10) Social Services Trouble

UPDATE August 2016:
Over the past year, I have been in contact with Social Services a few different times. These calls have been much more helpful and are always promptly returned. The people I have spoken with have been tremendously helpful regarding my questions and are willing to listen to suggestions that I have. They have also given me numerous resources and contacts to help to get Weston's story to the people that it matters to most. I have been given more information about Social Workers obligations - for one, they are supposed to ask about where the children are sleeping. I have added getting some policies changed to my never-ending Weston list as I think just asking isn't quite enough. 

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After the incident with Weston, Kelly's social worker was immediately contacted and visited her house. I would be in contact with her later on, but I met her when she came to the hospital with Kelly.

It took almost three months for the “complaint” report to show up on Social Service’s Childcare Portal. I know because I neurotically checked EVERY SINGLE DAY. I felt guilty that it wasn’t there yet; like I should be telling parents what happened so at least they knew, so at least they weren’t in the dark like we were. I didn’t know what they had been told, because nobody from social services ever called me. So I started calling them.

I started with the supervisor. She was nice; I asked what action was being taken with the daycare at the time (since Taylee was still going there, because I was still in the dark), and I wanted to be sure that things were being taken care of. She tells me that she will speak with the social worker to find out what was going on and get back to me in a couple days. Two weeks later… no call, and by this time, I have learned the whole story. So I call her again and  she is so sorry that she hadn’t called me back. Part of me can't believe that people just didn't get in contact with us - there was a death because of Kelly's actions, and I understand that city departments are very busy, but what is happening that is more important? I'll never understand. According to the supervisor, there was a plan: the social worker was checking in weekly, had spoken with Kelly extensively about safe sleeping arrangements, and had instructed her that she had to take three additional classes this year if she wanted to watch infants again. In regards to the complaint report, it just needed to be signed off, and it would be up on the site. As I sat there listening to her, I was again in total shock that THIS IS IT - her consequences are having to take three classes.  

Two months in… no report… I called and said that I was a parent looking for daycare. I wanted to know how often the portal was updated; apparently “weekly”. I asked if complaints were updated within that week; apparently “they can take a little longer because they are investigated.” I asked if they would show up within a month; apparently “for sure it wouldn’t take that long” - apparently it did… By this time, I was beyond frustrated. 

Two and half months in… I called the supervisor’s supervisor. I was going to talk to every manager in the department if I had to. Thank goodness, she was very helpful. She explained that the secretary that I had talked to had obviously misspoken… obviously… and that social services needed to wait until they were cleared by Reno Police Department to post the complaint online. They have to be careful not to interfere with the criminal side of things. Makes sense… why didn't the first lady tell me that? The report was then posted a few days later, and the social worker called me to let me know that the other families had been notified of what happened before they brought their kids back to Kelly, and she read over the report with me. She was very sweet, and I know that she felt badly about the way things had been handled and what had happened.

Throughout this whole situation, I learned that persistence is your best friend. Nothing ever gets done on the first try, and in order to get answers, it has to be a priority for you, because rarely, it seems, is it a priority for them.

Lesson #7