The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "caseworker" ...
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Failed to Death
Since 2007, 72 children who were under supervision of the state of Colorado died at the hands of their caregivers. They were beaten, starved, suffocated or burned to death. An investigation by The Denver Post and 9News uncovered the failings of the system that was there to protect those children. The report included voices from the state, the counties, overworked caseworkers, law enforcement and family members, along with details on each child's death.
Tags: Caregivers; children; abuse; deaths
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Failed to Death: Protecting Colorado’s Children
In a joint investigation with the Denver Post, 9NEWS uncovered 72 of the 175 Colorado children who have died of child abuse over the past 5 years were known to the agency that is supposed to keep them safe--human services. The series revealed how those children were “Failed to Death” by each and every person they had ever known. Reporters fought for access to public documents, police reports, and court records, along with convincing key stakeholders to allow them unprecedented access to every step of the child welfare process. The reporters uncovered a system where accountability and transparency is nearly non-existent and caseworkers find it nearly impossible to assess which children will live and which will not. Since the series first aired, the Colorado Legislature has put a priority on fixing the child welfare system.
Tags: child welfare; FOIA
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"Children Failed, Children Forsaken"
The deaths of 13 children could have been prevented, says the Colorado Department of Human Services. The child welfare system in Colorado is "fraught with incompetence" and mismanagement. Caseworkers are improperly trained, leaving the children "in peril." As of late 2009, new hires and improved caseworker training had not been enforced leaving the situation in the same poor state as it has been for years.
Tags: Colorado Department of Human Services; Denver Department of Human Services; Bill Ritter; child welfare system
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Fatal Care
“At least 22 children died from 2004 to 2008 despite clear warning signs from the Bureau of Child Welfare they were at risk”. A number of reasons were to blame for the deaths of these innocent children. The reasons include: workers making these “fatal mistakes” were reassigned instead of being fired, the parents mistreating their children were never punished, and secrecy in the Bureau persisted.
Tags: Milwaukee; county; kids; preventable; social service; social workers; turmoil; caseworkers; guardians
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Abandoning Our Mentally Ill
A year-long investigation of living conditions of the most severely mentally ill patients in the Milwaukee area discovered that those conditions were far from ideal, sometimes filthy and dangerous. Among the discoveries were patients housed in illegal group homes which city building inspectors did not discover or report. In addition, caseworkers were still placing patients in homes despite knowledge of their poor and filthy conditions. At the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, a 33-year-old woman died from dehydration and starvation after doctors allowed her to go nearly four weeks without food or water. Social service and government agencies had also passed up opportunities to accept federal money for construction of better facilities, $3.3 million in the past seven years.
Tags: Mental illness; Department of Housing and Urban Development; Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex
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State of Denial
Arizona Child Protection Services is the state agency charged with protecting abused and neglected children. Until a new law took affect in 2005, CPS workers were not required to have background checks. A number of CPS caseworkers had criminal backgrounds and couldn't pass the checks. Unsure what to do, CPS didn't fire those workers and the situation remains.
Tags: Child Protection Services; criminal backgrounds; government workers; background checks; child abuse; neglect; Arizona Open Records Law
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34,000 kids trying to catch a break
A caseworker in New York's Administration for Child Services (ACS) gives a first-person account of the bureaucracy involved in caring for state wards, which includes foster children and orphans alike. He writes of overworked caseworkers, stunning courtroom dramas, and more.
Tags: foster care; children; childcare; caseworkers; juveniles
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DCF: Florida's Department of Children and Families
Miami Herald reports on flaws in Florida's system that is supposed to protect vulnerable children. The main findings, according to the contest entry, are that more than 35 children died because caseworkers failed to promptly open and close abuse investigations that might have saved them; more than 100 children died, at least in part because caseworkers overlooked critical warning signs that their lives were in danger; many of the state welfare workers and foster parents had criminal pasts and felony records.
Tags: foster care; abuse; neglect; child molestation; databases
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Florida foster care
ABC reports on "the failure of the Florida Department of Children and Families to protect six children who were under its care." The story reveals that Jacqueline Lynch, a certified foster parent, abused and neglected the six children, siblings of ages between 5 and 15. Nevertheless, the state allowed her and her husband to adopt the children. Lynch has been receiving thousands of dollars for supposedly taking care of the children until the state learned of the abuse from a child abuse hotline. "For almost two years, no caseworker ever came to inspect the Lynch home even though they were supposed to be monthly visits," according to the contest entry summary.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; school; sadistic punishments; physical and sexual abuse; starvation
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Baby Deaths
WBFF investigates how Social Services fails to protect children in Baltimore. The story reveals that in the vast majority of baby death cases Social Services caseworkers were aware of the problems in the families where children died. "Many times, Social services had returned the child to the home where he/she was killed."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; court records; manslaughter; homicides; neglect; abuse; drug addicts; FOI