It’s a public health concern,” she said of the high number of unsafe sleep deaths.

The OIG is required to investigate deaths or serious injuries of youth who are 1) placed in out-of-home care or a licensed facility, 2) receiving child welfare services from DHHS or Juvenile Probation, and 3) the subject of a child abuse investigation over the last 12 months.

The report also highlighted 27 serious injuries to children that were reported, up from 15 the prior year. Carter said seven were caused by serious abuse or neglect, but the family wasn’t known at the time, 11 were not the result of abuse or neglect, and eight will be investigated by the OIG.

“We’ve doubled the number of investigations we’ll be doing this year,” Carter said.

According to the report, there was a rise in critical indicators at Nebraska’s Youth Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers, including an increase in staff assaults, an increase in self-harm, and an increase in mechanical restraint use at all facilities.

“That, to me, indicates there’s more of a challenge managing behaviors that you’re actually having to put wrists and ankle restraints on while they’re on campus,” Carter said.

In a statement to KETV, the Department of Health and Human Services said it just got the report Monday and is reviewing the information.

“DHHS continues to make inroads in supporting Nebraska’s children,” the department said in the statement. “DHHS has made significant changes and improvements to child welfare policy in part by implementing the new Safety Assessment Family Evaluation model. In addition, DHHS is developing more in-depth training models for new team members.”

The OIG said it was impacted for seven months of this fiscal year, August 2023 to March 2024, because of an opinion by Nebraska’s Attorney General about its right to access information and investigative authority.

According to the report, that improved in March after a memorandum of understanding between the Nebraska Legislature and Gov. Jim Pillen’s office, but it’s still difficult to retrieve some information.

Carter said her office will monitor to see if this is just a bad year or a trend.

“The numbers were not great,” she said. “I think the Legislature will want to be paying attention to this and make sure the systems have what they need to help these families.”

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