The department of Human Services adopted rules mandated by the law after almost a decade, it turns out that the Oregon DHS failed for almost a decade to comply with the state law. The State Agency in charge of child welfare services adopted rules on investigations only this month into its worst cases.
The DHS will work together with the Critical Incident Response Team and the agency will get to know whenever a child dies or is severely hurt. The state investigators are finding solutions as to what went wrong in these cases and the team largely consists of DHS staffs as per Statesman Journal.
A public hearing is scheduled to take place in the Capitol on Senate Bill 819, as the hearing will aim to update the statue around the investigative team. The rules will also deal with the review and implementation of investigators suggestions.
According to the Oregon Law, the agency is supposed to take up the rules and execute the plan that is provided in the section on the Critical Incident Response Team reports. Though this has been part of the law rule for years the DHS has not put them in place until this February. Their current form declares that the new rules are only temporary and last until August.
Stacy Ayers the safety manager for Child Welfare with DHS said that it is clearly in statue and it was just not done. As for now senior officials were stunned when they figured out that the agency rules were not in place.
More people will be added from outside the investigative team including a state senator and a state representative. However, the bill will focus on two themes that is implementation of CIRT recommendations and accountability. It has been rather a mystery that the rules have been avoided for so many years.
