JEFFREY PYLE: Why was media forced to pay DCF to do its job?

http://www.enterprisenews.com/article/20150925/NEWS/150926894/0/breaking_ajax



JEFFREY PYLE: Why was media forced to pay DCF to do its job?
By JEFFREY J. PYLE
Posted Sep. 25, 2015 at 3:13 PM
Updated Sep 25, 2015 at 3:31 PM

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Sponsors have been working to address objections of some cities and towns that new limitations on what the public can be charged for records would amount to an “unfunded mandate.” As that debate continues, an investigative report by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting and The Boston Globe on September 19, “Out of the Shadows,” highlights just how outrageous – and even dangerous – the public records fee charges under current law can be.

In December 2013, investigative reporter Jenifer McKim submitted a request to the Department of Children and Families for documents about child deaths linked to abuse or neglect during the years 2011, 2012 and 2013. The records shouldn’t have been hard to compile. The federal Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act (“CAPTA”) requires that each state receiving federal child protection funding must disclose information about any cases “of child abuse or neglect which [have] resulted in a child fatality or near fatality.” Massachusetts receives about $500,000 in CAPTA funds every year.

Nonetheless, DCF told McKim that it would take many hours to compile the information, and that the agency would charge her for the time. McKim therefore narrowed her request to just one year, 2013, in the hopes of speeding up the process. Despite that narrowing DCF estimated the cost at a whopping $2,023.

McKim appealed this fee estimate to Supervisor of Records Shawn Williams at the Secretary of State’s Office. She noted that she was only seeking federally-required information, and argued that if DCF’s files “are not kept in a manner that would allow the ready retrieval of such critically important information as which children have died of neglect on DCF’s watch, a requesting entity like NECIR should not be required to foot the bill.”

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If the Gov. could spend a few precious moments NOT pimping Charter Schools perhaps he could spend some time on the DCF problem.