THE COSTS OF THE COUNTY’S COST-CUTTING : Who’ll Be Shut Out if Child-Protection Services Close the Door? : Abused kids, those most in need of society’s help, will suffer even more if staffing is reduced. That would be unconscionable.

The recent bankruptcy has sent shock waves through all facets of county government, and Children’s Services is no exception. My concern is not for myself, or my employment, it is for the increasing numbers of children who rely on the Orange County Social Services Agency for protection from child abuse.

In 1994, the Orange County Child Abuse Registry received child abuse allegations involving 45,129 children. To date, the 1995 numbers indicate an increase over last year. The reality is we have thousands of children potentially at risk daily and we must respond.

If we are directed to reduce staff, services will have to be reduced. In the child-protection business, this translates into reducing the numbers entering the system. We can close the door, but who are we keeping out? Do we eliminate all children who are abandoned by their parents, and simply let them fend for themselves? Do we exclude all historical physical abuse reports and wait for a child to be re-injured to respond? Do we ignore reports of children living in rat-infested homes, with little food or supervision, in hopes that a neighbor will intervene? Which one of us will make this decision? Occasionally a tragedy will appear in newspapers, and an outpouring of grief occurs from the public. What the public does not know is that these tragedies occur each day--each hour--to children in our county. A reduction in services will only increase the incidents.

The county Child Abuse Registry receives an average of 4,000 calls each month. Of the 19,632 families that came to our attention in 1994, 14,760 were investigated. The remainder were either referred to law enforcement or other counties or assessed as needing no investigation. What is significant here is the fact that the intervention by the social worker is often the first and only intervention this family has. If we eliminate the “window of opportunity,” the assessment by our agency, we are potentially leaving a child at risk.

Communities all over the country have come to depend on the child-protection system to intervene when child abuse is suspected. Orange County is no exception. We have greatly increased our outreach services, with social workers stationed in police departments and schools. We have developed cooperative, working agreements with public and private agencies. As we have grown more sophisticated as a society, unfortunately our children have continued to endure more assaults and violence. The numbers of babies born substance-exposed continues to be dramatic. Teen-age pregnancy rates are alarming. With all the children’s needs, it would seem unthinkable that services could or would be reduced.

When do we justify our existence--when we save one child’s life, or do we receive credit for the thousands of families we assess and work voluntarily with each year to avoid serious child injury? The public is also unaware of the weeks and months spent with families and Juvenile Court, working toward reunification, child protection and maintaining parental rights.

Last year, a 9-year-old boy was brutally abused by his relative caretaker. The media correctly reported that it was the social worker who saved his life. The child was near death, and required emergency surgery to repair a ruptured bowel as a result of sodomy with a foreign object. Clearly, all reports are not of this severity. However, we do know that when no intervention takes place, the abuse is likely to escalate. We also know that when children experience or witness violence, they are more likely to develop depression, aggression toward self and others and a wide variety of antisocial behaviors.

Our children are growing up in a very violent world. The violence they experience is more likely to occur in their home than on the street. We must continue our efforts to identify and intervene when children are at risk. With all that is known about violence toward children and long-term effects of child abuse on adult behavior, how could we even consider a decrease in services? My hope is that we will not. It is incomprehensible that reasonable, well-informed decision makers would choose to punish children for the mistakes of adults. The mandate for continued child protection in Orange County must be non-negotiable.