INDIANAPOLIS— The state may soon have to reveal more information about child abuse and neglect deaths.
House Bill 1152 would require the Indiana Department of Child Services to provide a public summary report within 90 days of completing the report for cases involving a child fatality or near fatality.
DCS currently releases an annual report, but critics say there’s a year lag time in releasing that report.
In the report just released for calendar year 2023, the Indiana Department of Child Services investigated 261 child deaths.
56 (21 percent) of those deaths were determined to be a direct result of caregiver maltreatment, according to the 2023 Child Abuse and Neglect Fatality Report.
20 deaths were due to abuse, and 36 fatalities were due to neglect, according to the report.
“It is important for families, policymakers, and our communities to understand the facts of these difficult cases,” Rep. Ryan Lauer, R-Columbus, testified on Wednesday at the House Family, Children and Human Affairs Committee meeting.
Lauer’s legislation would also require DCS to add more information to public reports about the perpetrators as well as any history of abuse and neglect.
Braelynn Yerington, a Zionsville foster mom who adopted children out of the state’s child welfare system, testified in support of the legislation.
"The deaths or near deaths of Indiana children cannot be in vain,” said Yerington. “We owe them a full and robust review. We should learn and improve every single time these tragedies occur and that starts with complete reporting and transparency because we can’t improve if we don’t have all the information."
Yerington said her adopted daughter, now 14, talks about how she could have died while in the child welfare system.
“What I have learned is if that had actually happened, neither this body nor the public would have known there were dozens of calls to the hotline by people concerned about her that were screened out and she was left in that home to suffer horrible abuse,” testified Yerington.
Yerington also pointed to the death of Alice Bredhold, 12, of Evansville who prosecutors say died of uncontrolled diabetes caused by parental neglect.
“According to police, there were numerous hotline calls from various people about Alice’s medical needs being neglected including two the year that she died from the school nurse who called her condition life-threatening,” testified Yerington. “Under the current reporting, we won’t be able to see any of the screened out hotline calls for Alice. We will also not see the reporting on this case at all for quite a while due to the reporting lag that we currently have in Indiana.”
Yerington founded Champions for Children, a grassroots organization aimed at educating people about child welfare.
A law, SEA 551, took effect in 2019 that says DCS can’t disclose assessment records while a police investigation or criminal prosecution is still ongoing, a process that can often take years.
Also, DCS’s annual report does not contain details about near fatalities.
“Indiana should also require all abuse and neglect near fatalities to be reported with the same detail as fatalities,” testified Yerington. “I receive a disturbing number of calls from folks across the state reporting these near fatalities to me. Most of them never see the light of day unless the press gets a tip and reports it.”
Child advocates have been working for at least three years to get this type of legislation passed.
PREVIOUS | Bill would require Indiana to disclose more info about abuse and neglect deaths
No one testified in opposition to the legislation.
The House Family, Children and Human Affairs Committee will vote next week on the bill.
