The Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate released its final report Wednesday on the Department of Children and Families’ handling of the case of 2-year-old Bella Bond, stating that the DCF failed to perform several crucial jobs adequately.
Identifying how the DCF should have approached the case, the OCA said tragedies like Bella’s death can be avoided in the future, according to a Wednesday press release.
Bella’s body was found on the shore of Deer Island in the Boston Harbor in June, prompting an investigation into the then-unknown girl’s identity that culminated in a murder charge against her mother’s boyfriend and an accessory charge against her mother.
According to the report, the DCF failed to accurately assess mother Rachelle Bond’s ability to parent, respond effectively to the 2012 and 2013 abuse and neglect reports and gather telling information from family service providers.
“The caseworkers did not take into consideration the totality of Ms. Bond’s current and prior functioning, parenting, substance abuse and lifestyle choices, or her ability to demonstrate insight and ability for change,” the report read. “Ms. Bond’s parenting capacity was not fully assessed, and therefore a safe determination could not be made that Ms. Bond was able to care for Bella and make decisions in her best interest.”
In response to several DCF cases including Bella’s, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, Massachusetts Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo and Massachusetts Senate President Stanley Rosenberg outlined reforms and updated policies last month for the DCF, The Daily Free Press reported Oct. 1.
Mary Elizabeth Collins, an associate dean at the Boston University School of Social Work, said that the DCF must have proper resources and training to avoid this kind of trouble in the future.
“If there’s not enough managerial infrastructure, then the workers don’t have the appropriate support to do their jobs well,” Collins said. “And that includes things like training, delegation, computer systems to monitor a case, technology to help communicate about a case … All of that is part of the managerial infrastructure, and if that’s missing, it gets harder and harder for the workers to solve their cases.”
The report also stated that employees feel there is a lack of communication between field workers and their supervisors in DCF.
“The December 2014 DCF employee survey noted, for instance, that many employees express a sense of disconnection between the field and the Central Office, particularly regarding policies and managerial decision-making,” the report stated. “‘Management is as committed to exceptional service as they expect me to be’ received only a 3.75 from employees on a scale of one to seven, with seven indicating strong agreement.”
To prevent more cases with similar outcomes, the evaluation makes recommendations including mandating reports to screen parents who have lost their parental rights for investigation, developing protocol to categorize whether a child is at risk of abuse and updating the DCF’s electronic records system.
“We have to keep attention on the DCF so that they can do their work, make sure that they’re well funded, make sure that they have the highest quality programs, make sure that they use those programs [and] make sure that the state legislature supports DCF and doesn’t cut funding,” Collins said.
Several residents said they were disappointed with the outcome of Bella’s case and that there needs to be more funding for the department.
Sally Vanture, 29, of Fenway, said the DCF needs more funding to do its job well.
“A lot of the social services are underfunded or overworked, and it’s likely that that would’ve happened because of a lack of funding,” she said. “I’d like to see those kind of services be better funded, and you don’t want to hear about that kind of stuff happening.”
Bonnie Kwan, 41, of Fenway, said a lack of funding for social services leads to problems.
“The problem is that there is no funding, and in my opinion, the case workers are overworked, and kids get lost because there aren’t enough people looking,” she said. “Systemically, they don’t have enough tools to take care of kids that fall out of the system. You don’t see a lot of women and children on the street, but that doesn’t mean that they’re being taken care of.”
Aaron Roberson, 34, of Fenway, said the DCF should have conducted a quicker investigation regarding Rachelle Bond’s parental abilities.
“There should have been a quicker system to flag her right away,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s no accountability for children nowadays.”
