Should the public have access to Harmony Montgomery's records from New Hampshire DCYF?
.... CAPTA and its "fatality or near fatality" records release requirement.
I’ve been following the tragic case of Harmony Montgomery, the child in New Hampshire who hasn’t been seen in two years and whose father has been arrested on abuse charges and is implicated in her disappearance. I pray she’s still alive, and authorities continue their multi-state search for her.
What we don’t know about Harmony’s case is whether child protection authorities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire dropped the ball. Reports indicate that Massachusetts authorities removed Harmony from her mother to foster care and in 2019 placed her with her father in New Hampshire, possibly without the benefit of an agreement pursuant to the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children.
The New Hampshire Division for Youth, Children, and Families has refused to release any records on Harmony, claiming those are confidential under state and federal law. But there are exceptions. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act requires the release of child protection agency records on any situation of abuse or neglect that resulted in a fatality or near fatality.
New Hampshire has such an exception. Massachusetts’ statute is much more vague. In general, as reported by ProPublica, the law requires the state at a minimum to release “the cause of and circumstances regarding the fatality or near fatality; the age and gender of the child; information describing any previous reports or child abuse or neglect investigations that are pertinent to the child abuse or neglect that led to the fatality or near fatality; the result of any such investigations; and the services provided by and actions of the State on behalf of the child that are pertinent to the child abuse or neglect that led to the fatality or near fatality.”
The preliminary question here: Should Harmony’s case be considered a “fatality or near fatality”? The CAPTA law defines a “near fatality” as an act that, as certified by a physician, places the child in serious or critical condition." Certainly, one could argue that if a child exposed to abuse went missing for two years, that child has been placed in a “serious or critical condition.”
An enterprising reporter might do an open records request on the basis that Harmony suffered, at a minimum, abuse considered tantamount to a fatality or near fatality.
The deeper question, however, is this: shouldn’t the public have the right to understand how and why the state placed Harmony with a father who had a violent criminal record and whether the state properly followed up on reports regarding that child’s safety?
Thoughts?
A couple of news bits I missed earlier this week.
Virginia has a new Secretary of Health and Human Resources. John Littel comes to the position from Magellan Health.
Illinois DCFS Director Marc Smith has been held in contempt by a Cook County juvenile court judge in three cases involving children placed inappropriately. The problem is that children with severe mental health issues should be placed in therapeutic foster care whenever possible, but there are not enough therapeutic homes and, in Illinois at least, Medicaid won’t pay for therapeutic foster care. As a result, children end up in psychiatric hospitals, placed out of state, or in hotels. Texas has the same struggle. So does Colorado. Bottom line, in my opinion: therapeutic foster care is a proven mental health treatment and needs to be universally funded by Medicaid. That would help keep families together, as too many parents whose children have severe mental illness end up abandoning them to the system when they can’t get the help they need. Who wants to help me convince Congress of that?
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