Two state House committees approved a resolution yesterday calling for an audit of the state Child Protective Services. House wants
Child Services auditTwo committees approve a resolution
to investigate Child Protective ServicesBy Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.com
The House committees on Human Services and Housing and Health voted 7-0 to pass an amended resolution, which calls for state Auditor Marion Higa to review the standards used by CPS workers to seek the removal of children from their families.
The amended proposal also calls for an independent investigation by the state Civil Rights Commission and the Department of Justice's Office of Civil Rights to investigate the CPS system, although neither agency may have jurisdiction.
Rep. Michael Kahikina, chairman of the Human Services and Housing Committee, said he has received complaints from parents about alleged abuses by CPS workers ever since he first was elected to the House nine years ago.
Kahikina (D, Nanakuli, Maili, Waianae) said he has personally witnessed situations in which CPS workers threatened to take children away from their parents based on unsubstantiated allegations of abuse or neglect.
"We've been hearing about this in the community for years," Kahikina said. "We need to have some answers."
Lillian Koller, director of the Department of Human Services, asked the committees to defer the audit, saying the auditor is currently conducting a follow-up to a 1999 audit of the state agency.
She added that the federal government plans to begin an in-depth audit of Hawaii's child welfare services in July, as part of a nationwide study.
"While we support an additional audit, we recommend that it should be deferred until the two audits are completed, as they may address many of the concerns raised in this resolution," Koller said.
During the two-hour hearing, the two House committees received testimony from more than a dozen parents who alleged that CPS workers abused their authority and ruined their families.
One mother, Traci Williams, of Ewa Beach, said one CPS social worker arrived at her home last October saying the agency received an anonymous tip that she was using drugs.
Williams, whose husband is in the Navy and was deployed in the Persian Gulf at the time, said the social worker placed her children temporarily in the custody of a foster home after she would not consent to a drug test without her attorney present.
A Family Court judge later ordered Williams and her husband, who returned from the Gulf, to undergo random drug testing, which turned up no evidence of drug use, she said.
The children were returned to the couple, but Williams said the ordeal ruined her husband's military career and scarred her children.
"Our lives have been turned upside down," Williams said. "We had everything six months ago. Now we have nothing."
Amy Tsark, administrator for the state Child Welfare Services Branch, said she could not comment on the allegations by Williams and other parents due to confidentiality laws. But she said the testimony reflected just one side of the child protective process.
She said that social workers consult children's families, the families' providers, the Judiciary and other parties in the child welfare service system.
"CPS does not make its decisions in a vacuum," she said.