State says it's lacking funds to complete plan to reduce child abuse

Eight years after the Legislature created the state’s Office of the Child Advocate, the head of the agency, Gail Garinger, said she’s been unable to fulfill a legislative mandate to complete a system-wide plan to reduce child abuse and neglect.

Garinger released a statement Monday to the New England Center for Investigative Reporting stating that her office lacked the funding and resources to complete the five-year plan as required by the state Legislature in 2008.

She said the plan was supposed to bring state agencies, including the Department of Children and Families and schools, clinics, hospitals and the courts, together to reduce child abuse. She said, instead, her office has been largely focused on its other work, including reviewing child deaths and responding to calls from the public.

“Our ability to formulate a comprehensive plan is restricted by our current fiscal and staffing resources,” she wrote in a statement.

Her comments follow a Worcester Telegram & Gazette story Monday in which Sara M. Bartosz, lead attorney for the New York advocacy group Children’s Rights, said that DCF has known about problems in the agency long before Fitchburg boy Jeremiah Oliver disappeared in September.

The Massachusetts Legislature created the state Office of the Child Advocate in 2008 following several high profile child abuse cases revealed weaknesses at DCF. Garinger stated in a 2009 report that she planned to complete the plan the following year, reviewing 24 issues, including social workers qualifications and high caseloads.

The office currently employs four workers, including Garinger, and runs on a $304,100 budget. Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed a $500,000 budget for next fiscal year, she said.

Laurie Myers, founder of Community Voices, a Chelmsford-based advocacy group for child victims, said the failure to complete the plan exemplifies the lack of any real changes in the child welfare system. “I get so frustrated with the excuse that it is always about the money,’’ she said. “They could have gone to the governor and said this is not working.”