Toddler’s Death Painful for Social Services Staff

Chet Hewitt, head of Alameda County’s Social Services Agency, is taking the death of little Chazarus Hill Jr. hard. So is his staff.

Last week, just days after the 3-year-old boy allegedly was beaten to death by his father for failing to correctly recite his numbers and ABCs, Hewitt, 44, made the rounds of a devastated department. He brought in counselors to meet with intake workers, and he plans to schedule follow-up sessions if needed.

But even while trying to comfort his staff, Hewitt is investigating whether his social workers, after repeated visits to the toddler’s home, missed important signs that the boy, known as “Cha-Cha,” was being abused.

“This investigation is going to be thorough; it’s going to be transparent; it’s going to be comprehensive,” Hewitt said.

An initial report will be completed within a week, and the agency plans to make “some aspects of it public,” he said. “We will take action that we deem appropriate” if any child protective worker is found at fault.

The Oakland boy was pronounced dead about 2 a.m. Sept. 20 at San Leandro Hospital. Police say he had been beaten for several days by his father, who had hit him with his hands, sticks and a leather belt. Chazarus Hill Sr., 23, was charged last week with murder, felonious assault on a child under 8 years old and child endangerment. His wife of five months, Kymberly Ford-Hill, 32, who is not the boy’s mother, was charged with felony child endangerment. Both were in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Calif.

Besides the county’s review, the California Department of Social Services is investigating whether state and federal regulations were followed and how it had been decided that the child was not in imminent danger, said Blanca Castro, spokeswoman with the department.

“We’re also looking at whether there’s a pattern of weakness in the system,” she said, adding that authorities would decide whether the situation had been preventable.

Two years ago, the county agency was sued by a youth advocacy group and was threatened with takeover by the state for failing to comply with child welfare laws for such things as neglecting to document dental or health care.

Hewitt, the former head of the Children and Family Services Department, was credited with helping to improve conditions.

As county director, he has opened an assessment center in Hayward so that children removed from their homes no longer have to languish in police stations, waiting for emergency foster care. He established an intervention program that attempts to keep struggling families intact so children don’t end up in the system. And now he is developing a “Family to Family” strategy that lets the community participate in decisions about where a child should live if the parents can no longer provide a stable home.

And although Hewitt has made inroads, Cha-Cha’s death may indicate continued problems. “Despite our enormous success in trying to transform the system, clearly there is a lot more work to do,” he conceded.

Before joining the agency, Hewitt was associate director of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City in charge of employment and community development. He previously was a fellow with the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore and an administrator at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.

Although Hewitt doesn’t want Cha-Cha’s death to derail the agency’s progress, there’s no mistaking the anguish he and other Social Services officials feel.

“It’s hit home hard and it’s painful,” Hewitt said. “We know it’s most painful for the family and community that was home to Chazarus Jr. But we are a group of people who have committed our lives to working with the poorest of the poor of Alameda County. It has had a huge impact on staff and managers. It hurts.”