Beshear vetoes parts of budget, but health spending is intact

Though Gov. Steve Beshear vetoed 45 parts of the state budget yesterday evening, health-related spending was safe from the cut.

The budget will help reduce caseloads for social workers who investigate child abuse and neglect, funds colon cancer screenings for 4,000 uninsured Kentuckians, substance-abuse treatment for Medicaid recipients and includes funding for an elder abuse registry to protect senior citizens from unscrupulous caretakers.

"This is the most difficult budget I have ever drafted, and it will also be a challenge to implement and manage over the next two years," the governor said in a statement.

In the two-year, $19 billion budget, Beshear voted more than three dozen line-item appropriations, including "portions of the General Fund budget that limited his ability to manage the state's budget or spent money that doesn't exist," reports Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

He also cut some earmarks, including $100,000 for Actors Theatre of Louisville and $150,000 for the International Mystery Writers' Festival in Owensboro. "I am vetoing these parts because they identify new spending earmarks yet the General Assembly failed to appropriate additional funds to finance them," Beshear said. (Read more)

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This is Child Abuse Awareness Month; tips for prevention

April is child abuse awareness month, and the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services is reminding Kentuckians that it's the law to report suspected child abuse or neglect.

"Protecting our children should be everyone's number one priority, and during the month of April, we are raising awareness about the warning signs of child abuse and how to report it," Gov. Steve Beshear said. "The cabinet works year round to educate our families and investigate every aspect of abuse. Together, we can make Kentucky a safer place for all our children."

To report child abuse, Kentuckians should call 800-KYSAFE1. Calls are anonymous. If the report meets the criteria for abuse, an investigation is conducted within 24 hours in most cases or, if the child is suspected to be in immediate danger, they are conducted within the hour.

Callers should try to know the child's name, approximate age, address, parents' names and location of the child when the call is made. They should also have names and phone numbers of other people who have information about the suspected abuse.

The ultimate goal is to reunite families when circumstances improve. "We want children to return home to a stronger, safer family," said Jim Grace, assistant director of the Department for Community Based Services' Division of Protection and Permanency.

The cabinet's handling of child abuse investigations and its reluctance to release records pertaining to child abuse deaths and near deaths has been a hot-button issue in the past year. The Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader both sued the cabinet for refusing to turn over records and a judge twice ruled the cabinet was wrong not to do so. Since, it has released hundreds of pages of records, but has chosen to redact, or omit, some of the information therein. In January, Beshear acknowledged the cabinet had been accused of "operating under a veil of secrecy in a supposed attempt to protect inept workers and a poorly designed system."  Legislators have since heard hours of arguments about the issue, and a bill that would create an external panel to review child abuse cases involving fatalities and near-fatalities, while imposing more secrecy, is one of the few measures that could pass the General Assembly when it re-convenes for one day next Thursday to end its legislative session.

In its effort to increase awareness about child abuse, the cabinet offered strategies for parents to prevent abuse, including:

• never discipling a child when a parent's anger is out of control

• never leaving a child unattended, especially in a car

• learning the signs of physical abuse, nothing bruises, cuts, burns or other injuries a child can't explain

• teaching children the difference between "good touches," "bad touches" and "confusing touches"

• listening to a child when he or she doesn't want to go with something

• noting a change in a child's behavior or attitude

• teaching children what if he or she gets lost

• teaching children the correct name for private body parts

• being alert for talk that indicates premature sexual understanding

• paying attention when someone shows an unusual interest in a child

• making sure a child's school or daycare will only release him or her to a designated person
(Read more)

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House committee approves panel to investigate child-abuse deaths; findings would be closed to public

An independent panel of experts would look into the deaths of abused and neglected children and then give recommendations to state officials for how to improve its child-protection system. That was the proposal that was approved unanimously Thursday by the House Health and Welfare Committee.

In House Bill 200, "the group's meetings would be closed to the public, and its documents would remain secret," reports Beth Musgrave for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Jon Fleishchaker, a lawyer for the Kentucky Press Association, said there was no reason why the business of the panel should be secret. "We are all for a statewide panel," he said, "but the public needs to be able to see what the recommendations are."

The bill would also outline what information the Cabinet for Health and Family Services would be responsible for releasing to the public when "abused children who have had previous contact with the cabinet die or are severely injured," Musgrave reports. The legislation would allow the cabinet to "keep the names of children who suffered serious, non-fatal injuries and information that would identify siblings in the home," Musgrave reports.

