By Hank Russell
Cover photo: D.A. Tierney announces changes to Suffolk’s CPS system (Credit – Hank Russell)
The day before a conference on the changes to the Suffolk County Child Protective Services (CPS) system, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) and District Attorney Ray Tierney (R) held a press conference at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge on November 7 to announce some of the major changes to CPS. These changes took place after the district attorney’s report on the agency’s handling of the case of Thomas Valva, who died in 2020.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, Tierney released a grand jury report that showed that CPS staffers did not perform their due diligence when investigating the abuse Valva suffered at the hands of his father and his father’s girlfriend. Of the eleven reports sent to CPS, the agency found ten of them to be “unfounded;” those reports were later sealed, which meant they could not be accessed by law enforcement.
“We worked tirelessly with our partners to make sure these recommendations were not just that — recommendations — but turned to action and real change,” Tierney said.
Since Romaine took office, “there has been a sea change” in the CPS system, Tierney said. “The amount of collaboration has been very gratifying. … This collaboration … is to make sure that something that happened with Thomas Valva and his brothers never occurs again.”
Valva’s death was very personal to Romaine. “He lived in my community, he sat next to my grandson in elementary school,” he recalled. “We had to tell my grandson that [Valva] was not coming back.”
The List of Changes
Major Quality Improvements of Suffolk’s Family and Children’s Administration Recognized by New York State: The New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) recently published its 2024 Program Quality Improvement Review for Suffolk County in the areas of Child Protective Services, Preventative/Protective Services and Foster Care.
The report indicates that Suffolk County Family and Children Services demonstrated a substantial improvement in all areas, with many categories reaching the 100% compliance rate. The review of Suffolk’s Family and Children’s Services Administrator is a key indicator that Suffolk’s efforts to improve case practice has been impactful and has further renewed the County’s commitment to provide Suffolk DSS with the immediate tools needed to best serve Suffolk County’s families.
“There has to be transparency in the way we conduct our work,” Imhof said, “and there has to be accountability.”
Using Blind Removals from the Child Removal Process: Suffolk County implemented the Blind Removal policy on all CPS removals of children from their families.
“There is no identifying information about the subjects in the investigation,” said the new social services commissioner, Dr. John Imhof, said. “We don’t know [the children’s] names, where they are, where they go to school, what their parents do for a living.
Blind removal meetings were created to facilitate an unbiased decision-making process in which a caseworker does not disclose any personal and demographic information about a child/family when information about the case is being presented to directors, assistant directors, and others before a removal of a child from their family is initiated. The goal is to reduce bias in the decision-making process.
“We all have unconscious stereotypes in our minds,” said the new social services commissioner, Dr. John Imhof. “They have to be eliminated … Without that objectivity, stereotypes jump in, stereotypes sway the decision-making process.”
Co-Location of CPS Abuse Teams to the Child Advocacy Center: Next month, Child Protection Services (CPS) will relocate caseworkers assigned to the CPS Teams investigating allegations of child abuse to the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) in Central Islip. CPS Caseworkers will be able to work in tandem with Law Enforcement and attorneys from the District Attorney and County Attorney’s office while investigating a case involving child abuse. This, according to the county, will reduce victim trauma.
Interagency Collaboration through Joint Trainings: Since March 2024, DSS has organized numerous interagency training courses on a range of crucial topics, including child protection, trauma-informed care, forensic interviewing, and the multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach to child abuse investigations. These training courses have been attended by DSS Child Protective Services employees, the Suffolk County Police Department, and attorneys from both the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and County Attorney’s Office.
Tierney said the county started its own training program after he found the state’s training program was “woefully inadequate.”
Legal Training with the Suffolk County Attorney’s Office: In 2024, the County Attorney’s Office Family Court/DSS Bureau, in collaboration with the DSS’ Family and Children Services Administration (FCSA), worked diligently to enhance the attorney-client relationship by implementing a training program among professionals so that both sides could learn from each other as they handle sensitive abuse and neglect matters as a comprehensive and collaborative team.
The Return of Adult Protective Services to Family and Children’s Services Division: In September 2024, the County’s Adult Protective Services (APS) division was returned under the umbrella of the Family and Children’s Services Administration of DSS so that APS could shift their focus as a casework and a needs assessment-based program offering not only entitlement to benefits – but also support services. As a result, APS and CPS will work in greater collaboration regarding cases so that Developmentally Disabled youths nearing the age of majority will be provided appropriate and ongoing adult services.
