The document discusses the impact of COVID-19 on child abuse reporting. It notes that school closures led to 50% fewer child abuse reports in Ohio in 2020 compared to 2019, as schools are where many cases are detected. This suggests thousands of abuse cases went unreported. Stories from African American teens in Franklin County show abuse reports not being properly addressed. The document calls for an audit of child abuse hotlines and improved response to vulnerable children during the pandemic. The document also discusses issues at Cuyahoga County's understaffed child abuse hotline and the unsafe conditions at the Jane Edna Hunter building housing foster youth. It recommends the state take action and utilize local resources to ensure children's safety and well

2. Impact of COVID on child abuse reporting
• “A recent national study
suggests that at least 5,500 -
8,000 cases of child
endangerment and
maltreatment were missed due
to school closures and fewer
enrollments due to COVID.”

3. According to the
Columbus Dispatch:
• When schools closed in March 2020 due to COVID, this
was followed by a 50% decrease in the number of child
abuse reports across the state, due to less access to
mandated reporters.
• Remote or hybrid learning made it difficult for mandated
reporters to detect signs of child abuse and neglect.
• This led to 20,597 fewer statewide child abuse reports in
Ohio than during the same period of time the previous
year.
• Franklin County received 3,854 fewer child abuse reports
than the previous year.

7. Concerns about reduced number of
abused youth being removed in Franklin County

8. Experiences of Franklin County Youth
• African American male teen calls hotline four separate times to report
physical abuse, sexual abuse and abandonment. Each time, caseworker told
teen, “We are not going to take you into foster care.”
• African American female teen reports being raped and becoming pregnant by
a family member. Her siblings report to FCCS, as does Nationwide Children’s
Hospital. Her parents are required to attend parenting classes.
• Two African American female teens living in the same foster home
repeatedly call 911 to express feeling unsafe. Agency fails to remove them.

11. An action is considered discriminatory if an individual or group is:
• Denied benefits that others received
• Delayed in receiving benefits or services that others received
• Treated differently than others, to their disadvantage
• Given disparate treatment, meaning that an action might not seem
discriminatory but has a discriminatory impact in practice

12. • This occurs in other
fields as well, such as
special education:
mainstreaming, phonics
vs. whole language,
etc.)
• Please do seek to
address racial
disproportionality in
foster care, but do not
do so at the expense of
the safety of minority
children and teens.

13. Alternative Response being overutilized,
especially in Franklin County
• Alternative Response is an approach by Ohio's county child protection
agencies to help families access services, support and other help that
will resolve concerns when a report is made without requiring a formal
investigation of child abuse or neglect.
• Traditional Response is always required for reports of sexual abuse,
abuse resulting in serious injury, and whenever children are
determined to be in serious and immediate risk of harm.

15. Request for
a statewide
audit
• The OHIO YAB requests that the
state of Ohio or an outside
independent agency (one that is
vetted and approved by youth)
conduct an audit of county child
abuse hotlines, beginning with
Franklin County
• To ensure that agencies are taking
reports seriously, and checking on
suspected victims of child abuse and
neglect in a timely manner
*Following North
Dakota’s example

16. Cuyahoga County staff reporting
an unmanned child abuse hotline
• Cristina Sarsama and Marilyn
Henderson, both longtime call takers
for the county’s child abuse and
neglect hotline, gave disturbing
testimony during the Cuyahoga
County Council meeting that while
staff is providing childcare, the child
abuse hotline is going unanswered.
• “So, when you call 696-KIDS, nobody
will be there to answer your call, for
hours at a time,” Sarsama said. “We
are struggling really, really bad.”

19. Recommendations
from Case
Western
They encouraged Cuyahoga County JFS to:
• Assemble a core team in partnership with the
greater Cleveland hospital systems and other
key stakeholders to develop a county-wide
system to better address and prevent child
abuse.
• Coordinate interagency data sharing
• Create an early warning system, a key
component to a system-wide approach to
address and further prevent child abuse.

20. Child Protection doesn’t look like this…
11-year-old who was
waiting for placement:
how did she end up
leaving the building and
being raped?
15-year-old reporting a
sexual assault from an
18-year-old while they
were both staying at the
Jane Edna Building.
Jane Edna Building has
become a hub for sex
trafficking recruitment.
Cleveland police
reporting that youth ran
away from the building
135 times in the first
months of this year.
Average 6-12 children
sleeping in the building
at a time.

22. Cuyahoga County needs more than a
rapid response; it needs a thorough one
Director David Merriman says his
hands are tied; how can that be
the case?
Statement from Dasia Clemente
that the state does not have the
authority to regulate how each
county office operates; how can
that be true?
Does the Jane Edna building not
have security guards on site to
protect children, teens and staff?
Spending $27,000 on keycards for
stairways? This doesn’t
safeguard the youth.

23. Ohio Revised Code
Section 5101.24 | Actions for failure to meet performance standards.
Ohio Revised Code/Title 51 Public Welfare/Chapter 5101 Department
Of Job And Family Services- General Provision
The department may take one or more of the following actions against
the responsible county grantee…
(5) Perform, or contract with a government or private entity for the
entity to perform, the family services duty until the department is
satisfied that the responsible county grantee ensures that the duty
will be performed satisfactorily.

24. Current efforts by the state
Weekly meetings with county office What are the action steps, please?
Meetings with the Multi-System Youth team to seek
placements and seeking sites to license as crisis
centers to house children and youth on a short-term
basis
How is this going?
Looking into responses for kids and teens who need
emergency care after hours and on weekends
In the past two years, this hasn’t previously
happened?
Implementing the CANS tool Youth have expressed concerns about this
tool; it’s a Medicaid billing tool, not a
trauma tool.
Reviewing contracts and MOUs and connecting the
county with existing statewide initiatives on foster
parent recruitment and home assessors
This part sounds like business as usual.

25. Local behavioral health
agencies could assist
with screening
Recruit emergency
respite parents
Family and youth
advocates could
come to the building
to help
Utilize beds and
24/hour staff at
residentials,
local agencies…
Mobile response teams,
Ohio RISE
ODJFS could
temporarily take over
Untapped opportunities
for local and state support

26. Jane Edna Hunter
• Jane Edna Hunter rose from poverty in the South to
have a nationally recognized career in social work in
Cleveland.
• Her mother narrowly escaped slavery by being born
on the day Lincoln signed the Emancipation
Proclamation.
• At 17, she married 57-year-old Edward Hunter, a
wealthy man who her mother hoped would support
the family. She left him within 15 months in order to
pursue a career in nursing.
• In the early 1900s, she founded the Phillis Wheatley
Association (PWA) to provide young Black women
with safe housing, job training, and recreation.