Numbers rise for drug-endangered kids in Iowa

In 2012, there were 54 confirmed or founded cases of children in Linn County who tested positive for the presence of illegal drugs in their system.

That same year, there were eight confirmed or founded cases of children - categorized as those under the age of 18 - who had been exposed to the manufacturing of meth in Linn County.

Those numbers might not seem high, but there also were 702 confirmed or founded cases of denial of critical care for children in 2012.

Confirmed means the incident turned out to be minor, isolated and not likely to occur again. Founded, however, means the incident was not minor or was not isolated, or was likely to happen again.

'A majority of those are somehow substance-abuse related,” said Jennifer Sleiter, a pediatric nurse practitioner in the Regional Child Protection Center at Des Moines's Blank Childrens Hospital.

Children at risk of suffering physical harm or neglect due to the possession, use, manufacture, cultivation or distribution of illegal drugs in their presence, or children under the care of whose drug abuse affects their ability to parent the child, are known as drug-endangered children.

While the statistics are not kept specifically on drug-endangered children, the statistics for confirmed or founded cases of children with drugs in their system or those exposed to meth manufacturing would seem to indicate it's a growing problem in Iowa.

In 2012, there were 1,002 confirmed or founded cases in Iowa of children with drugs in their system - up from 633 in 2008. Over that same period, confirmed or founded cases of children exposed to meth manufacturing rose from 110 to 179.

Different approaches

Drug endangered children typically are found by law enforcement officers working criminal cases. Years ago, it wasn't uncommon for police to place these children with a neighbor or a relative, not knowing if that home was actually a safe environment, Sleiter said.

Moreover, Dale Woolery - associate director of the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy - said there were no standard protocols for what to do with those children or how to coordinate the response of other interested entities, including the Department of Human Resources, prosecutors and health care professionals.

'Not everybody was necessarily dealing with kids in the same way,” Woolery said.

That began to change in the mid-2000s. Using federal funding, the Iowa Drug-Endanger Children initiative launched in 2004 and the Iowa Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (DEC) was formed in 2005.

Established by the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy, the DEC alliance brought together the Department of Public Safety, Department of Human Services (DHS) and health care professionals, as well as both public and private public safety and public health entities to create a standardized response to DEC issues in the state.

The alliance provides guidance on issues relating to drug-endangered children, training and technical assistance to those who work with the children and help in forming local DEC teams.

'We've been kind of a coordinating entity,” Woolery said. 'We make sure those who are involved in the DEC movement are connected.”

When the Iowa Alliance for Drug Endangered Children was formed, the focus was primarily on meth labs, out of concerns for children who were exposed to fumes and the potentially explosive operations, said Sleiter, a member of the alliance's steering committee. It wasn't long before the alliance realized it needed to broaden its scope, she said.

'As we started paying a little more attention, we realized that wasn't the only problem,” Sleiter said. 'We know there can be a lot of neglect of the kids.”

The dangers faced by children in households where drug use, manufacturing or distribution takes place goes beyond just exposure, Sleiter said. Parents who are under the influence can be physically aggressive or neglectful of household responsibilities.

Weapons or undesirable people also might be present in the home.

Sleiter said medical professionals are finding that children in these homes are often developmentally delayed and not getting to school.

'There are just a lot of risk factors,” she said. 'We realized there was a lot more going on than we originally thought.”

Reuniting families

Under standard DEC practices, when a drug-endangered child is discovered, law enforcement will notify DHS or vice versa. In addition to making sure the child is placed in a safe environment, all the children undergo medical evaluations, Sleiter said.

When necessary, they will get prescriptions filled or immunizations updated.

Amy McCoy, spokeswoman for the Iowa DHS, said while the courts can decide to remove a child from a home, the goal of DHS is to keep families together whenever possible.

'For our purposes, what we really try to do is maintain or reunite children with their families,” McCoy said. 'We're going to offer a number of services and supports. We're going to work with families as much as we can, as long as kids can be safe in that situation.”

Woolery said the DEC approach isn't perfect. For example, while the goal of law enforcement and prosecutors is to put drug users or dealers behind bars, while the goal of DHS is to keep families united. That sometimes can lead to conflicting goals among the agencies, such as to how handle custody issues.

'I'm sure they have those issues periodically,” he said. 'They've overcome them. We're not going to agree on that, but there's so much more we can agree on, especially when it comes to the safety of children.”

And while the DEC approach has been accepted throughout the state, not every county has its own local DEC team - according to a 2011 survey, 12 counties in Iowa have DEC alliances. Roughly a third of Iowa's 99 counties are performing DEC functions.

The rest, including Linn County, are simply listed as 'unknown.”

Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said the county used to have a DEC alliance, under former Sheriff Don Zeller, that was formed with the Child Protection Center at UnityPoint Hospital. Gardner said the task force was disbanded, but DEC protocols still exist in the county.

When law enforcement encounters a drug endangered children, DHS is contacted immediately.

'They can determine what they want done once the child is decontaminated,” Gardner said.

Drug-endangered children primarily are encountered by investigations conducted by the Johnson County Multi-Agency Drug Task Force. But Iowa City Police Capt. Doug Hart said the entire police department subscribes to the same DEC protocols.

'Basically, it gives a definition of what it is and what we do,” Hart said. 'It reminds the investigator on the task force that they are mandatory child-abuse reporters ...

. That's the procedure for the Iowa City Police Department, also.”

Hart said the department sends its drug task force investigator to the Iowa Alliance for Drug Endangered Children's training each year.

The goal of the alliance is to make the standard, community approach to protecting drug endangered children part of the mindset of all entities who work with these children, Woolery said. It's a goal that's difficult to quantify, he added, but he believes progress is being made.

'We think there has been an increase in awareness and the standardization in the adoption of protocols,” he said. 'Children who might be in a potentially dangerous drug environment today are much more likely to be identified and safety removed and referred for an assessment ...

. I'm confident in that. I'm also confident we have work to do.”

'Because of the differing professions and objectives ...

disagreements do break out,” he added. 'They have a lot that they agree on. The common goal for everyone is child safety.

'I think we're doing a better job of that in Iowa because of all these compassionate professionals who are now communicating much better. We just have to keep working at that.”

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