We gave a one page synopsis of this book we put together for the powers at a political meeting in the Santa Monica Mountains last year. We placed in the hands of out going Congressman Waxman and into the hands of incoming Congressman Ted Lieu and over a 100 political figures from the state of California. We had Ted Lieu’s ear for 30 minutes…regarding the abuses of the Department of Child and Family Services in California. He listened and asked great questions. As court watchers and child advocates we are normally given 1…3 minutes max to give out point of view. Lieu gave us his undivided attention… he is in congress now and he KNOWS what is going on. 
Julian J. Dominguez LMFT

A former DCFS employee (1996-2014) and co-author of with Melinda Murphy
A Culture of Fear: An Inside Look at Los Angeles County’s Department of Children & Family Services 
The Los Angeles Department of Child & Family Services
The Story That Does Not Change

Regardless of how many Blue Ribbon commissions or comprehensive reviews and audits occur [1] there remains one immutable certainty: The Los Angeles Department of Child & Family Services (DCFS) will never change.

 DCFS, given its historical and current culture of fear and rigid organizational structure, is designed and fortified with impenetrable internal political walls that resist any meaningful, permanent change.

The Department practices, and strictly enforces, spoken and unspoken systemic intransigence and has developed iron clad protections to ensure that the status quo will remain intact regardless of the impact on families or it’s own staff. 

Case in point, the 2014 Blue Ribbon Commission report (BRCR) that criticizes the troubled Department of Children and Family Services.

Text Box:  

The comprehensive one-year audit, costing almost one million dollars, was formed in response to the death of 8-year old Gabriel Fernandez in Palmdale. The BLCR found that many of the issues an earlier commission identified – “and which made specific recommendations on how to fix them” – remain today. [2]

The latest report neglected to identify or even mention one of the most fundamental examples of systemic failure: the tendency of DCFS to consistently provide Dependency courts with information based on erroneous or fabricated “facts” when assessing child safety and family stability. [3]

“Ghost Authoring”
“Ghost Authoring” is the practice that allows DCFS to provide false information to the Dependency courts regarding the status of families involved in Child Custody cases.

“Ghost Authoring” has been around for decades and is an integral part of the DCFS culture. “Ghost Authoring” is practiced, condoned and enforced by the DCFS leadership staff, Supervisors, Assistant Regional Administrators (ARA) and Regional Administrators (RA) — the Ghost Authors.

 Clinical Social Workers (CSW) are told what they can and cannot include in a court report.

 When their findings disagree with the opinion, position, point of view and implicit or explicit bias of the Ghost Author, the CSW is prevented from including their direct observations of the facts and the truth about the family. The CSW is ordered to sign the document and misrepresent the report as their own.

Should the CSW refuse to sign on ethical and moral grounds, they are told they would be considered “insubordinate,” and may be harshly disciplined or even terminated. The Ghost Author justifies this highly unethical practice because “DCFS speaks with one voice.”

CSWs have personally experienced or witnessed retaliation by Ghosts for years, who reinforce the “We speak with one voice” philosophy, through fear, bullying, and intimidation.

 The “DCFS speaks with one voice” dictum is tightly woven into the cultural fabric of the agency and is designed to prevent any meaningful scrutiny or change in the organization.

The power structure in DCFS offices, backed up and enforced by its management structure and County Counsel, ensures that Ghost Authoring will keep this arbitrary and unethical practice from ever being challenged, reviewed or allowed into the discussion.

There are many other examples of serious systemic defects that prevent or significantly impede effective service delivery to the families, and at the same time crippling the will and spirit of the CSW and DCFS staff and unless there is a fundamental change to the system and structure of DCFS it will not and cannot change.

Let’s change the DCFS story.

Footnotes

[1] SB2030 Child Welfare Services Workload Study, Final Report,” is available on line at http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/sb2030final/sb2030final.htm.

[2] Report: LA County must reform troubled DCFS; officials say the whole system needs reform (update) by Karen Foshay/KPCC.

[3] The report found that many of the issues an earlier commission identified – and which it also made specific recommendations on how to fix them – remain today.  The report takes a critical look at the troubled agency. It found that social workers and the children they are charged of caring for have a dysfunctional relationship:

“Many youth reported to the Commission that they could not even reach or trust their social worker – the person that should be their most important safety resource. In eight months of hearing hundreds of hours of testimony, the Commission never heard a single person defend our current child safety system.”

Appendix A

The tools/laws/recommendations are in place to fix this… and need to be implemented and enforced.

In the April 16, 2012  A Confidential and Privileged Report commissioned by the LA Board of Supervisors and submitted to the board by the Children’s Special Investigative Unit, looking into the high numbers of child deaths in LA County under the scrutiny of DCFS found that the number one reason children die under the scrutiny of DCFS. Page 6 of this report speaks of 570 deaths in a recent 18 month period of time.

‘FRONT END INVESTIGATIVE FAILURES’…..

In short… supervisors who change the findings of social workers on the gound, in consultation with County Counsel (the real Ghost Writers, who never meet the children or the parents/caregivers) and lie in their reports to Superior Court Judges. Judges rely on these reports to make decisions regarding the fates of children.  Two years later… Jerry Dominguez and Melinda Murphy released their book as the same culture of lying, warned about in the 2012 report to the BOS… continues unabated. Dominguez speaks of the boiler plate reports written to emphasize the “concerns/allegations” against parents and caretakers without requiring any actual evidence of abuse or neglect as the lies keep rolling over, compounding with each successive DCFS report and court hearing.

This culture of fear and false reporting within this organization is to devastating effect on children and in the extreme, causes inordinate numbers of child deaths in this county and beyond.

Court watchers delivered the Confidential and Privileged Report to Tim Donnelly in June of 2013 when he called for a joint session at the capitol. The legislature unanimously agreed that day, to initiate a state audit of DCFS. 
Parents were lined up for hours to give testimony. 

In support of Assembly Bill 1828, “Sammy’s Law”, which would have reformed how CPA operates.  Assembly Bill 1828 would create a record that could be used in court to preserve the rights of parents, children, and social workers.

Sammy’s Law which would have required a video and audio recording of all interactions between CPS social workers and the families, including interviews and removal proceedings was never allowed to go to a vote.

I experience this in 1999 until they ran away to come home we stop going to court afterwards. They knew where they were and never bother to pick them up. After a certain age if the child runs away they won’t put much effort in placing them. The next stage is locking them up which will stay with them the rest of their lives regardless of what they accomplish. We had a workshop before the CoronaVirus pandemic to assist parents and comfort them in understanding the petition, the codes including giving them support when needed. Hopefuly when this is over we can resume where we left off.