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DCF Head Says Baby’s Death “A Failure of the System”
07/30/09 - 02:27 PM

Associated Press

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The Florida Department of Children and Families failed in its mission over the death of a baby boy in Broward County, according to the leader of DCF.
   
Secretary George Sheldon says he thinks his hotline operators should have acted with a greater sense of urgency in the case of one-year-old Bryce Barros, who died earlier this month under mysterious circumstances.

Barros was caught in the middle of an allegedly abusive relationship between his mother and father, who were sent to Broward County’s Domestic Violence Court. That’s where Judge Eileen O’Connor got involved.

O’Connor was concerned about the safety of Bryce Barros, so she faxed three complaints to DCF’s abuse hotline, hoping it would prompt the agency to investigate.

But hotline counselors rejected the judge’s complaints and did not follow up because there were no specific allegations of abuse to the baby. Sheldon says that was a mistake.

Bryce’s cause of death is under investigation. A preliminary report indicates the boy’s symptoms are consistent with blunt force trauma, but investigators cannot rule out the possibility of a deadly virus.

Ultimately, Sheldon says DCF and the court share blame for not communicating with each other very well and he says his agency will learn from the boy’s death.
   
“What happened is a regrettable tragedy when a child dies and I think we’ve got to take that seriously and I think we’ve got to learn from this event as we do anytime there’s the death of a child.”
   
“Anytime a child dies, it’s a failure of the system and I think we’ve got to take it seriously. But I think there were some very well meaning people, both at the court and at the hotline, and I think no matter how good we get and we need to keep getting better, no matter how good we get, we cannot cure every dysfunctional family and I think that’s a sad reality.”
   
“Quite frankly I think it is a case that should have been taken by the hotline. The facts that the court sent did not include an allegation of abuse, which is a standard under the statute, but I believe it was a court order and I don’t care if the court order comes from a traffic judge or a domestic violence judge, it’s still a court order. So we’re refining the protocols at the hotline.”
   
Sheldon says there was a breakdown in communication between the court and DCF, and there should have been a greater sense of urgency over the case.
   
“Faxes and e-mails did not eliminate the telephone and I think both the court as well as the department should have picked up the telephone and exercised a sense of urgency on any kind of case like that.”
   
Sheldon is critical of his hotline operators and the court for not picking up the phone and talking with each other directly about the case.

He says his agency takes the failure seriously and will refine its protocols at the hotline.

But he adds that no matter how good DCF gets at its job, the sad reality is the state, quote, “cannot cure every dysfunctional family.”