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has been embroiled in a lawsuit with The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, which sued the cabinet in order to seek documents pertaining to child abuse deaths or near-deaths. A Franklin Circuit Court judge has twice ruled that the cabinet turn over its files, but it has appealed. (Read more)

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Judge orders Cabinet for Health and Family Services to speed up its release of child-abuse records

The state Cabinet for Health and Family Services has been given 90 days to release thousands of pages pertaining to about 180 cases of children who died or were badly injured from abuse or neglect. The order was issued Thursday by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, who called the cabinet's reluctance to comply with state open records laws an "utter failure," reports Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal.

The ruling is the latest in the cabinet's fight with the Louisville newspaper and the Lexington Herald-Leader. Shepherd's ruling replaces a previous order that told the cabinet to release 1,000 pages a week, which it started doing Jan. 27. The documents released so far — which have been "heavily redacted" at the cabinet's discretion and against Shepherd's ruling — represent 15 cases.

The cabinet argued it should not be obligated to release the records since it is appealing Shepherd's decision, but the judge rejected that argument. He also said the cabinet had to list reasons for why it was redacting some information "and be prepared to defend them in court after releasing the files," Yetter reports. (Read more)

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More children are victims of abuse than of SIDS, study finds

As the state's major newspapers and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services battle over how public records pertaining to child abuse and neglect should be handled, children continue to be victims across the country. A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics has found child abuse affects more babies in the U.S. than SIDS. (Photo by Getty Images)

The rate of hospital admissions for SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, is 50 per 100,000 for children under the age of 1. In the same age bracket, 58.2 per 100,000 babies are getting hurt as a result of abuse, reports Bonnie Rochman for Time's Healthland.

"These kids are physically vulnerable because they're small," said Dr. John M. Levanthal, leader author of the study and professor of pediatrics at Yale Medical School. "They are challenging for some parents to take care of because they cry, it's hard to understand what they want and parents can get frustrated, exhausted and angry."

Indeed, abuse most often stems from parents. Previous research shows men, including fathers, stepfathers and boyfriends, are the "largest single group of perpetrators," Rochman reports.

Research conducted at Yale found that in 2006 4,569 children under the age of 18 were brought to the hospital as a result of abuse, 300 of whom died. The resulting death rate of 6 percent was "substantially higher than for children who were admitted for other kinds of injuries or medical or surgical problems," Rochman reports.

The most common injuries included abusive head trauma, fractures, burns, abdominal injuries and bruises. Those hospitalizations cost about $73.8 million and lasted twice as long as children who suffered other kinds of injuries.

Children living in poverty were the victims of abuse much more often, getting hit at six times the rate of children not on Medicaid.

A report showed 18 Kentucky children died from child abuse or neglect last year, down from 33 in 2009, but those numbers have since come into question. A survey in Kentucky and three other states showed child abuse rates have risen significantly since the economy went into recession — from 8.9 per 100,000 children from 2004 to December 2007 to 14.7 per 100,000 during 2008 and 2009. (Read more)

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Judge rails against state's handling of child-abuse records, Beshear's defense of cabinet

The judge who handled the case of 9-year-old Amy Dye, who was beaten to death last year by her adoptive brother, sent an op-ed piece to several newspapers criticizing Gov. Steve Beshear's move to back the Cabinet for Health and Family Services in its battle to prevent full disclosure of child-abuse death records.

"The publicity surrounding recent tragic deaths of children in Kentucky, and the now public shenanigans of the cabinet — caught lying about what it knew and when it knew it — have triggered a rare public anger," writes Circuit Judge Tyler Gill, left. "Openness should always be the rule where government is involved."

The Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal sued the cabinet last year to obtain records about children who died from abuse or neglect. Though Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled in three cases that files should be released, the cabinet long refused to do so. "Shepherd said that in cases of children killed or badly hurt, the public has a legitimate, overriding interest in access to information that could show how the cabinet performed its job of protecting children," reports Bill Estep for the Herald-Leader.

In an order issued Jan. 19, Shepherd ruled the cabinet could omit very limited information, including the names of children who are hurt but don't die and the names of people, such as teachers, who report suspected abuse. The cabinet has appealed, saying it should be allowed to redact more information than that. Since Shepherd's ruling, the cabinet has released the internal reviews of 85 cases in which children were hurt or died in 2009 and 2010, along with extensive case files — though it has redacted information it sees fit on all of the documents.

