Behind the scenes

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: August 17, 2008

The case of the 3-year-old boy found alone at Danville Stadium Cinemas July 15 has put the work of Danville’s Division of Social Services in the spotlight.

The investigations conducted at a local social services department in Virginia are always confidential and involve just the parties directly involved. In rare cases, though, part of the incident occurs in public, raising questions in the minds of the public that can sometimes take a long time to be answered — if those answers ever see the light of day.

In the year ending June 30, 2007, 231 child abuse and neglect reports were completed by the city’s Division of Social Services. But the division received a total of 389 complaints for the period; approximately 150 did not meet the criteria for a full investigation.

“We get quite a number of malicious complaints,” said Laura G. Toler, a social work supervisor with DSS. “Our utmost concern is the safety of that child.”

Those 231 completed reports last year included 21 complaints that were “founded,” which means that by a preponderance of the evidence, the allegations of abuse or neglect were substantiated. Another 51 cases were “unfounded” and 159 family assessments were conducted.

The investigations conducted by DSS are civil, not criminal, but during those investigation, law enforcement are notified if a violation of criminal law is suspected.

“We don’t have the authority to conduct criminal investigations,” said John L. Moody, director of the Danville Division of Social Services.

If a local DSS investigation is founded, the person can appeal to the state Department of Social Services, and eventually to the courts. But at the end of the process, if the report is still founded, the incident is logged into a state database for three, seven or as long as 18 years — depending on the seriousness of the infraction. That becomes the investigated person’s record — something that must be disclosed if they want to work with children.

Investigations can be started for everything from reports of a child being left alone in a car or a store to a child being beaten — leaving bruises, broken skin and bones and welts — to children born with drugs in their system to the conduct of caregivers.

The work of an agency like the Division of Social Services is naturally contentious, based on the kinds of complaints they deal with on a regular basis. The attention the theater child case has received in the media is overshadowed by the volume of work this agency does.