Silence about infant’s death necessitates an independent investigation
/House GOP urges Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney to examine possible cover-up
Press release from Oregon House Republican Office
SALEM, Oregon – The safety of Oregon’s children is in peril. The inability of the Department of Human Services’ Child Welfare Program to protect our children is once again underscored by the tragic death of an infant in a day care center.
Promises of improved oversight in our child care and foster care systems have once more fallen short.
House Republicans demand to know why the child’s death went unreported, and why an agency answerable to Governor Brown hid the incident from the public eye. We are requesting that the Oregon Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon open formal investigations into the death of this child. This is at best negligence, and at worst a political cover up and cries out for an independent investigation.
Republicans are concerned by the disturbing pattern of failures and questionable practices within DHS and the implications for the families and children of our state. Contrary to federal rules to report such a death in a timely fashion it went unreported and kept from the public until disclosed by the media.
“Thousands of young parents entrust the care of their children to day care providers, expecting their infants, toddlers and preschoolers to be in good hands at state-regulated centers,” said House Republican Leader Rep. Carl Wilson (R-Grants Pass). “Withholding this kind of information is completely unacceptable. At the Governor’s first inauguration she touted the need for transparency. Yet at a time when we needed transparency, there was none. It makes me wonder how the Governor defines transparency.”