Gill rails against the cabinet's appeal. "Do not be misled," he writes. "The cabinet's appeal of the Franklin Circuit Court ruling is not a high-minded effort to protect the privacy of persons who report child abuse. It is to protect the cabinet."

Kerri Richardson, spokeswoman for Beshear, said Gill is wrong about the cabinet's motivations. If it meant to protect itself, it would not have released hundreds of pages of records. "The cabinet is not just protecting those who report child abuse," she told Estep. "The cabinet is trying to protect innocent victims of abuse or neglect and the innocent families of victims of abuse or neglect."

But, given his handling of Amy Dye's case, Gill sees it differently. "The people of Todd County are painfully aware of the likelihood that a multitude of reports of suspected abuse were made by teachers and school officials about Amy Dye in the years before her death, several of which may have been mishandled or misplaced. I seriously doubt any of those who made reports would have allowed fear for their personal safety to keep them from speaking out. Their fear was for Amy," he writes. (Read more)

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Health and family cabinet continues to withhold more information in copies of child abuse records than judge allowed

The state Cabinet for Health and Family Services released three more death and near-death cases involving child abuse or neglect Friday under court order, but continued to withhold critical information. It has appealed the order.

The 2009 cases involve two babies who died from suffocation while the parents were impaired. A third case involves a 2-year-old girl from Lawrence County, who was injured after she was reportedly kicked in the head by a horse while unsupervised.

The cabinet "continues to withhold, or redact, far more information" than was allowed under the Jan. 19 order of Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, reports Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal. Shepherd said the cabinet could withhold the names of children seriously injured by abuse or neglect, names of private citizens who report suspected abuse, the names of minor siblings in the home and the names of minor perpetrators.

But the cabinet is withholding more information than that. "For example, in the case of the girl injured by the horse, the cabinet deleted the name and relationship of the adult who was watching her, even though the adult is named and identified as her grandfather in a separate internal review of the case," Yetter reports. "The cabinet also withheld juvenile and family court records in that case and the names of all adults involved." The girl recovered from the skull fracture sustained by the horse.

Gavin Villarreal never woke up after he was found with a plastic bag over his head in his crib, possibly placed over the 5-month-old's head by other young children in the home. His parents both tested positive for drugs on the day of his death and were convicted. In the third case, a month-old baby died after his father apparently rolled over him in his sleep. Both parents admitted they had been drinking and used marijuana before they went to bed. (Read more)

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Cabinet files appeal to prevent releasing full child abuse records; Beshear backs decision

On the day the state was supposed to release unadulterated records on deaths and near deaths from child abuse, under a court order, it filed an appeal to stop the process. And though Gov. Steve Beshear had ordered the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to release the records, yesterday he sided with its officials, saying in an op-ed piece sent to Kentucky newspapers he did not "think the judge's order was protective enough" of informants who often want to remain secret, such as relatives, health-care providers, teachers and law-enforcement officials. (Getty Images photo)

“You teach in a small community and suspect a student is being abused,” Beshear wrote. “Can you come forward without the newspaper naming you as the accuser?" Jon Fleischaker, attorney for The Courier-Journal and the Kentucky Press Association, said Beshear was “fear-mongering,” and noted that Shepherd’s order to release records applies only in cases in which children were killed or nearly killed from abuse or neglect, following a state law designed to hold the cabinet accountable for its child protective services.

Beshear wrote, “The cabinet has been accused of 'operating under a veil of secrecy' in a supposed attempt to protect inept workers and a poorly designed system. But this is not about shielding the system from scrutiny. We understand the need to be more transparent than in years past.” In December, the cabinet handed over 353 pages of records, but the names of at least eight children who died from abuse or neglect had been redacted, along with all the names of children who had been seriously injured, as well as much other information. The Courier-Journal, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Todd County Standard had sued the cabinet for refusing to release the records. Twice before, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the cabinet to turn them over. Last week, Shepherd fined the agency $16,000 for its secretive treatment and delays. He also found the cabinet should pay more than $57,000 in legal fees for the newspapers. (Read more)

Yesterday, the cabinet filed its motion with the state Court of Appeals and "asked the court to block Shepherd's Jan. 19 order to release records, starting today, with limited redactions," reports the C-J's Deborah Yetter. In the meantime, the cabinet released about 90 internal reviews of child deaths and serious injuries incurred by abuse but with deletions it feels is necessary "to protect the best interests of the state's child welfare system," its motion read. (Read more)

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More transparency, accountability needed regarding child abuse, group plans to tell legislators

To decrease the number of children who are killed or nearly killed by abuse and neglect, there needs to be improved transparency and accountability at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. This was the top recommendation made by a group of social workers, legislators, judges and child advocates who gathered at the Summit to End Child Abuse Deaths, put on by Kentucky Youth Advocates Saturday.

