When a Village Fails a Child

When a Village Fails a Child - New York Times: "There were opportunities to save Sierra Roberts, a bright-eyed 7-year-old from Queens who died while in the care of her father, but perhaps none more critical than two years ago, when she suffered a broken leg just months after her spine was fractured. Children's Services accepted the father's account that the injuries had been accidents.

Sierra died last month of internal injuries that prosecutors say her father inflicted in savage beatings. Two weeks later, another New York child, 16-month-old Dahquay Gillians, drowned in a bathtub where, the police say, his mother had left him with another son, a 3-year-old who was scalded last year by his mother's former companion. The mother had custody even though she has a history of drug abuse.

These cases are especially shocking because the city's Children's Services was overhauled in the last few years and has shown improvements. Of course, no program - particularly one that handles nearly 20,000 children in a year - can prevent every tragedy. But every tragedy must be a reason to ask how to reduce the odds. So far this year, 25 children being tracked by the system have died.

Few people would want to return to the days when children with less than ideal family lives were automatically taken from their parents and placed in an overwhelmed foster care system. But it isn't clear why Sierra came to be placed with a father she did not know, a father with a history of drug use, after she had spent her first few years with foster parents. The city acted on the advice of a nonprofit agency that has since had its contract terminated for poor performance. But no one seems to have reviewed the decisions the agency made while it was working for the city. Any other actions taken at its recommendation must be reviewed immediately.

The city has taken pride in the reforms made in the oversight of at-risk children and might have been resting on its laurels. What's certain is that the fight to protect the youngest New Yorkers in their own homes has to be regarded as a constant battle that will never be really won. "