Copyright 2000 Daily News, L.P.
Daily News (New
York)
December 8, 2000, Friday SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 30
LENGTH: 420 words
HEADLINE:
CHILD-WELFARE REFORMS WIN THUMBS UP
BYLINE: By BOB PORT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
BODY:
A panel of experts
declared yesterday that the city is acting in good faith to fix its child
welfare system, relieving the mayor from having a federal judge dictate policy
and spending on children for years to come.
The panel's ruling came as
part of a 1998 agreement that bound the city to take advice from experts on
children for two years.
The finding ends a 1995 class-action lawsuit
against the city by child advocates on behalf of Marisol, a 4-year-old girl
found locked in a closet and near death, despite pleas for authorities to act.
Both sides in the case had agreed to give the panel, administered by the Anne E.
Casey Foundation, final say over what the city should do and whether it honestly
was doing it.
The Administration for Children's Services has engaged in
a "sustained, intelligent effort to change a complicated and difficult system,"
the foundation's final report said.
It described some ACS efforts as
being "on a scale unmatched by any other child-welfare system in the United
States."
Though gushing with praise, the 59-page report also warned that
the city's "child welfare system is not yet fixed," and that troubled parents
deserve more respect in the city's future efforts.
"We are extremely
pleased because this is a group of professionals who really know child welfare,
with no political agenda," said Nicholas Scoppetta, the former prosecutor - and
one-time foster child - enlisted by the mayor in 1996 to rebuild the city's
child-welfare system.
"The report is a very constructive critique of the
system, unlike many audits, where it's a game of gotcha," he said. "It is a kind
of vindication, I think, for ACS managers and its staff from the criticism that
is unrelenting from some groups that just can't find it in their heart to
acknowledge that reforms have taken place."
The lawyer who spearheaded
the Marisol lawsuit, Marcia Robinson-Lowry of Children's Rights Inc., also was
pleased by the outcome.
"A great deal that was profoundly necessary has
either been accomplished or, more likely, planned," she said. "The kinds of
fundamental problems that have existed in the system have been addressed with
the prodding of the panel and, in my view, under the pressure of this lawsuit."
Robinson said she intends to watch the city's continuing efforts like a
hawk.
And the case has another happy ending: Marisol, the child whose
plight triggered the lawsuit, is now 10. "I am very happy to say," Robinson
said, "she is in a wonderful family and is doing very well."
LOAD-DATE: December 8, 2000 