The other recommendations were to increase funds for services such as "appointed advocates, substance abuse programs, in-house services and parent advocate programs," increase funds for more social workers and support; and improve collaboration between child welfare agencies, reported Linda Blackford of the Lexington Herald-Leader. The group will send a letter to the General Assembly listing these recommendations.

Child abuse became a major issue for the state's largest newspapers after the Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal sued the cabinet to gain access to records in which children had died or nearly died because of abuse. The cabinet had long fought to keep the records closed, even after Franklin Circuit Judge Philip Shepherd repeatedly ruled the records be released. In November, Gov. Steve Beshear likewise ordered the release of the records, but the cabinet tried to backtrack.

"Instead of lies, we need leadership," said Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, at Saturday's meeting. Denton has repeatedly been outspoken about the issue, even asking for the resignation of Cabinet Secretary Janie Miller. Miller briefly attended Saturday's session, praising the efforts at collaboration, but saying the cabinet is being hit hard by budget cuts. She said the cabinet has lost $80 million in funding the past four years, but has asked for $20 million in new money over the next two years to pay for 300 more positions in its Department for Community Based Services. (Read more)

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Child abuse reviews show failed communication in agency

A picture of failed communication is developing as reporters sift through 86 internal reviews of incidents of child abuse, says an editorial in today's Lexington Herald-Leader. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services released the reviews last week under court order.

"This pattern of failed communication only came to light because this newspaper and Louisville's Courier-Journal have aggressively pursued these records in court and Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has relentlessly pushed the cabinet to open the records," the editorial reads.

The piece highlights several instances where communication breakdown led to tragic events, beginning with the case of 9-year-old Amy Dye, right, in which a school nurse had written six reports about suspected abuse or injuries. The cabinet's file only contained three of them.

Madaline Grace Reynolds died when she didn't get the medicine she needed to treat her cystic fibrosis. The review found the child-protection worker did not look into whether or not her parents had filled her prescriptions.

"But the faulty communication doesn't stop there," the editorial reads, referring to Tuesday's hearing by the Interim Joint Health and Welfare Committee in which legislators came down hard on the cabinet for "failing to inform them about regulations that prevented it from investigating abuse by a sibling, such as in Amy Dye's case," the editorial reads.

"The cabinet, indeed the entire executive branch, has shown it won't fully address these issues without the hot, bright light of outside pressure," the editorial concludes. "The courts have acted responsibly and forcefully. Now, the legislature must take up the painstaking and painful job of examining the cabinet's work, finding the missed connections and fixing them." (Read more)

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Lawmakers grill state officials at hearing on child abuse and records of it; one says health secretary should resign

Janie Miller, secretary for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, should resign, said one key legislator at a committee hearing yesterday. The frustration of Sen. Julie Denton (Lexington Herald-Leader photo) stemmed in part from the manner in which the cabinet has dealt with child abuse records.

"This cabinet treats everyone as an adversary," said Denton, a Republican from eastern Louisville and co-chair of the Interim Joint Health and Welfare Committee. "I'm tired of lies. I'm tried of deception. I'm tired of the tap-dance routine. I'm tried of the shroud of secrecy. We should be partners, not adversaries."

Denton spoke near the end of a committee meeting at which Pat Wilson, retiring commissioner of the Department for Community Based Services, testified about a recently released report on child fatalities and near fatalities, as well as last week's public release of child-abuse records. Miller did not attend the meeting.

The report showed 18 Kentucky children died from child abuse or neglect in the past year, but did not include the names of the victims or the case of 9-year-old Amy Dye, who died at the hands of her adoptive brother. The release of child-abuse records has likewise been controversial, with the cabinet fighting the state's two largest newspapers, The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, in court for years to avoid having to do so.

