Scioto County Children Services is double-checking all of the background checks on current foster placements. New agency director Jason Mantell revealed that information at an emotional meeting of the Children Services Board on Monday night.
Mantell said that computer issues had stalled background checks. “Right now, we do have a situation, normally our background checks are done by ESC just down the street. But they are currently having a system upgrade.” The system upgrades left ESC system out of commission for the past several weeks.
He said the agency is working with the Scioto County Sheriff’s Office to run background checks. There is some concern that something could have been missed. “We do have some people who may have not had checks. We are going through backlogs right now. Right now we have custody of 275 children. In order to make sure everyone has the correct screening, we are going back through every case and making sure.” Mantell said the Sheriff’s Office is spending three days a week conducting the checks. Click play below to hear Mantell talk about the issue.
This comes after five-year-old Annabell Greene died in the care of her grandparents. CPS placed the child and her siblings in the care of Richard and Sonya Greene. Both are charged with murder in her death. It was later revealed that both had been previously charged with child abuse.
Emotions Ran High
Emotions ran high for both board members and the public during the meeting. Some citizens burst into tears while asking questions of the board and board members and Mantell choked up when talking about the death of Annabell Greene and baby Dylan Groves. Director Mantell said he feared the loss of another child. “Literally, every night I worry that we’re going to get another phone call.”
A citizen asked, “Are we that incompetent that we can’t make sure our children are going to a safe place?”
Another woman broke into tears as she asked, “What’s happening next week in our sad little town. We can’t just have these meetings and come back next month. We have to do more and we have to do it faster.”
Board Member Pat Ciraso strongly defended the agency. “We weren’t just sitting here and talking and doing nothing.” She detailed how Children Services had followed state mandates to the letter. She said progress was stifled by the problems of finding a new director when Lowell Howard resigned and the COVID-19 pandemic. Cirasco said caseworkers were ordered not to make home visits by the state.
Staff Stretched Thin
Mantell said he’s only been on the job for a few weeks but he already feels progress had been made. However, staffing is a problem. “We’ve had three caseworkers retire in the last seven weeks. Mantell said that new caseworkers aren’t yet prepared to handle a full caseload.
“We have four caseworkers who have been here between one week and two months.”
The director said that while change is needed, it must be done thoughtfully. “The unfortunate part is that change does take time. But if you go too fast you might skip important steps. I go to bed every night and I pray that we are making changes fast enough so that nothing like this happens again. That’s why we are vetting and going back through to see if we can make a reasonable prediction something like this can happen.”
Mantell said the foster department consisted of one person. “That one person does three jobs. That shouldn’t happen.” He also said the agency had one adoption specialist.
He’s requesting that the board hire two new caseworkers and considering asking the county for more money for hiring. “I’m going to recommend that we do hire two additional people. We have a budget. Listen, I’d love to have fifty people. We’re putting as many people as we can and training them as quickly as we can.”
