The state Division of Youth and Family Services has fallen short of goals it made after a highly critical outside audit in 1998. The deaths included drownings, murder and fatal beatings. Time needs to be reduced so either a child can be returned to a parent, or placed for adoption.
Black children remain months longer in foster care than white children of the same age.
And black toddlers and infants are nearly twice as likely to be placed in crowded group homes than white children, according to federal data. He was housed in five foster homes and group homes from 1993 until April of this year, when he was reunited with his mother. Gov. Whitman appointed the Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Protective Services in 1997, which issued a critical report a year after reviewing DYFS' operations. Former panel chairman Anthony V. D'Urso said last week DYFS has improved its top-level management, but improvements have yet to affect children and families. It's too soon to tell if the reform effort is working, he said.