Wilson said her department "wholeheartedly supports being open and being accountable," but asked legislators to consider the pitfalls of having too much information available to the public. "I've done this work, I've knocked on the doors, I've interviewed the people and I've been in the houses," she said. "Almost inevitably, the person that you're talking with, not so much the professionals but the family members, the neighbors next door, will say, 'If I tell you this, will you promise me no one ever will know I said it?' You know, up until now, (we've say yes) and that has been the hallmark of this department."

Since the release of records, Wilson said her staff has already told her "individuals are telling them, 'I don't think I want to talk to you.'" She added she worries about the safety of her staff, saying there are larger ramifications when details of near-fatalities become public in a small town or rural community. "If you can for a minute, think about how it's going to feel when you're that worker, knocking on the door of that house and you're saying to those individuals I'm here to help you," she said. "I think it's going to be very tenuous."

Wilson explained Amy Dye's case was not included in her report because she was killed by a sibling, not her custodial parent. Though the cabinet had been contacted twice by school officials who suspected Dye was being abused in the home, the suspicions had been deemed unwarranted, Wilson said. Nevertheless, records released after Dye's death "include a letter from the school nurse that lists six reports from school officials about suspected abuse or suspicious injuries to Amy," reports Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "However, only three of the reports are contained in the cabinet's file on Amy."

Before her death, three years passed in which the cabinet did not receive any complaints of Dye's well-being. "We did know her but we knew her in 2006 and 2007," Wilson said. "In 2008, 2009, 2010, there was no communication." Dye had reportedly been sent out of state in the years preceding her death, but Todd County School Supt. Michael Kenner said the school did not know what had become of her, since there was little communication with the cabinet. "We didn't even know if she was in school," he said.

Many legislators took issue with the omission of Dye from the report, with Sen. Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville, asking "How many others were killed by siblings that's not in this report that we don't know about?"

Wilson said state law only requires the report to contain information about deaths or near deaths that occurred at the hands of the primary caregiver, but Rep. Susan Westrom took issue with that. "Nobody from the cabinet has ever come to us and said, 'You know what? We have a statute that is too confining. We are still not able to protect our children from even siblings. The only people we can protect them from is the caregivers, which leaves a gaping hole in the safety net.'"

Legislators also asked why the report, released earlier this month, was three months late. Wilson said she took full responsibility for the tardiness. "It wasn't what I thought it needed to be," she said. "It's late because I had to redo the report." (Read more)

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Legislators to discuss child abuse report Monday; chilling stories emerging about abuse trends

After a wave of stories pertaining to child abuse records made front-page news this week, the Interim Joint Health and Welfare Committee will meet Monday to discuss the Cabinet for Health and Family Services' recently released report on child-abuse fatalities and near-fatalities.

The meeting will be held at 1 p.m. in room 129 of the Capitol Annex. Click here to see live video streaming of the meeting provided by KET.

This year's report was released earlier this month and showed 18 Kentucky children died from child abuse or neglect in the past year, down from 33 in 2009. But critics say the report is incomplete, just 15 pages long compared to the 29-page report last year. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, called the report "a failure," saying it made it difficult to compare findings from past years. It was also three months late in being released.

On Monday, the cabinet released 86 internal reviews of cases in which children had either been killed or nearly killed from abuse, though in many instances did not release the names of the children who were affected. The records were handed over by the cabinet after years of litigation and two weeks after Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the release.

The documents show there is a lack of protocol in handling the case reviews, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Bill Estep and Beth Musgrave reported.

Another Herald-Leader analysis that ran in today's edition showed more communication is needed between doctors and social workers. Reporter Valarie Honeycutt Spears cited one instance in which a 22-month old girl came to the University of Kentucky Medical Center with hair loss and an ulcer in her mouth.

"While at the hospital, the toddler developed bruises, and she cried when her mother came into the room," she reports. On Feb. 19, the girl died, with an autopsy showing she had broken bones, multiple bruises, a detached aorta, and a laceration to the liver. Her hair had also been pulled so hard she had a large hematoma on the top of her head.

In their review, cabinet officials determined UK did not report its concerns because there had been no history of abuse. "This has already been addressed with UK, and their policies have changed as a result of this incident," the report reads.

