{"id":488194,"date":"2010-03-29T16:43:04","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T20:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef01310ff63a0e970c"},"modified":"2010-03-29T16:43:04","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T20:43:04","slug":"in-response-to-more-child-deaths-l-a-supervisor-renews-call-for-updated-computer-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/488194","title":{"rendered":"In response to more child deaths, L.A. supervisor renews call for updated computer system"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Innocentsfinal\"<\/img><\/a> <\/span>L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, responding to the deaths of children who passed through the county\u2019s child welfare system, on Monday renewed his call to update the computer system designed to provide child abuse investigators with information about a child\u2019s jeopardy. <\/p>\n

\nThe Times reported Sunday that county\u2019s system for sharing information<\/a> about suspicious injuries, domestic violence and other key risk factors was among the unfinished reform efforts. The system has been repeatedly cited over the years as insufficient, and its shortcomings have played a critical role in numerous child deaths and abuse cases. <\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology may not be a cure, but it is part of the treatment,\u201d Ridley-Thomas said in a statement that also acknowledged the role of deep poverty, high social worker caseloads and multigenerational patterns of abuse.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe must give the protectors of minors in the county\u2019s custody or care [the] adequate tools for their mission to safeguard children,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t think of sending soldiers to war carrying jammed rifles; we can\u2019t go on asking social workers to use an incomplete children\u2019s data network just because it\u2019s what we now have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

County supervisors approved a plan last year to revamp the computer system, known as the Family and Children\u2019s Index, but nearly a year later, key portions of the order are behind schedule or are unfulfilled entirely. <\/p>\n

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has argued for modest improvements to FCI and has led the opposition against Ridley-Thomas\u2019 proposal to scrap it in favor of more user friendly technology with an \u201cearly warning\u201d mechanism for families who accumulate numerous risk factors. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis tends to be a knee-jerk reaction every time there is a case, that it could be a technological issue, or if we only would have had a $100-million computer system it might have solved it,\u201d Yaroslavsky said at last week\u2019s board meeting. <\/p>\n

— Garrett Therolf <\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Innocents Betrayed: A Times Investigation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, responding to the deaths of children who passed through the county\u2019s child welfare system, on Monday renewed his call to update the computer system designed to provide child abuse investigators with information about a child\u2019s jeopardy. The Times reported Sunday that county\u2019s system for sharing information about suspicious injuries, domestic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}