Since coming into the system six months ago,  the daughter has been raped twice.

The city has moved her daughter 14 times. Three different agencies have handled her  case. After watching the hearing, the daughter's case, where great need collides with greater dysfunction, didn't seem like such an outlier. It seemed just another nightmare case Graham now must deal with.

It became all too clear that Graham has taken over the toughest task of any councilmember: Overseeing the District's Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) and the Department of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS). Speaker after speaker proved it Thursday.

The session ran so long—well past 5 p.m.—that Graham announced from the dais that he had canceled his dinner plans. And why wouldn't he? The hearing had been crammed with shocking statistics and eye-opening testimonials—all enough to make Thursday's other hearing about those Navigators look silly.

Here are some astounding stats City Desk picked up from the hearing:

*10,000 D.C. children do not live with their biological parents.

*CFSA made a more than 30 percent cut to their private service providers. These providers manage group homes and independent-living facilities, as well as provide fostercare services.

*Family court judges have seen an uptick in more serious abuse cases. CFSA has seen an uptick in underage prostitution cases.

*In 2010, there were 6,320 abuse and neglect investigations done by CFSA.

*CFSA oversees 4,054 children—49 percent live in places like group homes and residential treatment facilities.

It may be hell once your in child-welfare, but it may be just as bad aging out. The majority of the teens who testified brought up the shortcomings of the agency's Office of Youth Empowerment (OYE), the entity that is supposed to assist the older wards with securing financial aid for college, finding affordable housing, setting up a plan for when they leave the system at 21.

Every city ward is entitled to financial aid supports for college. One woman testified that she had begun attending a college in Georgia. She didn't last long before being kicked out; the city, she says, had failed to follow through with their financial-aid money.  She dropped out.

A 19-year-old testified that she had expressed a desire to attend a culinary school. Her social worker with OYE insisted that such a choice was too expensive. When she asked for a list of public culinary schools, the social workers admitted that they did not have a list. Instead, the social workers have pressured her to either work as a home-health aid or apply to Bank of America.

The 19-year-old also has a daughter. She testified that she only receives a stipend of $400 per month. All of that money goes to her baby's food and supplies. When she asked for more money, her social worker refused, saying: "Just find a way to make it work."

A teen, who has been in the system since 16, testified to similar financial difficulties. He receives $580 per month from the District. Of those funds, $350 go toward transportation expenses. He testified that the stipend they receive has stayed the same since 2001.

His independent-living apartment unit is equally threadbare. The teen testified that the lock on his apartment's front door is broken. Inside, there are carpet stains and missing door knobs. He also stated that he doesn't have a mailbox. In September, he made a service request. The following month he followed up with a court order to force the service provider to repair his apartment. And still no repairs have been made. "CFSA does not have a system in place to provide support," he testified.

When the teen was finished, Graham stated: "This doesn't sound very good to me."

Other teens suggested that the number of planning sessions with their social worker was not adequate, that the meetings were overwhelming, and at times, LGBTQ youths don't feel supported. Nashwa Elgadi, the Young Women's Project's Program Coordinator for its Foster Care Campaign, testified to a list of issues the kids she works with have faced. One lived in a foster home with 18 housing code violations. It took three months of lobbying to get the teen moved out of the home.

Finally, after 5 p.m., CFSA's Interim Director Roque Gerald began his testimony. While his written testimony went on for at least 15 minutes, when it came time to drill down on specifics, he had few answers—especially concerning the OYE.

There are currently 42 full-time employees at the OYE. But when asked, Gerald, could not tell Graham what percentage their salaries took up in the office's overall budget. Nor could he provide a percentage of CFSA's kids that have gone on to graduate from college.

Gerald insisted that the woman's testimony concerning her experience at the Georgia college was not accurate. But he was not willing to state publicly what about her story was false. "I am willing to provide you information privately," Gerald said. "There is more to it than meets the eye."

Of the roughly 500 kids under OYE, 190 are either in college or "training." The other 300? Gerald couldn't say what they were actually doing. Nor could he give data on the number of former city wards who are homeless, in legal trouble or who are on public assistance. "We are still not in a place to report out on that data," Gerald admitted.

"The District's child abuse and neglect system requires dramatic reform at all stages. On the front end, the government does not adequately prevent abuse and neglect. Nor does CFSA do a good enough job keeping children safely with their birth families. Once CFSA removes children, it does not serve them well in foster care—and they state in foster care too long because CFSA fails to reunify them with their parents or find alternative permanent families."

Even more troubling than Sandalow's assessment is the fact that her assessment has been made nearly every year for the past two decades.  It is by now cliche to refer to the District's Child and Family Services Agency as "troubled" or "horrible" or "under court monitor."

In one of the latest twists in the 20-year-old class-action case against CFSA, a U.S. District Court judge recently ordered the agency to stick to a court-approved plan. The plan pretty much included everything from how the agency must investigate alleged abuses to how they should hold meetings [PDF]. That was just the latest in the drip, drip, drip, drip, drip of bad news concerning CFSA. Recently, Gray's transition team issued its own stinging critique of the agency.

Although CFSA has a court-appointed monitor, much of the agency's business—the family-court hearings, investigations, foster-care placements, etc.—are done in secret. Should District residents allow an agency like CFSA to conduct its business in secret?

California is considering opening up its child-welfare cases to public scrutiny. And one of the biggest backers of the plan is LA County's own child-welfare agency.

The L.A. Times reported this week:

"Children's advocates, judges and government officials told state legislators Tuesday that opening proceedings for dependency court would improve accountability and transparency for a key branch of the legal system that handles cases of child abuse, child neglect and foster care placements.‬

'There is a lot that is not good [in the dependency courts], and that's an understatement,' Michael Nash, presiding judge of the juvenile courts for Los Angeles County, said at an oversight hearing before the Assembly Judiciary Committee in Sacramento. 'Too many families do not get reunified ... too many children and families languish in the system for far too long. Someone might want to know why this is the case.'"

Of course, some California's social workers and public defenders are against the pending legislation citing concerns for minors and the possibility that families would be reluctant to participate if they knew the hearings were open to the public. But what family is excited to be a part of a child-welfare case? And I have yet to meet a minor who didn't want his story told or to be listened too.

The L.A. Times notes that more and more jurisdictions are opening up child-welfare cases to the public:

"The Assembly committee has a bill, AB 73, which proposes to open the dependency courts but allows judges the discretion to close certain hearings. A number of other states have moved to make their dependency courts more accessible to the public.

The proposal is supported by Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services. Deputy Director Maryam Fatemi told the committee Tuesday that increased access would shed light on systemic problems and make the public better aware of issues involved with protecting children.

Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), who introduced the bill, said that based on the comments at the hearing, he would probably introduce a bill proposing a pilot program for open court proceedings."

Last week, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless reported that a D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) social worker had attempted to force a homeless mother to make a brutal choice: Either get on a bus out of town or risk having your three children put in fostercare. City Desk followed up on the story and interviewed the mother's Legal Clinic attorney who said she directly heard the ultimatum from the social worker:

Julie Broas [the Legal Clinic attorney]  recalls the social worker explaining: "Because she is not being placed in a shelter, therefore she is unable to provide a safe place for her children to stay. If she does not agree to accept the arrangement that has been made for her [the bus out of town], we will be forced to take her children away from her."

City workers put "tremendous pressure" on her to get on the bus, the lawyer explains. "The social worker was pacing saying 'we've got to go right now. She has to make this choice.'" This was at 4:30 p.m. The bus wasn't leaving until roughly 11 that night.

Broas requested an emergency hearing on the city's refusal to provide this District family shelter during hypothermic conditions. Based on the mother's original documents that she had been trying to show the intake workers for days, the Department of Human Services finally agreed that the family had a right to shelter.

The mother's plight suggested the District workers had sunk to a new low in how they treat homeless families. Last year, families suffered through massive overcrowding and horrible conditions at D.C. General. I wanted to hear from CFSA. Did they in fact offer this mother a bus ride out of town or the loss of her children?

Mindy Good, CFSA's spokesperson, sent back a lengthy reply essentially denying the Legal Clinic's overall representation of events. But Good doesn't explicitly state that the social worker never threatened to place the mother's children in fostercare.

Good writes:

"CFSA is well aware of the child abuse/neglect laws since they guide our daily work. Neither poverty nor homelessness alone is grounds for removal of children. Parents have rights. At the same time, neither poverty nor homelessness eliminates parental responsibility to protect, shelter, feed, and clothe children and to fulfill their educational and health needs. This may mean parents need to draw on whatever personal means they have while also seeking public, charitable, or other services. That’s O.K. as long as parents continue to act in the best interests of their children—for example, taking advantage of services available and doing everything necessary to receive the services.

The perspective in the blog came from someone who came into the situation after other services providers had been working with the family for many weeks and CFSA had been involved for several hours. It is our understanding that the family had gotten help from the District. Remarks attributed to CFSA are an overly strong and misleading interpretation taken out of context. In fact, our social worker discussed with the parent several options other service providers had offered. The parent needed to choose one in order to take care of her children.

Most child welfare cases involve multiple service providers, so CFSA social workers are used to collaborating with others. Finger pointing and animosity waste time better spent on working together to help children and families in need."

Do you see in this any denial that the social worker offered the bus ride out of town or the removal of the mother's children? The agency seems more rankled by the tone of the Legal Clinic—and our—blog posts.

Patricia Mullahy Fugere, Executive Director of the Legal Clinic, stands by her staff's representations, and issues her own harsh assessment of CFSA's explanation. Fugere writes via e-mail:

"While we can not speak to what other services may have been offered to our client before the Legal Clinic got involved, by the time that Julie connected with the client at VWFRC, the only option presented was to accept the bus tickets to another state, or lose her children to the CFSA worker.  Given that there was a hypothermic alert that night and the right to shelter was in effect, Julie was incredulous that this ultimatum was on the table.  She specifically repeated these options to the CFSA worker, who confirmed her understanding.

If 'taking advantage of services available and doing everything necessary to receive the services' requires getting on a bus and traveling 1,000 miles away to get into shelter, then we have a very broken child welfare system."

Photo of a Greyhound bus used with an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license

Among the five issues highlighted, the team noted the agency must address its "weak management and top-heavy agency structure." Ouch.

The other points the team stressed:

* "Shift focus to preventing abuse and maintaining children in families, to address the expensive and harmful current practice of unnecessarily removing children from their birth families."

* "Implement key policy and practice changes to improve use of kinship care."

*Review performance of Collaboratives and chart course forward—either reengineering investment in prevention entirely; keep some dispense with others; or retain Collaboratives but require them to measure and report outcomes publicly."

*"Contract out services for older youth to providers with strong track records in youth education and development (agency currently receives $1M in federal funding to assist youth aging out of the system and reports only serving 30 youth)."

"Speaking personally, I'm good to go with more taxes if it will prevent unwarranted pain and suffering, particularly for fellow residents unable to help themselves and their children.

But the idea of more taxes to fund the status quo, which means continuing business as usual, stops me short.

The District government can no longer play the role of compassionate enabler.

Teen pregnancy; irresponsible and absentee fathers; and abusive, neglectful and welfare-dependent parents are not regrettable signs of the times to be accommodated with "services" aimed toward making life more comfortable. Those behaviors, if we are to grow as a community, must be reversed. If not, any talk about the District becoming a world-class city is pure fantasy.

Getting there requires a structural overhaul and refocusing of the governmental agencies to work on what's essential. But government alone can't perform the task of transformation. It requires coordinating efforts of our schools, religious institutions and social services to rescue and prepare this troubled generation. Building stronger families filled with a sense of personal responsibility and accountability should be our goal."

Do we fund a broken system or fix it first? Do we continue to cut programs at the expense of eventually formulating a system-wide transformation? How do we actually fix DYRS and CFSA?

Today we come to you with more proof that Gerald is wrong.

We wrote:

"Unless his number of kids in RTCs has dramatically dropped in the last few months, he's wrong. According to CFSA documents submitted to its long-standing court monitor, the agency had more than 70 children in residential placements as of Aug. 31.

I had asked Gerald and others at CFSA about this discrepancy a few months ago. What I got was a bunch of nonsense. It basically amounted to this bizarre logic: Some residential placements were counted as residential placements for the court monitor and not for their own in-house stats. It was also clear that some facilities that were considered RTCs by our own juvenile-justice system got no such designation by our own child-welfare agency."

New documents obtained by Washington City Paper show that as of September 31, the agency had 70 children placed in residential treatment centers. A month later, it had 67 children in RTCs. So unless the agency really started discharging kids at a faster rate in the last two months of 2010, Gerald is just mistaken. Or worse.

*check out our recent cover story on RTCs.

I found at least one noticeable issue. Early on, Gerald claims: "A reduction of the number of children placed in residential treatment centers, from an all-time high of 148 in 2007 to a historic low of 44 in 2010." Unless his number of kids in RTCs has dramatically dropped in the last few months, he's wrong. According to CFSA documents submitted to its long-standing court monitor, the agency had more than 70 children in residential placements as of Aug. 31.

I had asked Gerald and others at CFSA about this discrepancy a few months ago. What I got was a bunch of nonsense. It basically amounted to this bizarre logic: Some residential placements were counted as residential placements for the court monitor and not for their own in-house stats. It was also clear that some facilities that were considered RTCs by our own juvenile-justice system got no such designation by our own child-welfare agency.

What is clear: CFSA's numbers game is a horrible way to monitor residential placements.

Recently, Gerald was told that he would have to re-apply for his job as agency director. This may or not be a concern for Gerald. I know at least one other agency head who received such a letter from Mayor Vincent Gray. It all could just be standard. Still, it might account for Gerald adopting Gray's rhetoric and alluding to the events in Tuscon to make his case:

"But we know we must push for continued improvement, and Mayor Vincent Gray’s vision of “One City” provides an excellent framework for open discourse and development of lasting solutions that strengthen the local safety net. At the CFSA, we must do our part by deepening our commitment to address these issues, in collaboration with our partners. Constructive discussion that identifies system strengths and seeks solutions to the deeply rooted social ills that place children at risk has never been more necessary than at this critical economic time.

True community development includes investments in infrastructure and human capital. A return to civility in our discourse can help in avoiding complacency and feelings of defeat stemming from the challenges. The child welfare system will benefit most by accepting valid criticism that also acknowledges the social challenges and systemic improvements that form the real-world context for further growth."

What is so startling about this last graph is Gerald's implication that criticisms of his agency haven't been civil. Nor are they valid unless loaded down with "real-world" caveats. Is there another agency head who every time he screws up gets to say "but life is hard?"

Does Gerald actually think Carl Foster, who runs a non-profit and wrote a recent piece critical of CFSA, is not civil? Foster was being incredibly brave when he wrote that piece. Few non-profits ever go on the record for fear of losing funding. His account of trying to get help for one child and one family through the hotline was a harrowing example of social-worker indifference.

Does Gerald actually think Jumiya Crump, the 17-year-old in my story, was being impolite when she pleaded with her social worker to live with her own family?

Actually, if you think about it, when it comes to serious questions concerning child neglect and a city's lackluster response, we should be anything but civil.

This week I wrote about a gay D.C. foster kid, Kenneth Jones, who had been bullied at school, relentlessly teased by relatives, and eventually threatened by his foster father. I have been following Kenneth for two-and-a-half years. Much of that bullying or its aftermath I'd witnessed. But in the course of my reporting, I interviewed others about the issues of homophobia in the home, school, and child-welfare setting.

I talked to District lawyers, judges, advocates, mentors. They all had their own horror stories. So for a series of blog posts, I'm going to share those stories with you. The problem of homophobic bullying isn't just a national issue. It's happening right here in D.C.

Many months ago, I interviewed then-acting Lt. Brett Parson. At the time, he was in charge of the various Metropolitan Police Department's liaison units. This included the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit which Parson had been responsible for basically turning into a vital community program. Through the past decade, Parson says he has worked with several gay teens who had been bullied.

After the jump, Parson tells his stories.

The Club Kid

Parson (photographed above): "The youngest call was a drug case, he was 13 years old, caught him with drugs at a club....He was out at the club because it was the only place he could be around other gay people. He had Ecstasy on him. He was living with his grandmother. This was eight years ago. [The Child and Family Services Agency] made a recommendation that he go back to his grandmother, and that she supervise him better. I remember thinking that he needed a more structured environment and he needed something more LGBTQ."

Parson recalls that the grandmother was not OK with her grandson's sexuality. "That was a major issue for me to try and explain that to the attorneys," he says. "They really didn't care. It was frustrating. I knew why he was engaging in this activity. I remember especially at the actual arrest scene, took quite a bit of time to talk to him to try and find out what the hell he was doing at this club. It was more of an older gay club. He was hanging out with people that were old enough to be his parents or older. And listening to him talk about how he can't tell anybody in school, his grandmother had threatened to kick him out—this is the only way he could make friends."

The Knife

Parson: "I had a case of a kid who was assaulted by his mother and aunt because he came out to them.  They threatened him with a knife. He was punched, his hair was pulled. I remember on that scene we were very frustrated because the initial officers considered not making an arrest. They had [the officers] convinced that they were just disciplining him. The kid was 14. This was three years ago."

Parson goes on to say: "In that particular case I had the GLU officer contact  CFSA to open up an abuse case... [The family] considered it completely justified. ...That was a real eye opener for me to realize just how bad life can be for some of these kids."

The Plastic Fork

Parson: "We had a case in Columbia Heights—a group home. One of the youths there had been stabbed with a plastic fork. It didn't cause too much injury. It all stemmed from the fact that he was gay, and he mouthed off to them. This guy stabbed him with the plastic fork. The folks at the group home had no way to deal with it. They're helpless. I remember saying to them—this is probably five years ago—'Have you thought about having folks come in and having some classes?' It just totally went over their heads. It didn't seem it was an option they were willing to explore."

Parson continues: "The dude that stabbed him was the least of his worries. He had kids threatening to kill him. It was a nightmare for her. He preferred to be identified as a female. She wasn't passing as female. She was a very effeminate male. That was an issue in the house—they would not let her dress in female clothing. She was constantly in fear of violence. She feared for her life. She did not trust that the staff was going to protect her. In her opinion, the staff was part of the problem."

"She talked about just [being] pushed and punched and slapped and hair pulled. Spat upon. This is a kid who is ripe for suicide. This is a kid that is eventually going to give up."

School Torture

Parson: "We had a transgendered kid at one of the junior high schools. We were called in by the school resource officer because the kids kept getting into fights. The Vice Principal refused to call her by her preferred gender and kept calling her by her male name. Just disrespect. [The Vice Principal said] 'If he would just dress normally, this wouldn't happen.'"

Parson goes on: "I remember just sitting there thinking: You expect this child to get an education. I remember we took the kid home, and mom had like three other kids. This was her oldest kid, and she had just given up trying to help this kid."

file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

photo of now-Sgt. Brett Parson by Darrow Montgomery.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Closing Arguments In Wone Case," "World Cup Roundup," "Photos: Terry Huff"

Morning All. You better enjoy Metro today and Saturday. Those big fare increases are set to start on Sunday. WaPo's Ann Scott Tyson and Anita Kumar report that Metro approved those complicated fare hikes yesterday: "Metro's board of directors authorized an extensive package of fare increases Thursday as the agency approved a $1.4 billion operating budget and a plan to cover a projected $189 million shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The new fares include nearly $109 million worth of increases for people who ride rail, bus and MetroAccess, the service for the disabled. Because of the complexity of the fare increases, they will be implemented in three stages: on Sunday, on Aug. 1 and in the fall. One potentially confusing component is a new 20-cent 'peak-of-the-peak' rail surcharge that will start in August and affect riders who travel during the busiest times. The board had indicated in a vote last month that it would approve the changes. Rail fares this weekend will increase about 18 percent, with the peak boarding fare going from $1.65 to $1.95. The bus boarding charge will go up 20 percent, from $1.25 to $1.50 for SmarTrip users and from $1.35 to $1.70 for cash customers. Metro's board also agreed to cut the cost of SmarTrip cards in half, from $5 to $2.50, because the cost of the cards has fallen and because Metro wants to encourage riders to use them, said Peter Benjamin, the board chairman. Board member Jim Graham, who serves on the D.C. council, cast the only dissenting vote. He said he was concerned about the effect of the higher fares on the people least able to afford them."

AFTER THE JUMP—Peter Nickles would stay on if Fenty gains second term, Metro gets into the movie rental business, WaPo columnist stands up for social workers fired in wake of Banita Jacks case, and tragedy hits Ward 8 ANC Commissioner.

FOUR MORE YEARS OF NICKLES? District AG Peter Nickles, aka Fenty's Troll Doll, tells Jonetta Rose Barras on her WPFW radio show that he's open to remaining as the city's top lawyer for four more years. WaPo reports: "In a DC Politics interview on WPFW 89.3 FM, Rose-Barras told the city's top lawyer that there are some residents who will not vote to re-elect Fenty because of Nickles, his strained relations with the council and the view that he is a 'cantankerous old man,' who is to blame for 'a lot that has happened in this administration is bad.' 'I don't know if I'm cantankerous,' Nickles said, joking about his age, 71. 'I'm ready to take it on as long as the mayor wants me to take it on.' Nickles acknowledged that he has long had a cantankerous relationship with former mayor Marion Barry (D-Ward 8). But Nickles said he has had 'very good relations' with council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), David Catania (I-At Large), Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), and at times, Chairman Vincent Gray. But, he said, 'I have found these other council members – particularly Barry, Michael Brown (I-At Large), Kwame Brown (D-At Large) and Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) – completely unwilling to listen. No matter what the issue is, they are instinctively against the mayor.'" What about your biggest critics, Councilmembers Phil Mendelson and Mary Cheh? Anyway, Nickles ruled out running for attorney general; voters can decide in Nov. if the position should be an elected office. [Nickles opposes such a move].

Meanwhile, the D.C. Council rebuffed Nickles' attempt to allow indefinite response times for FOIA requests. WaPo's Ann Marimow reports: "Attorney General Peter Nickles' request for more time to respond to public requests for government information is unlikely to gain traction in the Council, where two members — Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) — have introduced legislation to increase access and transparency. Nickles said the District is inundated with complex Freedom of Information Act requests and needs a 'safety valve' of additional time to respond, similar to what federal law allows. But Cheh said Nickles 'is looking for an open-ended excuse not to comply, and he's not going to get it. It's a simple invitation to delay, an invitation to mischief.' Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who is challenging Mayor Adrian Fenty in the September Democratic primary, also rejected the idea, calling the current response period 'sufficient.'"

CFSA AND BANITA JACKS FALLOUT: WaPo columnist Petula Dvorak takes up the cause of the social workers fired in the wake of the Banita Jacks case. She believes they should get their jobs back: "All of the social workers who had anything to do with the Jacks case were thumped in grand fashion by an angry and decisive Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D). For a city reeling from the discovery that Jacks's four children were dead and that Jacks had been living in squalor for weeks with their decaying bodies until she was found in January 2008, it felt righteous to fire everyone having anything to do with her case. A new director of the Child and Family Services Agency was installed, and Jacks was convicted of killing her girls. But [Carl] Miller and two other social workers are still fighting the case every day. And the city is fighting back. The case touched Miller's life in late 2007, when a school social worker called and told Miller that a student at her school had been truant, the mom wouldn't open the door when she came to investigate, and she was worried. On the phone, Miller was matter-of-fact, reminding the social worker that the woman had no legal obligation to let her inside. It seemed like educational neglect, nothing more; the social worker said the kids looked unkempt and were watching TV. That sounds like my own childhood. As satisfying as it may have been to can Miller because he didn't swoop in to save these girls, it's not realistic to end the career of a 34-year-old man who had been a reliable social worker for eight years." Dvorak doesn't say that the CFSA director resigned not over the Jacks case, but over her inability to handle a huge backlog of cases in its aftermath. She also doesn't mention that the court monitor had flagged CFSA's poor investigative skills a few months prior to the Jacks case making headlines—so social workers and their supervisors had ample warning that they needed to be more vigilant. Still this is a must read for anyone that followed the Jacks case, and Dvorak can be convincing especially regarding the one social worker fired after relying on the police to properly visit the Jacks home. The police officer lied to the social worker saying that he had seen the Jacks children and they were fine. He had never seen the kids.

GRAY VS. LEO ALEXANDER: Leo Alexander takes it to Vincent Gray during the latest mayoral forum, WaPo reports: "Alexander, who has been struggling to gain attention in what so far appears to be a two-man race, went on the offensive against Gray, accusing him of being as much to blame as Fenty for the city's problems. 'When you think of everything that has happened in the last three years, you cannot criticize this man, without looking at this man,' Alexander said, pointing at Gray and Fenty. Alexander specifically challenged Gray for not doing more to prevent Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee from laying off 266 teachers last year. 'It wouldn't be fair to talk about the betterment of DCPS, without talking about leadership of our council chairman,' Alexander said. 'When this council had the opportunity to stop those firings, but he did nothing.' A clearly agitated Gray fired back, accusing Alexander of misrepresenting his record, noting he and Council member Harry Thomas (D-Ward 5) worked on legislation to try to force Rhee to rehire the fired teachers. 'Let me begin by saying it's easy to sit up here when you've done nothing and pontificate,' Gray said to Alexander. 'If you did the research, you would understand the council wouldn't have the authority to turn this around despite the fact we tried.' Alexander responded: 'The gentleman said I have done nothing, let's talk about his do-nothing leadership on the city council.'"

OUR CONDOLENCES: WaPo is reporting that Ward 8 ANC Commissioner Anthony Muhammad's two sons were killed in a car crash in Silver Spring: "Muhammad family members did not comment. They were planning a vigil at Kennedy High School in Silver Spring on Thursday evening. Commissioners in Ward 8 said they were pulling together to support the family. 'Mr. Muhammad is an active, dedicated person in our community, and we're grieving with him. It's a tragic loss,' said Ward 8 commissioner Lendia Johnson. 'He's devastated, as far as I can say. He adored his children. He was an excellent father.' Barbara Clark, another Ward 8 commissioner, said she contacted Muhammad through a text message after the accident. Johnson said she admired Muhammad's sons for being upstanding and disciplined. 'They weren't the pants-hanging-down-low type,' she said, 'They were neat, clean, straightforward, obedient young men.'"

DROWNING: Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. says he will hold a hearing on this week's drowning death of a child at the Turkey Thicket Rec Center pool. WaPo reports: "Yiana-Michelle Ballard, 6, was found unconscious at the rec center's crowded indoor pool about 2:20 p.m., officials said. She had been swimming with her family. Lifeguards tried to resuscitate her, but she was later pronounced dead at Children's National Medical Center. Police said Thursday that their special-victims unit was still investigating the circumstances of the death. Autopsy results were pending. 'This should have never happened,' said D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5), who chairs the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation. 'We are doing everything that needs to be done to make sure that this doesn't happen again.' Thomas said he plans to hold hearings next week to examine whether the city's pools are safe. He said he is consulting with officials from the American Red Cross to review pool safety procedures and might introduce emergency legislation to address the issue." More coverage via WUSA9.

FOLKLIFE FEST: WUSA9 offers a preview of this year's fest on the Mall.

RHEE: THE MOVIE STAR? Maybe not. But the school's chancellor gets a star turn in front of the cameras for a new education documentary.

METRO MOVIES: Rental kiosks are coming to Metro, reports WBJ. More coverage via the Examiner.

OF COURSE: People are raising pigs in Takoma Park.

FIRST LADIES: Duke Ellington students woo a pair of First Ladies with a little MJ.

THINK YOU GOT IT BAD: Tenants in one building are fighting landlord over broken AC.

HYDRANTS: D.C. officials are encouraging residents to not turn on hydrants as a way of combating this ridiculous heat.

FREE: HIV/AIDS testing.

MUST READ: WaPo's Paul Duggan's story on the murder of Manual Sanchez: "Fleeing poverty in El Salvador, he walked into the United States illegally across miles of desert in 1998. He worked as a bricklayer or as a laborer, depending on the economy, and drank heavily for a time, often squandering his wages. On May 28, behind a vacant tenement in Southeast Washington, where Sanchez, 29, and two of his cousins had been bagging trash and cutting weeds, the men were accosted by a pair of would-be robbers. Now Sanchez is gone, air-freighted back to his rural home town in a coffin, allegedly shot by a suspect six days past his 16th birthday, a ward of the city's youth rehabilitation agency. The accused killer, Javon Hale, and the other suspect, Rafael Douglas, also 16, are due in D.C. Superior Court on Friday for a preliminary hearing, each charged as an adult with murder after two witnesses identified them to police. Some killings rivet the media and the public: An esteemed lawyer mysteriously stabbed in Northwest Washington townhouse; a University of Virginia lacrosse star savagely pummeled in her apartment; a beloved D.C. school principal shot in his Silver Spring home. And some homicides go largely unnoticed beyond the tumbledown blocks where they occur, beyond the families and friends of the slain and the handcuffed and the authorities seeking justice. The shooting of Manuel DeJesus Sanchez was such a crime....The suspects, locked up without bond, have pleaded not guilty. Hale, who has a record of juvenile crime, had been let out of Boys Town, a group home, on a weekend pass just hours before Sanchez died bleeding on a dingy patch of Hillside Road SE in Benning Heights."

KOJO: Today's guests: Virginia congressional candidate Keith Fimian and Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot.

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE:

10:45 a.m.
Remarks
Ribbon Cutting for Deanwood Recreation Center and Library
Location: Deanwood Recreation Center and Library
49th and Quarles Streets, NE

D.C. COUNCIL'S SCHEDULE:

10 a.m.
Committee on Human Services (Round Table)
"Status of the District's Low Barrier, Transitional and Permanent Support Housing Programs for Adults, Youth and Families who are Homeless"
Location: John A. Wilson Building, Room 500

Must watch commentary from Kojo. Is Fenty anti-poor people? Or is Kojo right that the anti-Fenty anger is a little over the top?

My two cents: When you spend $400,000 on a dog park while D.C. General's emergency shelter is overcrowded, a case can be made that Fenty's priorities lean a little in the anti-poor people column. When your proposed budget leans heavily on cuts to social services—including big-time layoffs at CFSA and proposed cuts to foster parent stipends and emergency housing funds—while the only time you step out into the public eye is to attend ribbon cuttings, a case can be made you don't care about poor people. When homeless men are stuck living in trailers and homeless families have to stay in motels while your AG Peter Nickles stonewalls wastefully on class-action cases and suing special-education plaintiffs attorneys, you may be perceived as anti-poor people. When the head of the Department of Human Services is a former Bushie, you may be perceived as anti-poor people.

And finally, when the District's unemployment rate hovers between 11 and 10 percent, and you say next to nothing on jobs, you may be perceived as anti-poor people. We know more about Fenty's abs than his thoughts on job creation. Tell me, what has Fenty done or said on the unemployment issue?

The Rapid Housing Program provides emergency funds to families who are in danger of losing their children—or have lost their children—due to homelessness. The program also helps youths who are aging out of the system attain housing. The cuts come at a difficult time; there are currently 125 families  D.C. General's emergency shelter, according to the last census count.

Gerald tells City Desk that he considered the rapid housing initiative a "good program." He adds that he is looking for other ways to fund the program.

“I’ve taken the rapid housing out of the local dollars. But I’m exploring other options for rapid housing," Gerald says.  "We didn’t want to carry any other budget pressures—that required us to look across the board. We are centralizing our focus on our core mandates:  front-end investigations, in-home services, and out-of-home services.  I don’t want any budget cut for services for those kids.”

Gerald hopes that the youths aging out of the system will no longer be in need of housing supports. He says his agency is committed to helping youths better prepare for aging out. Youths age out of the system at 21. Gerald cites his agency's partnering with the Department of Employment Services as a key example in the ways the agency is helping its wards find support as they begin aging out.

Gerald says that more than 200 of the city's wards have gotten jobs through DOES. “If we are preparing our youth much earlier on, it is less likely they will need that as safety net," Gerald says of the Rapid Housing Program.

But advocates aren't as optimistic as Gerald. Sharra Greer, the Children's Law Center's policy director, calls the proposed cut a "huge deal."

“We are certainly doing everything we can to advocate that funding be restored," Greer says. "This is a cost effective and inexpensive program. We’re working with the council to try and reinstate the funding.”

Greer doesn't know why the Fenty administration would cut the program. "I have no answer for that," she says. "We just don't have a good answer. It would be one thing if their reports showed this is an inefficient program. But every report shows this is a successful program that everyone in the community supports.”

According to a Children's Law Center's research, the number of children entering foster care due to "inadequate housing" rose by more than 50 percent in the past year FY2008. The Center projects that the housing program would help 150 families and 110 emancipating youth in FY 2010.

Councilmember Tommy Wells will be holding a hearing on CFSA and the proposed budget this Thursday. Wells will surely be asking questions related to the rapid housing program cuts.

”We’re concerned about this as well as many other cuts to services to vulnerable residents,” says Charles Allen, Wells' chief of staff.

D.C. Child and Family Services Agency Director Roque Gerald announced in a staff meeting last week that 54 agency employees will soon be getting pink slips. Mayor Adrian Fenty had stipulated in his proposed budget that the cuts be made.

One CFSA employee confirms the cuts to City Desk: "He did bring it up and told people. He told the agency that’s what he had to do. He’s going to make sure to keep people who provide direct services to families." So it may be unlikely that Gerald will have to fire social workers. It is still a blow to an agency that has been the subject of intense federal court scrutiny. Recently, a judge held Fenty and the District in contempt over his administration's handling of CFSA.

Another CFSA staffer, who was at the meeting, says Gerald was asked directly if  social workers would be protected from the layoffs. Gerald said they would not be protected.  "People are scared," the staffer says. "People just want to know. He said we would have some information within the next 30 to 60 days. People do seem nervous, generally it's a fearful environment. It's a fearful environment anyway but it's escalated in the last two weeks."

CFSA employees are not pleased with the imminent firings.

The DC Union Power blog reported its own react story on the Gerald announcement:

"In an all-staff meeting this morning, DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) Director Dr. Roque Gerald announced that more layoffs were coming to the agency.

Repeating over and over that CFSA was a 'family' that everyone had to 'share the burden,' Dr. Gerald explained that the purpose of the meeting was to be 'transparent' about the cuts forced on CFSA by Mayor Fenty’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Although emphasizing the agency’s commitment to the children and families of DC, Gerald began by reading off laundry list of services cuts that would effect the neediest families most, including the elimination of funds for the Rapid Housing program (which helps to prevent families with children from becoming homeless), and a pay cut to families caring for abused and neglected children in foster care.

This is our commitment to DC’s children and families?

Dr. Gerald then dropped the bombshell that everyone was waiting for: the announcement that CFSA would need to eliminate 54 full time positions. He gave no specific information about who would be affected by the Reduction in Force (RIF), only that employees will be notified in 30-60 days. One worker asked if any positions would be protected from the RIFs. The answer was 'No.'"

In a 46-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan held today that D.C.'s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) is not yet ready to come out from under its court oversight. This represents a significant setback for Attorney General Peter Nickles, who has pressed to end the court-appointed monitoring of the troubled agency.

Hogan had taken months to come to his decision. In July 2008, in the aftermath of the Banita Jacks tragedy, Children's Rights filed its contempt motion. Soon, Hogan ordered CFSA to come up with a plan to fix itself. The District had a difficult time actually completing this task. Instead, Nickles drafted a plan without the court monitor's approval. Bad idea.

Meanwhile, Nickles and Fenty selected Dr. Roque Gerald to run the agency. They did so without consulting Children's Rights–another bad idea, and a violation of a court order. Hogan did not like this move, and Nickles ended up having to play defense.