The toddler's case is one of 14 that involved children who had died or nearly died in 2009 and 2010 "that cited a need for better communication between medical professionals and child-protection workers," Spears reports. (Read more)

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Child abuse records released, but without names of victims

Though the state on Monday released 85 internal reviews of cases in which children had either been killed or nearly killed from abuse, in many instances it did not release the names of the children who were affected. The reviews also show considerable variability in terms of how thoroughly the investigations were conducted.

The records were handed over by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services after years of litigation and two weeks after Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the release. Twice before, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the cabinet to turn over the documents to The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, which had sued the cabinet for failing to provide the records.

But while 353 pages were handed over Monday, the names of at least eight children who died from abuse or neglect had been redacted, along with all the names of children who had been seriously injured, report Bill Estep and Beth Musgrave of the Herald-Leader. "That is totally contrary to the letter and the spirit of the judge's ruling," said Robert Houlihan Jr., a lawyer for the Herald-Leader. "Where there has been a fatality, there can be no justification that I see to redact that name of the dead victim."

The documents show there is a lack of protocol in handling the case reviews. "Some reviews are lengthy and thorough, including an analysis of what social workers could do differently to prevent similar deaths," Estep and Musgrave report. "But some internal reviews consist of one page that doesn't even say whether the child died."

"If children dying does not demand a formalized process, you have to ask yourself, what does?" said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. (Read more)

Still, the records do paint some harrowing pictures, with Estep, Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt Spears reporting Tuesday about one little boy who fell off a deck in Lincoln County while his mother and boyfriend were drunk. "There was no food in the filthy house, but there were pill bottles, beer cans and needles lying around, and blood on the child's bed," they write, noting more than half of the internal reviews show there was either involvement or suspected involvement of substance abuse. (Read more)

Regardless, the redacted documents prompted a scathing editorial in The Courier-Journal, saying "the result produced Monday afternoon is unacceptable and flies in the face of the spirit of Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd's court orders."

The editorial also questions Beshear and his "belated" attempt to step in. "Whose cabinet is it, anyway?" it reads. "Is the governor saying one thing in public — 'Our children deserve our protection' and 'Transparency will be the new rule' and 'It's time for the balance to tip toward openness' — and another in private? How else to explain the gulf between what the judge ordered, what the cabinet lawyers said would be released, what the governor said, and what the cabinet produced on Monday? If Gov. Beshear does not approve of the cabinet's latest obfuscations, he must not only say so, he must act on that disapproval." (Read more)

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Head of state social services steps down amid controversy

In the wake of controversy about how her state agency handled child-abuse investigations, Kentucky's commissioner of social services has stepped down. No other details were confirmed about the resignation of Patricia Wilson, who was a career social-services employee. Her salary was $111,348.

"The cabinet has been buffeted by recent reports over its role in child abuse cases, most recently that of Amy Dye, a 9-year-old Western Kentucky girl fatally beaten by her brother in the adoptive home where the cabinet placed her at age 5," notes Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to make records pertaining to the case public, saying the cabinet turned a "blind eye" torward the abuse. The cabinet had repeatedly argued in court that it was not obligated to release the records.

Last week, Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the release of the records, calling the details of Amy Dye's death "horrifying." The cabinet immediately sought to undercut the move. "Key lawmakers also have expressed growing dissatisfaction over how the cabinet handles cases of child abuse deaths and serious injuries," Yetter reports. (Read more)

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Remember? State opened its child-abuse records in 1990s

Though it made big, breaking news last week, releasing state records about severe child abuse isn't new in Kentucky, writes Joseph Gerth, right, in a column in The Courier-Journal.

"During Gov. Brereton Jones' term in office from 1991-1995, the state social-work agency released child-fatality reports on its own," he writes. "That came after an earlier tragic death of a child in Wayne County who was beaten to death by his stepfather after numerous contacts with state social workers."

Gerth's column comes after last Tuesday's announcement by Gov. Steve Beshear that he ordered the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to release records pertaining to children who have been killed or nearly killed as a result of abuse or neglect. "Transparency will be the new rule," he said.

Gerth said Beshear "finally gave in to mounting pressure from the media, an angry judge and frustrated legislators to release the records involving the death of a Wayne County toddler who drank drain cleaner that was allegedly being used to produce methamphetamine," Gerth writes. The C-J and the Lexington Herald-Leader had long been suing the cabinet to release documentation pertaining to the case and Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd had twice ruled the cabinet do so.

