Over the past decade, more than 700 reviews of child deaths in New York were kept hidden by a state agency, decisions denying the public answers about whether Child Protective Services (CPS) workers failed those children.
The most recent suppression stems from an unusually high-profile case: The January death of Thomas Valva, the autistic 8-year-old who had allegedly been beaten by his father, then forced to sleep in a freezing garage in Suffolk County, Long Island, where he froze to death.
By law, after the death of a child in the CPS system, the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) must create a report examining whether CPS workers followed required protocols in investigating allegations of abuse that had been reported prior to the fatality. But OCFS has discretion about whether to release the resulting report, and often employs an exemption that blocks disclosure — a step the agency has taken in the Valva case.
“I’m just flabbergasted that they would take a position like that,” said attorney Jon Norinsberg, who is representing Thomas Valva’s mother in a negligence case against Suffolk County.
