Study DCFS 'reforms' carefully

The state Division of Child and Family Services is, by no means, perfect.

The division has, in fact, gone to great lengths over the past decade to make itself more accountable to the public. Some of that effort was due to a class action lawsuit that challenged Utah's child welfare practices and how it treats children in foster care. State laws have been changed to require greater accountability from DCFS. With federal court oversight, reviews by volunteer boards, the agency's own audits and juvenile court appearances, much of the agency's work is held up to repeated scrutiny. By most official accounts, DCFS has made progress in its operations and is working toward further refinements.

But some Utahns would have you believe that the division interferes with families on a whim; that children are being plucked from their homes without cause and that various government agencies and private entities work in tandem to infringe upon parents' rights.

They're holding up Parker Jensen as the textbook case of government agencies run amok. They want the structure of DCFS changed to make it more "parent friendly."

DCFS officials have said they're willing to sit down and discuss proposed changes to the division if it better serves the public. That's commendable, considering that the dialogue over these issues is often fueled by misunderstanding, innuendo and, in some cases, out-and-out lies.

If lawmakers are going to consider changes to the scope of DCFS' powers, they owe it to the division and to the children who come under its purview to separate the facts from idle gossip.

Furthermore, Parker Jensen is hardly the poster child for child welfare reform. The state has backed off his case, but not because it had no business intervening in suspected medical neglect. Rather, the treatment in this case — court-ordered chemotherapy — wouldn't have worked because the boy's parents were dead-set against it. Furthermore, it would be unworkable to treat the boy — diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer last spring — with conventional cancer treatment without an adequate support system.

Society has an obligation to protect its children. Most people want physicians and other professionals to have an affirmative responsibility to report child abuse and neglect. They want children to be removed from dangerous homes and situations and, if at all possible, placed with relatives who will care for and nurture them until these cases can be resolved. When possible, DCFS tries to reunite children with their families, but some families are so broken that children fare better in foster and adoptive homes.