Specialized Training by Daemen College Regarding Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental; Disabilities: In 2024, more than 170 DSS employees attended courses hosted by Daemen College, which is considered one of the top health sciences educators in New York, where case workers received heightened training in relation to working with individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD).
Employees were further educated about the characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of disabilities such as Autism, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, Fragile X, Down Syndrome, Prader Willi, Traumatic Brain Injuries, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Language and Learning Disorders. Training also focused on understanding challenging behavior in children and youth.
Countywide Multidisciplinary Training to Serve, Protect and Advocate for Vulnerable Populations: DSS, in collaboration with New York State Children’s Alliance, the Suffolk County Executive, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and Suffolk’s EAC/Child Advocacy Center, will provide specialized training for Suffolk County’s frontline workers on how to serve, protect, and advocate for vulnerable populations including children and adults with disabilities, mental health disorders, and older adults through trainings, expert consultation, peer review and behavioral analysis. This training focuses on the skills necessary to interview, prosecute, investigate and protect these vulnerable populations.
Supervisor Training for FCSA Employees: The Department of Social Services will increase training for its Supervisory Staff to develop a Child Welfare Family Centered Clinical Model of Supervision within the Family and Children’s Services Division. This newly developed model focuses on providing middle management with advanced training on the actions, responses and decision-making of each case worker in ensuring a child’s safety and providing the necessary services for the children and their families. The model includes increased support for caseworkers in decision-making, handling crisis and to build worker competence.
Safety and Security of DSS Caseworkers and Staff: DSS, in collaboration with Suffolk County Fire and Rescue Emergency Services, has contracted with Motorola Solutions to provide more than 600 DSS employees with the RAVE/Guardian Panic Button mobile app. With the push of a button, the app instantly communicates any type of emergency to 911, while simultaneously connecting to Suffolk Fire and Rescue and DSS Leadership personnel.
Emotional and Psychological Wellbeing of DSS Caseworkers and Staff: Child welfare system employees can experience burnout and compassion fatigue due to the high-stress and traumatic situations they encounter. To safeguard the overall wellness of its workers, DSS is providing additional support services of its employees so they can manage the high stress and emotional trauma they may encounter as a result of their work helping children and families.
In addition, Romaine said he will work with CPS to aggressively recruit new caseworkers, reduce the caseloads of current caseworkers and implement pay raises. Dr. Sylvia Diaz, Deputy County Executive for Health, Human Services and Education, said the starting salary is $61,000 a year, but she said that is not enough.
Suffolk County Legislator Trish Bergin (R-East Islip) agreed.
“We need to provide a lifestyle for those who work so desperately to save and help the children of these counties. Some of these folks at DSS who hand out food stamps for a living, qualify for food stamps themselves.”
In addition to implementing key policy changes, Romaine spoke of a recent conference, “Creating Transformational Change for Families Involved with the Child Protective System.” The conference took place on November 8 at the Van Nostrand Theatre at Suffolk Community College, located at 1001 Crooked Hill Road in Brentwood. The keynote speaker was Katie Beers, who was part of the Child Protective Services (CPS) system for years and was kidnapped and kept captive in an underground space in a Bay Shore garage before being freed. She was joined by Carolyn Gusoff, author of Buried Memories, which tells Katie’s story.
“We took significant and swift action to reform the Suffolk County Department of Social Services to ensure that our children who are in Child Protective Services are truly protected,” said Romaine. “In addition to allocating funds to fill vacant positions, provide more efficient services, reform processes and ensure better training, we will continue to work with all levels of government to ensure proper procedures and oversight is in place so that another child does not suffer the same trauma and hardship that Thomas Valva did.”
“We must ensure that we never again have a tragedy like the one that befell Thomas Valva and his brothers,” Tierney said. “I am proud of the work of the Task Force, with the new administration of County Executive Romaine and our Legislature, to make sure that the recommendations of the Grand Jury Report are enacted rather than forgotten.”
“It was important that the grand jury report not sit on the shelf and the true changes be made. We put together a committee to drill down on that report and make the necessary changes to make sure a Thomas Valva case would never happen again,” Bergin said.
This article originally appeared in Long Island Life and Politics. For more from LILP, visit them online at lilifepolitics.com.