State licensing agency investigating Luzerne County Children and Youth

Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services is “deeply concerned” about criminal charges and allegations against former Luzerne County Children and Youth director Joanne Van Saun, the agency said in response to a newspaper inquiry.

“DHS, which licenses county agencies that administer child welfare services, has begun an investigation to understand the scope of these alleged failings,” it said. “If the investigation determines that enforcement action is necessary to protect children in Luzerne County and correct any deficiencies within the county’s child welfare system, DHS will take any and all appropriate steps to do so.”

Van Saun has been charged with endangering the welfare of children and two counts of obstruction in child abuse cases for allegedly directing employees in May 2017 to terminate at least 217 reports of child abuse and neglect received from the state ChildLine system without investigating them.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro alleges Van Saun directed her employees to use a deletion option called a “screen out” instead of taking the proper time to evaluate or investigate each referral.

DHS operates the 24/7 ChildLine for anyone concerned about the welfare of a child and to report suspected child abuse.

ChildLine caseworkers process these reports and refer them to appropriate agencies for investigation, which can include county Children and Youth agencies or regional DHS offices, the state agency said.

“Every allegation of child abuse reported to ChildLine is investigated,” the state said.

Further explanation — and more acronyms — are needed to understand the two types of cases referred to Children and Youth.

Cases categorized as “child protective services,” or CPS, cannot be screened out by a county Children and Youth agency, the state said.

CPS cases involve more serious child abuse cases, such as physical or sexual assaults. These cases meet the definition of child abuse under the Child Protective Services Law, the state said.

The second type of referrals — “general protective services, or GPS — cover alleged general neglect and abuse, parenting and housing issues and health and welfare of children. GPS reports indicate that the child or family may require follow-up or additional supportive services, but the case does not meet the threshold of abuse defined in the law, the state said.

Only GPS reports can be screened out at the county level prior to any investigative work, the state said.

The criminal complaint described some of the referrals allegedly deleted by Van Saun without investigating, all dating back to 2016. They included allegations of a child appearing at school in dirty clothes with lice asking for food, a oven-heated home containing dog feces, a mother abusing pain medications and nodding off while driving children, a child complaining of pain and exhibiting bruises blamed on the mother’s abusive partner, a child with flea bites and a busted lip caused by an adult, a filthy home without power for at least two weeks and a 100-pound child still using a diaper with parents using drugs around the child.

As part of its annual inspection process, DHS examines samples of both CPS and GPS reports to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and discover any deficiencies so that corrective action can be taken if necessary, it said.

“The allegations announced by the Attorney General indicate a relatively narrow timeframe when GPS reports were allegedly screened out, which could explain why this alleged action was not discovered during an inspection,” the state said.

In addition to annual reviews, the state also conducts inspections in response to complaints, it said.

Bad inspections

Van Saun faced pressure to turn around negative state inspections and improve the image of the county agency when she took over as executive director in March 2016.

A lot had been at stake. The agency was on its third downgraded provisional license since 2015, and state law allows up to four consecutive provisional certificates before the state assumes management of an agency. The county even retained an outside consultant to help the county regain a full license.

A month before Van Saun allegedly ordered the 217 reports to be closed out without investigation, she was relishing a major professional win — restoration of full licensing status.

“We are celebrating. It’s very exciting. I’m re-energized. It’s just incredible,” Van Saun said in the April 2017 press conference called for the occasion.

DHS said at the time the license was restored because “significant progress” had been made implementing a corrective plan that had been approved by the state.

In May 2018, a year after the alleged deletion of 217 reports, Van Saun expressed frustration over the volume of referrals coming into her agency, citing a figure of more than 1,000 per month.

Van Saun said she was working with a consultant to help update protocol on screening them and asserted data revealed only a small number of the many referrals were substantiated.

“We need to better screen so our workers are not being bogged down by cases that don’t involve us,” Van Saun said at the time. “We want to spend more of our energy doing preventative work with families that really need us.”

DHS said it issued a lengthy bulletin to counties last October to “build consistency among counties in GPS screen-outs and clarify the department’s expectations of counties’ regulatory responsibilities on GPS screen-outs.”

Acting administrator

County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo announced Friday that county Human Services Program Director John Alunni has been named acting administrator of county Children and Youth.

DHS advised the county an acting administrator is required under state regulations, Crocamo said.

Alunni has served as human services program director since 2018. He will be oversee Children and Youth until the administration has an opportunity to conduct a search, interview qualified candidates, and hire the next director, she said.

Deanna German will continue as deputy director, Crocamo said.

”In light of any ongoing investigation, we believed it was in both the department’s and our county’s best interest to appoint Mr. Alunni to this temporary position,” she said.