Children's Rights group skeptical of improved Oklahoma child welfare statistics

BY RANDY ELLIS rellis@opubco.com
Published: January 11, 2011

Attorneys assisting a national children's rights organization say they are investigating whether officials with the state Department of Human Services are endangering Oklahoma children by cutting back on child abuse investigations to make the state's child welfare statistics look better.

“We're concerned that instead of fixing the underlying problems in the system, DHS may be manipulating numbers and dangerously restricting the number of children coming into state custody,” said Tulsa attorney Paul DeMuro. DeMuro is one of the Oklahoma lawyers who have joined New York-based Children's Rights in suing DHS officials in a class-action federal court lawsuit over the treatment of children in state custody.

DHS spokeswoman Sheree Powell denied the accusations that statistics are being manipulated. FULL STORY

What happened to the usual spin "I cannot discuss that due to confidentiality"?