In the 1990s, it was then-cabinet Secretary Masten Childers II who ordered that child-fatality records be released. "The reports showed that the agency wasn't doing its job and that low-paid social workers were stretched thin and handling too many cases," Gerth writes. "Jones ultimately called for raising the pay for the lowest-paid social workers ... and he called for hiring 60 more social workers across the state. Could it have been that Childers believed more in openness than the current secretary, Janie Miller?" (Read more)

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18 Kentucky children died from child abuse or neglect last year, down from 33 in 2009, but report is incomplete, critics say

A report by the the Cabinet for Health and Family Services shows 18 Kentucky children died from abuse or neglect in the past fiscal year, down from 33 the year before. Ten were part of families that had been involved with state social service officers, reports Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal.

The report is required by state law, but was a much shorter version than it has been in years past. This year's document was 15 pages long, compared to the 29-page report from last year and "provides limited information and omits much of the detail of past annual reports," Yetter writes.

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the drop in deaths is good news, but called the scaled-down version of the report "a failure," saying it made it difficult to compare findings from past years. It was also three months late in being released.

"They are scrambling to get it out three months late," he said. "At a time when this issue needs some transparency and more visibility, they have given us the Reader's Digest version."

Lawmakers have scheduled a meeting Dec. 19 to talk to cabinet officials about the issue of child abuse deaths and to review the report, the latest sign the issue is starting to attract more attention. Earlier this week, Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the release of records of abuse in which children died, but the cabinet immediately filed a motion saying it needed more time.

In 2009, a federal government report found Kentucky had the highest rate of child abuse deaths with 41 deaths based on 2007 data — the most recent at the time — from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2010, Kentucky dropped to 19th place with 22 deaths based on the 2008 data. The 2009 numbers shoed Kentucky ranked fourth. (Read more)

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Beshear says hand over child abuse records; cabinet immediately files for more time

Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the release of "state records of children who have been killed or nearly killed as a result of abuse and neglect," reports Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader. (Photo by H-L's Pablo Alcala)

"Transparency will be the new rule," he said at a news conference Tuesday.

But, immediately after he spoke, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services filed a motion in Franklin Circuit Court asking for more time. "It also asked Judge Phillip Shepherd to sharply limit the information the cabinet must release and allow it to remove a significant amount of detail — restrictions that seem to contradict the governor's pledge of openness," reports Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal.

The two newspapers have been suing the cabinet to see the records, and Shepherd has twice ruled that the newspapers should be able to view them. "State law says that the child protection records are private with one clear exemption — in the deaths or near-deaths of children who have died as a result of abuse or neglect," Musgrave reports.

The cabinet argued releasing the documents would run counter to federal privacy laws and could lead to a loss in federal funding.

Attorney Jon Fleischaker, who represents the C-J, was not impressed by the governor's move. "It's a sham, in my judgment," he said.

In 2009, both newspapers sued the cabinet after being denied access to documents pertaining to Kayden Branham, a toddler who died after drinking drain cleaner that was reportedly to be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

The Todd County Standard likewise sued the cabinet when it refused to turn over documents pertaining to Amy Dye, a 9-year-old who was beaten to death by her adoptive brother. "This crime has drawn a lot of attention, has left this community dazed, confused and angry and searching for answers as to why this could have happened and why this happened," said Todd Circuit Court Judge Tyler Gill.

The motion filed by the cabinet Tuesday would exclude details of Amy's case, such as the circumstances of her adoption, the names of her siblings, information about foster care, and the termination of parents' rights and juvenile court records, "all of which were elements of Amy's case," Yetter reports.

Records that Shepherd ordered be released Nov. 7 showed evidence that state social service workers either ignored or dismissed repeated complaints by school officials that Amy was the victim of abuse. "The cabinet had initially denied it had any records, then refused to disclose them, citing confidentiality," Yetter reports.

At the news conference Tuesday, Beshear said he planned to propose legislation in 2012 to make it more clear as to what information the cabinet is subject to releasing.

To read more in The Courier-Journal, click here.

To read more in the Herald-Leader, click here.

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Abuse must be reported to officials in Ky., unlike scandalized Pa.

State law should prevent the child abuse scandal that has rocked Penn State from happening in Kentucky. (Associated Press photo: Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, assistant coach Mike McQueary and quarterback Mike McGloin.)

