Eain Brooks, 5, died after police said his mother’s boyfriend beat him to death. Facebook
Eain Brooks loved Halloween and Christmas. He loved playing with his best friend. He loved dinosaurs and eating at McDonald’s. He was a normal 5-year-old boy – and one who should have gotten the chance to grow up.
Instead, Eain Brooks died in September after police said his mother’s boyfriend beat him to death in Buffalo.
Eain’s death, as well as the murder of 10-year-old Abdifatah Mohamud, who was killed in 2012 when police said his step-father struck him more than 70 times on the head with a baker’s rolling pin in Buffalo, prompted a hearing led by Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) on the effectiveness of state policies that are supposed to protect children like Eain and Abdifatah.
Child Protective Services, or CPS, had been involved with Eain and Abdifatah before their deaths.
The hearing, held last week in Albany, was an attempt to assess the effectiveness of CPS policies and the Office of Child and Family Service oversight practices, Hevesi said.
“This was a particularly emotional hearing,” said Hevesi, who is chairman of the Assembly’s Oversight, Analysis and Investigations Committee. “It is my hope that as we move forward, all of the stakeholders involved at OCFS, and within Child Protective Services systems across the state, will be able to identify and achieve reforms within the organization where possible. Children in the protective service system, being some of the most vulnerable members of our state, deserve the utmost attention to ensure their wellbeing.”
Hevesi co-hosted the five-hour public hearing with Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo (D-Binghamton), who serves as chairwoman of the Children and Families Committee in the Assembly. The hearing aimed to ascertain the role current administrative and statutory policies play in ensuring proper care of participants in the Children Protective Services, both in Erie County – where there deaths of Eain and Abdifatah occurred – as well as throughout New York state.
Hevesi and Lupardo received testimony on CPS’s procedural practices to examine how complaints are handled, and hearing participants included agency leaders, caseworkers, advocates, and residents who have had experience with the CPS system.
Legislators and participants reviewed challenges faced within the OCFS and CPS, as well as discussed potential regulatory reforms and whether changes in state law are necessary to improve CPS case management throughout the state. Hevesi stressed that the hearing provided valuable insight into potential fixes to a system plagued by problems, which may be addressed in the coming legislative session.
During the hearing, Laura Velez, deputy commissioner of child welfare and community services for the OCFS, reported that an internal investigation of her office found that county caseworkers have closed cases in less than half the time – 60 days – permitted by state law to finish an investigation. Another internal assessment discovered that insufficient documentation of whether proper safety assessments had been conducted in upstate cases plagued the office.
Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi, second from left, co-chaired a hearing to review the effectiveness of Child Protective Services policies and the Office of Child and Family oversight practices. Photo Courtesy NYS Assembly
By Anna Gustafson
