April 26, 2023
Background:
In April, the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) released their annual report, which includes data related to the OCA's core mandated functions over the past two years.
Basic Findings:
Below, you will find data on the OCA's Core Statutory Functions. Fulfilling these functions are the top priority for the OCA.
- Complaint Line: The OCA operates a Complaint Line which responds to individual service concerns about children. There was a 21% increase in the number of Complaint Line inquiries the OCA received from FY21 to FY22.
- Critical Incident Reports: The OCA statute requires state agencies providing services to children or young adults to notify the OCA if a child or young adult suffers a fatality, near fatality, serious bodily injury, or emotional injury. From FY19 to FY21, there was a steady increase in critical incident reports received, from 196 in FY19 to 347 in FY21. FY22 reflects the first year-over-year reduction, with 320 critical incident reports received.
- Supported Reports of Abuse and Neglect: The OCA receives and reviews reports from the Department of Children and Families (DCF) of supported allegations of abuse and neglect of children in out-of-home settings. In FY22, the OCA received 300 supported reports of abuse and neglect involving 588 children in out-of-home settings.
OCA's Partnership Projects with State Agencies
- Partnership with UMass Chan Medical School to launch the Center on Child Wellbeing & Trauma
- Partnership with The Department of Youth Services (DYS) to create the Massachusetts Youth Diversion Program
- Partnership with The Department of Public Health (DPH) to improve the Child Fatality Review process
- Partnership with The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to provide housing support services to youth aging out of foster case to prevent youth homelessness
CLM's Take:
CLM is a member of the OCA's Juvenile Justice and Data Policy Board and the Childhood Trauma Task Force and regularly communicates with the OCA on priorities for child and family well-being. While we commend the OCA for the reporting that they do in collaboration with various state agencies across the Commonwealth, we believe that even more can be done to promote healthy, happy, and thriving children in our state.
This session, we call on the legislature to pass An Act to Eliminate Disproportionality and Inequities for At-Risk Children, which would task the OCA with gathering and reporting on data from ALL state agencies that interact with children and families at-risk of DCF involvement. With the passage of this bill, the OCA would create recommendations for child-serving entities to develop and implement corrective action plans to ensure accountability and address inequities across child-serving state agencies. Better data and specific corrective actions are critical to clearing the blind spots within our reporting mechanisms and dismantling systemic injustices for at-risk and vulnerable children in Massachusetts.