Unlike in Pennsylvania, where people are only required to report sexual abuse to a supervisor, in Kentucky suspected abuse must be reported to police, prosecutors or Child Protective Services. If a person fails to report it, that constitutes a crime, reports Andrew Wolfson of The Courier-Journal. "Telling your boss in Kentucky doesn't take you off the hook," said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. "We don't let folks in Kentucky wash their hands of abuse."

Interest in the law has surfaced since a graduate assistant Paterno "saw former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky raping a boy in a shower in 2002 and told Paterno about it rather than alerting authorities," Wolfson reports. Paterno told his athletic director, but not police or other authorities. He was fired Nov. 9.

Advocates believe the Kentucky law "shows that we are all responsible," said Dan Fox, president of Family and Children's Place, a nonprofit counseling agency. Kentucky is one of 18 states with such a law. Those who fail to report abuse can be charged with a misdemeanor punishable up to 90 days in jail and a $250 fine, though prosecution is relatively rare. There were just 57 cases filed with the Administrative Office of the Courts since 2006. One case involved a Bed Bath & Beyond store, which was charged in 2008 after it didn't help a couple who had found a toddler locked in a hot van in the parking lot. The manager said getting involved was against store policy.

Kentucky had twice as many reported child-abuse cases as Pennsylvania 2009, though it has just one-third the number of children. That difference is believed to stem from the reporting laws of the two states, not because abuse or neglect is less common in Kentucky, Wolfson reports.

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Cyber predators have easier access to children because of phones, video games

Child predators have it easier than ever to entice their young victims, due to the ever-growing accessibility of the Internet. "It's a lot easier now than everybody has the Internet in their pocket," Lexington Police Detective David Flannery told Karla Ward of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "Every day that we think of a way to combat it, people are thinking of a way to get around us," Flannery said. "It changes every day, and you have to keep up with it."

Using the World Wide Web to lure children for sex acts has skyrocketed since 1998, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 707 reports of people trying to entice children via the Internet. In 2008, there were 8,787 reports.

"Computers and cell phones remain the primary means of communication, but game systems including Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Wii also can be connected to the Internet, giving predators another way to gain access to children," Ward reports.

Though parents are becoming more aware, more education is needed, said Erin May Roth, an assistant U.S. attorney and the Project Safe Childhood coordinator for the Eastern District of Kentucky. "What they don't really think about is the fact that their kids are going to sleep with their phone," she said.

Flannery is the only police officer in Lexington assigned full-time to investigate Internet crimes against children. While he does not go into detail about his methods to track down predators, the concept involves pretending. "Anything that a kid can do, we can do," Flannery said.

Sometimes officers from several agencies and departments work together. The Kentucky State Police administers an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the state attorney general's office has a similar unit, and, because cases can involve a number of jurisdictions, sometimes the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the U.S. Postal Service, the Secret Service and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement are involved.

Mother Frieda Curry, right, discovered her 14-year-old daughter was entangled with a 38-year-old man who initially pretended to be 16. She contacted the Richmond Police Department and found more than 40 text messages and 10,000 pages of messages and videos on the computer. "I was frantic," she said. "I was in the worst state I've ever been in." (Photo by H-L's David Perry)

But Curry, whose daughter is now in college, dealt with the problem and the predator was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 10 years in prison. Thinking about the crimes can be difficult, but "only by shining a light on the problem will we ever hope to find a solution for it," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Lou Anna Red Corn. (Read more)

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Child abuse rates have risen significantly since the economy went into recession, survey in Ky. and 3 other states shows

Child abuse rose as the economy went into recession, shows a study of reported abuse to children under 5 in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.

From 2004 to December 2007, before the financial meltdown, the rate of abusive head trauma in the four states was 8.9 per 100,000 children. During 2008 and 2009, the number jumped to 14.7 per 100,000. Though the study established no cause-and-effect relationship between financial difficulties and an increase in abuse, "earlier research has tied parental stress to child maltreatment," Frederik Joelving of Reuters Health reports.

The study "showed that from 2004 to 2009, there were 422 children diagnosed with what doctors call 'abusive head trauma.' The majority ended up in intensive care units, and 16 percent died of their injuries," Joelving reports. The average child examined in the study was 9 months old.

"The number-one perpetrators are fathers and male caretakers; very few perpetrators are mothers," said Rachel Berger, a child-abuse expert at nationally recognized Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and co-author of the study. "It's the people that mothers give their kids to that end up being the perpetrator(s)." (Read more)

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