On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan did what no one else in the city seemed to be able to do: He ordered CFSA to come up with a plan to fix itself. He gave the troubled child welfare agency a two-week deadline.

Hogan’s directive spells certain trouble for the already troubled agency! CFSA has definitely heard the words “plan” and “deadline” before Wednesday. It’s understanding those words that’s given the agency fits, according to Marcia Robinson Lowry, the executive director of Children’s Rights, the national advocacy group that has watchdogged the agency for decades. Children’s Rights spurred this latest round in U.S. District Court after filing a contempt order in late July.

It is the concept of deadlines and plans that caused Children’s Rights to take action in U.S. District Court.

“We had certainly been concerned for at least the last four or five months,” Lowry told me in early August. “CFSA was supposed to have agreed to an acceptable 12-month plan in January. It became clear they were not going to be able to do that…They couldn’t come up with a satisfactory plan. Finally, we withdraw our objections to [a] six month [stabilization] plan. It was March already and they did not have a plan that we thought was adequate. Since the period was half over, we decided to do a 12-month plan starting on July 1. We expected to have an adequate plan by the end of June. We did not get an acceptable plan by the end of June.”

Lowry’s group met CFSA officials several times to express its dissatisfaction. Those meetings, Lowry says, were disappointing and failed to address the agency’s lack of progress on righting the agency. The meetings sometimes included D.C.’s top lawyer Peter Nickles.

Nickles did confirm to City Desk that Children’s Rights’ main beef with CFSA concerned the agency’s failure to address its issues in a systematic way. The agency just never could get specific enough to satisfy Children’s Rights, Nickles says.

[Nickles told the Post in July: "I had looked to Marcia and the plaintiffs as partners to improve the agency," Nickles said. "This has sort of taken my invitation and said we'll hold you in contempt."]

Lowry says that given the agency’s bad marks in a November ‘07 review and the handling of the Banita Jacks case, the agency should have been more aggressive.

In an e-mail dated August 25, Interim Director Roque Gerald confessed some bad news to Child and Family Services Agency employees: there were 1,442 cases still in the backlog.

In mid-July, the backlog stood at 1,708 cases, according to agency documents. It has been more than a month since Sharlynn Bobo resigned. Since July 14, the backlog has shrunk by 266 cases—and this is with the full throttle support of the Fenty Administration. Gerald wrote in his e-mail:

“Today’s message is with a heavy heart but also with no less passion and commitment to support you in every way I can. We remain burdened by our valiant attempts to address the current backlog crisis.”

Gerald goes on to state that the backlog had become enough of an issue (again) that he had to reach out to the mayor’s office. On August 22, he e-mailed City Administrator Dan Tangherlini. Gerald’s communique “led to a face-to-face meeting with the CA and some others on the EOM staff” on the evening of August 22.

“It was a good, productive meeting. Loren Ganoe, Camelia Pierre, Jim Toscano, and I all came away with a better understanding of EOM concerns—and with a sense that they gained a deeper understanding of the challenges CFSA is facing and strategies we’re using to meet them. You must continue to press to safely close backlogged investigations. Meanwhile, I’ll keep oversight authorities informed about our efforts, barriers, and successes,” Gerald wrote.

Gerald noted that “results” from his sit-down at the mayor’s office were “immediate.”

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Last Spring we tracked Positive Nature’s struggle to keep its doors open. The non-profit, which provides tons of services for at-risk kids, was renting a building just blocks from the new Nationals Park. Within the last few years, it had become clear that Positive Nature was being priced out of the neighborhood. The area used to include a housing project. Now it has a Courtyard Marriott. You can read our previous reportage here, here, here, here, and here. If you feel like skipping all those links, here’s a quick summary: the non-profit owed thousands of dollars in property taxes, they held a rally and reached out for support, legislation was introduced before the D.C. Council, nothing much happened with the legislation, the non-profit sought out a new location.

Now comes the news that Positive Nature has found a new space through the Department of Parks And Recreation in what looks like a new partnership.

“We are so appreciative of all of the outpouring of care and support that so many people have extended to us in recent months, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to continue to provide services to the District’s children and families,” wrote Jennifer Murphy, the non-profit’s co-founder and co-executive director.

The new location: The TR Center at 3030 G Street SE.

We will of course be following up with a visit to the TR Center. Stay tuned.

Children’s Rights, the New York-based group behind a long-standing lawsuit against the city over it’s care/treatment of children, filed a contempt motion in U.S. District Court yesterday. The motion was filed over the recent–and not so recent–troubles at CFSA.

Children’s Rights clearly did its homework. The motion totals 35 pages. The filing alleges breakdowns across CFSA as the introduction makes plain:

“After years of planning, reorganization, investment of additional resources and capacity building to improve the system, the District’s executive leadership has allowed the child welfare system to return to a dysfunctional state. As a consequence, the reform effort in the District has stagnated and begun to retreat. For the children who depend on the child welfare system for their basic protection and care, this return to the past means a future filled with uncertainty, instability and further harm. …”

“Though significant strides have been made to improve the quality of services and outcomes provided to the abused and neglected children in the District over the past 15 years, the District has never achieved compliance with the applicable court orders now even these advances are at grave risk. …CFSA’s performance in many areas of child welfare practice is substandard or declining or both. This erosion in CFSA performance directly flows from an unstable and deteriorating management situation with CFSA.”

The filing goes on cite untimely and poor investigations for children at home or in foster care, a foster care system that fails to place children with adequate families, and fails to match up kids with adequate medical needs.

You can read the entire contempt motion here.

Prom sucks! It’s one of the most high pressured times of the year. But what if you’re a foster-care kid? What if you live in a group home? Finding the right dress and tuxedo is just that much more difficult.

Last week, Child and Family Services stepped in with its annual Prom Project, a clothing drive to get their kids some slick duds for the big night. The drive concluded last Friday.

Beatrice Williar, program manager in the office of volunteer services, says the drive was an overwhelming success. Only a few shoulder-padded dresses were donated. So kids can rest easy at knowing they will not have to look like Joan Collins this year. She reports that her office received hundreds of dresses including more than a few designer gowns. But the big trend in donations skewed toward old bridesmaid dresses. Yikes!

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