Child services

At least 11 children died of abuse while in the protective custody of the Clark County Department of Child and Family Services between 2001 and 2004. We say "at least" because, beyond that finding, a state Department of Health and Human Services analysis found an additional 79 deaths of children during the 2001-04 period should have been investigated by Clark County Family Services, but were not.

Officials at local child protective agencies, based on the advice of their attorneys, have refused to release much information about the children and exactly how their cases were handled. The state attorney general's office actually issued an opinion in 2006 that the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act forbade the release of some of this information.

Those interested in preventing future child deaths are being prevented from finding out what went wrong in order to protect the children's privacy? But they're dead!

The only things really being "protected" here are the backsides of the bureaucrats who screwed up.

"When things go wrong, government's first instinct is to not provide the information because they are going to look bad," says Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas. "If children are dying in our care, and we are not taking steps to prevent it from happening again, we are as guilty as the person who did it in the first place."

So Speaker Buckley has introduced Assembly Bill 261. The bill requires a child welfare agency to give reports or investigations regarding a child who died of abuse or neglect under its protection to any person who requests them within 48 hours of such a request. In the case of a near-fatality, the documents would have to be produced within five business days of the request. The identity of the child would still not be made public.

It's a good idea, and it was approved by the Assembly on April 18 by a vote of 41-0.

AB261 now needs only Senate approval before it goes to Gov. Jim Gibbons for his signature. The Senate should speed it on its way.