DSS continues to take heat.
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It is no longer open to debate: the state Department of Social Services is a dysfunctional agency whose collective actions and systemic negligence are intolerable and border on criminal.
The recent case involving the 7-year-old Middleboro boy who was beaten and burned by someone is just the latest fiasco that has DSS officials admitting they made errors.
DSS visited the Middleboro family several times over the past few months but never checked the boy for burns on his genitals that school officials discovered or for welts on his back from being beaten with a belt. The agency also conceded the man charged with the abuse, David Privette, had a drug conviction as well as a conviction for assault on a police officer.
DSS counseled the mother and her boyfriend against corporal punishment but, in the very accurate assessment of Middleboro Police Chief Gary Russell, "this little boy was sent home to be tortured for another 13 days."
Rebecca Riley of Hull died in 2006 from an overdose of medications, which prosecutors charge was an intentional act by her parents who are awaiting trial on murder. There also were bruises on Rebecca's body, including on her thighs.
But DSS had visited the family following allegations of abuse and never found a problem despite Rebecca's father awaiting trial at the time for rape of a minor.
Yeah, we missed the boat on that one, DSS said after Rebecca's death.
Haleigh Poutre, Aidyn Hudson, Dontel Jeffers, the Warren, Mass., home where 10 children were beaten and sexually abused for a decade; the list isn't endless but it is maddening and, when one thinks about the pain and suffering inflicted on helpless children, heart-wrenching.
DSS' actions in the Riley and Poutre cases triggered a legislative investigation and recommendations. Among those was the recently passed bill that allows DSS to collect and maintain information on unsubstantiated reports of child abuse and neglect to assist in future risk and safety assessments of children and families.
But admitting problems after the fact is no longer good enough. Children are dying and being maimed for life because of - take your pick - budgetary underfunding, politicized administration, inept training and overwhelmed case workers.
Money doesn't appear to be a problem. Last year, DSS officials returned $24 million in unspent funds.
Gov. Deval Patrick replaced embattled commissioner Harry Spence with his own man, Angelo McClain, a former DSS worker, after the Rebecca Riley case so there's new administration, yet the same problems exist.
More than one-third of case workers handle more than the 18-case limit and nearly 75 percent oversee in excess of the 15-case standard. A DSS decision made this week to hire 80 to 100 additional social workers will bring the average case load down to 17, a number that's still too high, but it's a start.
If it takes more money to hire more workers, do it. The time to ponder is over. Action is essential before the next headline that reads about a dead child who had been abused.
Sorry doesn't cut it anymore.
Editorial: 'Sorry' doesn't protect children
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