Caseworkers will be equipped with checklists for assessing the conditions of disabled children like Marchella Brett-Pierce.
Friday, Apr 1, 2011 | Updated 1:29 PM EDT
NBC NewYork
The city's child welfare agency announced Thursday that it is making changes to improve how it handles families with complex medical issues after the death of a 4-year-old girl with severe breathing problems who was under its care.
The changes by the Administration for Children's Services include strengthening how the agency hires, monitors and fires outside companies that are contracted to help families handle problems and prevent abuse.
Part of the reason Marchella Brett-Pierce slipped through the cracks was a communication lapse between the ACS and the provider giving drug counseling to the girl's mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, the agency said. The girl, who had been born prematurely and with lung problems, had a breathing tube installed. No one at the drug counseling agency made special notice of Marchella's medical problems and whether her mother was capable of handling them.
Despite Brett-Pierce's poor performance in drug counseling, the contracted agency recommended closing the case, and the ACS did not investigate further in the months before the girl was found beaten, starved and drugged.
The agency changes were outlined in a report issued Thursday by a panel consisting of child welfare experts, ACS Commissioner John Mattingly and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. The panel was formed in the wake of Marchella's Sept. 2 death.
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