Almost four years after starvation death of a 16 year old teenage girl from Iowa on Monday published a 160-page report «hit» on the Department of social services of the state (DHS) for the fact that he ignored more than a dozen complaints of ill-treatment of children in foster care.
Natalie Finn weighed only 81 lb (36 kg) when paramedics arrived at the home of her foster parents in des Moines in October 2016. Natalie died a few hours later in the hospital. Her foster mother Nicole Finn was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in the first degree in 2018. Her foster father pleaded guilty, the sentence is not yet announced.
According to a report published by the Ombudsman’s office Iowa DHS staff has received 14 reports of ill-treatment of children in the home of the Finns from their neighbours, workers of kindergartens, school staff and others.
DHS did not keep records of reports of abuse over the years that prevented the employees of the social security system to detect cases of ill-treatment in the early stages, says the report of the Ombudsman.
The social worker Amy Sacco and her supervisor were fired in 2017 after the case of the Finns has attracted the attention of national media.
Four of the five reports of ill-treatment of children taken from November 2015 to may 2016, was rejected by the staff of DHS and have never been field agents for investigation.
The office of the Ombudsman also pointed out that the Committee for the review of child deaths, which was created by the legislature of the state has not convened since its inception in 2000.
«We will learn from this and improve the security system, which DHS provides to the children of Iowa, wrote Department Director Kelly Garcia in response to the report. – Work began immediately.»
