THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 24, 1996 TAG: 9601240358
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The General Assembly is considering a proposal to reform child-abuse investigations by separating abuse reports into two groups: Cases that would pursued for possible criminal charges, and less-severe cases that would be remedied by family-service agencies.
The bill, proposed by the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Child Protective System in Virginia, would provide counseling and services to families in cases of less-severe abuse or neglect allegations. Reports of serious abuse would still be investigated to see if criminal charges were appropriate. Reports about some types of incidents - such as sexual abuse, child deaths, and abuse in regulated child-care facilities - would automatically be placed on the investigation track.
``This is an attempt to vary the type of response to child abuse complaints so that the approach is not one-size-fits-all,'' said Alan E. Meyer, a former delegate who headed the subcommittee.
The bill proposes trying out the two-track system as a pilot project in five cities across Virginia. The cities have not been chosen.
Two other bills proposed by the subcommittee will also be considered this session.
One proposes leaving in the records for three years paperwork for cases in which abuse could not be proven. Currently, the records are purged within 30 days of a final disposition of the case.
Meyer said the bill was proposed in response to the case of Valerie Smelser, a 12-year-old Northern Virginia girl who died from abuse in January 1995. Complaints of child abuse had been filed against the girl's family for 10 years.
Meyer said the committee believes keeping unproven cases on record for three years could help child-abuse investigators establish a pattern of abuse.
A third bill would make one who maliciously makes a false allegation of child abuse guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
The bills have received varied responses.
Betty Wade Coyle, executive director of the Hampton Roads Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, said she is concerned that a false-allegation law would have a chilling effect on reporting abuse. Coyle said she believes there are already laws on the books to prosecute people who make false reports.
Keeping records on file for three years troubles Michael Ewing, president of the Virginia Fatherhood Initiative, a nonprofit group working to foster responsible and active fathering. ``If an allegation is unfounded it should be thrown out. Why keep it in the records? There's always the potential for that information to be abused.''
And John Vaughan, president of the Children's Rights Council, a group working to reform custody and divorce laws, expressed concern about the two-track system. He said he's worried that child-abuse reports that involve a custody dispute might get less attention by investigators. ``Every report should be investigated, every one,'' Vaughan said. ``Lesser significance should not be assigned to cases where there's a child-custody dispute.''
Meyer said the bills were drafted after the subcommittee conducted five hearings across the state last year, at which Child Protective Services workers as well as the general public spoke.
Some of the common themes that surfaced were that child-abuse investigators were overworked and needed more training. ``The caseload is terrible,'' Meyer said. ``In some instances they are double what a normal caseload is considered to be.''
Meyer said the false-allegation bill could reduce the load, if it's effective as a deterrent, and the two-track system could help focus investigative resources on the most severe cases.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB