A year after releasing an investigatory report detailing the warning signs state officials missed and baffling decisions they made before a Fall River teenager with autism died of starvation and neglect, the Office of the Child Advocate reported to lawmakers that “sweeping changes” have been made to the state’s child welfare system and at other agencies that serve children.
Fourteen-year-old David Almond was found in October 2020 emaciated, bruised and unresponsive at his father’s Fall River home, an apartment that the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) said was in “deplorable condition.” He was soon pronounced dead, a death determined to be a homicide caused by “Malnutrition due to Starvation and Neglect in an Adolescent with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” John Almond and his girlfriend, Jaclyn Coleman, face second-degree murder and neglect charges.
In a report released March 31, 2021, which Gov. Charlie Baker called “incredibly damning,” the OCA said the Department of Children and Families missed key warning signs and made a decision that “was not clinically justified” when it returned Almond and his brother to the drug-filled home that the child protection agency had removed them from about three years earlier.
The OCA’s report included several recommendations, including that DCF build in more rigorous safety assessments and evaluations of parental capacity to its reunification process, that DCF conduct a comprehensive review of its practices related to services for people with disabilities, and that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education collaborate with DCF to ensure child welfare officials have attendance information for children in state custody.
A year ago, when the child advocate’s initial report was released, Baker said that he expected that “everything in there is going to get implemented, and it’s going to getting implemented on a statewide basis, and it’s going to get implemented as fast as it possibly can be.”
In an investigation status report put on file with the Legislature this week, the OCA said the great bulk of its recommendations have been implemented and that it has been working closely with DCF and others to ensure that policy and practice changes are made.
“When the OCA released David Almond’s child fatality report, we made a commitment to the public that we would closely monitor and report on the corrective actions taken by the state entities identified in our investigation. Nearly one year later, we are proud to share that there have been sweeping changes across state government that honor the life of David Almond,” Maria Mossaides, the state’s child advocate, said.
In the report, Mossaides’ office said its investigative report “asked the Commonwealth to rise to the challenge in new and complex ways — and the Commonwealth did rise.”
At DCF, Mossaides’ office pointed to a revised supervision policy, a revised protective case practice policy, a revised family assessment and action planning policy, a revised education policy, a new disability policy and the hiring of DCF’s first director of disability services.
In a statement from DCF that was included in the OCA status report, the child welfare agency said that it has “made significant progress on all recommendations and remains determined to address additional case practice and systemic reforms.”
DCF Commissioner Linda Spears detailed the work towards implementing the OCA’s recommendations in the DCF annual report for fiscal year 2021, which was submitted to lawmakers in December.
At the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the OCA singled out the work to update guidance related to promoting student engagement, learning, wellbeing and safety, to develop new guidance for attendance policies, the development of an updated joint DESE/DCF advisory regarding mandated reporting responsibilities of school personnel in cases of suspected child abuse and neglect, new guidance around DCF’s access to student education records, and “significant work” towards improving the dissemination of information and guidance.
DESE said that it “has implemented all the recommendations … and greatly appreciates the feedback and support that the OCA has provided to DESE throughout this process.”
The OCA highlighted the work that’s been done at Fall River Public Schools since its initial report, saying that the district “cooperated fully” and never denied a request for information despite the OCA having no oversight role over it. The district, which launched its own commission to investigate the Almond case, said it has “adopted, or are in the process of adopting, all of the recommendations contained in both the OCA report and the internal report.”
The state’s Juvenile Court system “continues to address many of the recommendations through their Pathways Initiative which began in 2019 and which provides for a differentiated case flow management to improve legal permanency for children” and “issued a Standing Order addressing the return of custody in Care and Protection proceedings, which significantly and substantially addresses the OCA’s recommendations,” Mossaides’ office said in its status report.
Aside from taking stock of the progress towards the recommendations it made a year ago, the OCA’s latest report also said that the office has been closely monitoring the state services that are being provided to David Almond’s brothers, Michael, Noah, and Aiden.
“We have ensured that they have been provided the opportunity to start to heal from the abuse they endured, grieve the loss of David, and that they have been provided safe and stable living environments that will aide in this process. Through our monitoring of Michael, Noah, and Aiden this past year, we are reassured that the state agencies and entities involved fully recognize their responsibility to these children and are committed to ensuring they each have the services and support they need,” the report said. “The OCA’s responsibility to the long-term well-being of Michael, Noah, and Aiden, and the state entities’ efforts to support them and sustain the change implemented because of the recommendations will remain a top priority for our office.”
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