Officials: Appeals Process Leads to Backlog at DCF

The child welfare agency says there are currently 2,614 pending fair hearings, down from 3,429 in 2010

Officials say the appeals process at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families for those found to have committed child abuse or neglect has led to a backlog of cases.

A May 1 preliminary report by an outside consultant also found that people bringing appeals are not receiving their agency files before hearings.

The child welfare agency says there are currently 2,614 pending fair hearings, down from 3,429 in 2010. The agency says there were 1,916 fair hearing requests out of 24,517 substantiated cases of abuse or neglect in 2014.

The report says the backlog problem has improved since 2010.

Agency officials either could not be reached for comment or declined to discuss the findings until the final report is released.

The report was prepared by the Boston-based Ripples Group.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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