Imagine all that Hogan had to sift through before issuing today's ruling. But wait, there's more!

As the debate continued through 2009, even a CFSA official suggested court oversight was a good thing, and University Legal Services published another scathing report on the agency. The court monitor issued a report critical of CFSA's foster care. And teens testified before the D.C. Council on the difficulties of aging out of the system.

What's at stake here? A review of recent Child Fatality Review Board reports suggests that a lot of kids die under the city's watch. Within the past year, two newborns died at D.C. General's family shelter.

In his ruling, Hogan held Mayor Adrian Fenty in contempt for not consulting with plaintiffs or court monitor in hiring Gerald.

Hogan also held the city in contempt for failing to come up a plan approved by the court monitor. He ruled that the District showed a "blatant disregard" in failing to work with the court monitor. He writes: "Intransigence may be a nominal improvement from indifference, but it is still unacceptable in this context."

Hogan dismissed the District's motion to end federal court oversight. In a number of key areas—conducting timely investigations, adoptions, and training of CFSA employees—the judge expressed skepticism that CFSA had improved enough to show compliance with court-approved benchmarks. He writes: "Unfortunately, in light of the District's refusal to abide by the simplest provisions of the Stipulated Order, the Court cannot find that a period of good faith has persisted. Nor has the District achieved, let alone established a period of consistent compliance."

While Hogan agreed that the District has made progress in improving CFSA, it has not done so in a complete, real and sustained way. "Undoubtedly, CFSA has taken measures to buttress reforms," Hogan writes. "But the defendants have not illustrated any, at least not in a manner that inspires enough confidence to support a conclusion that the agency's progress is 'durable and self-sustaining.'"

In his conclusion, Hogan writes:

"Extensive litigation on these motions has changed little. Although the District's child welfare system has improved drastically from the dismal state it was once in, the defendants have yet to deliver a fully satisfactory child welfare system....Supervision must persist until the defendants demonstrate that the District reliably satisfies its responsibilities."

The result: All the parties must formulate a plan for CFSA.

"It's very much the right ruling," Children's Rights Executive Director Marcia Lowry tells City Desk.  "I'm hoping this is finally going to ensure the case moves forward to accomplish the purposes of the agreement which the District has really stalled on."

Lowry still sees the courts as the appropriate venue for monitoring the troubled child-welfare agency.

"It's a fight over doing what's necessary," Lowry says. "The problem was there had been an agreement a long time ago about what should be accomplished for a child. The District about a year ago decided it didn't want to do that anymore so it didn't make a plan....That seemed to be a real disregard for what children need."

The case is now more than 20 years old.

"I have a lot of patience," Lowry says. "I represent a group of children in the District and I am going to represent them as vigoriously as I can....I find it a real waste of resources. This is a small system. It could have been fixed a long time ago."

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

Another city agency apparently has a different take on the newborn's death. Councilmember Tommy Wells says that the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) has come to believe that the newborn, who's name is Princess, had died as a result of co-sleeping with her mother. "The mom had brought the child into her bed," Wells says, "and that she rolled on the child. The child was suffocated."

Co-sleeping deaths are common in the District, according to infant death statistics. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has yet to rule on the cause and manner of  Princess' death.

Still, CFSA took the mother to court. The agency removed the mother's other child from her home, Wells says.

But what was the responsibility of Families Forward Inc., the nonprofit charged with running D.C. General's shelter? One resident, who knew the mother well, says that it was clear the mother had serious issues that were not addressed.

Repeated calls to the mother have gone unanswered.

Yesterday, City Desk learned that Families Forward Inc.'s contract to run D.C. General will soon be terminated.

Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's found herself in a tough spot of late over comments she gave to a business magazine. "I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school," she told Fast Company's Jeff Chu.

That "sex with children" line has dropped jaws across the city and thus demands some more detail. How could a D.C. Public Schools teacher have sex with a student and remain on the job, sticking around long enough to be fired for budgetary reasons?

So far, reporters' inquiries have gotten the old "personnel matter" excuse and some "I'll get back to you"s. Here's one reason why that strategy isn't going to fly: Under D.C. law, certain people whose jobs put them into contact with children are called "mandatory reporters." Put simply, it means that if they suspect that a child under their care is being abused, they are required by law to tell the police or the Child and Family Services Agency.

Among those with mandatory reporting responsibility are "school officials." According to a D.C. government guide on the subject [PDF], you are required to blow the whistle immediately "when, in your professional capacity or within the scope of your employment, you know or reasonably suspect that an infant, child, or teen has been abused or is in immediate danger of being abused."

Now it's highly unlikely that Rhee herself encountered the child (or children) who had sex with this teacher (or teachers) whom she refers to in the quote. And there's quite a good chance that the incident in question happened before Rhee's tenure at DCPS. But certainly, if Rhee is repeating these allegations, other school officials would have had knowledge of the situation and would also have been legally bound to "immediately notify the person in charge of the institution or his or her designated agent who shall then be required to make the report" to the authorities. That makes a who-knew-and-when-did-they-know-it type of response crucial in this case.

Incidentally, failure by a mandatory reporter to alert authorities to child abuse is a misdemeanor punished by up to a $300 fine and 90 days in jail.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery