Officials Outline 'Comprehensive' CPS Changes After Thomas Valva Death

Crime & Safety

Officials Outline 'Comprehensive' CPS Changes After Thomas Valva Death "We must ensure that we never again have a tragedy like the one that befell Thomas Valva and his brother."

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Suffolk officials gathered Thursday to outline "comprehensive changes" they said have been made to the county's Child Protective Services system after Thomas Valva's death.

In 2020, Thomas, 8, froze to death in his ex-NYPD father's Center Moriches garage after years of abuse, during which he was sent to school starving and soaked in urine — despite repeated cries for help from his mother, teachers, and others for years.

On Thursday, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, District Attorney Ray Tierney, Legislator Trish Bergin and Department of Social Services officials announced the changes.

Under Romaine's direction, the Suffolk County Department of Social Services made significant strides to improve services, enhance inter-agency cooperation, focus on the county's vulnerable population, and instituted a policy of open communication amongst all stakeholders involved in social services, officials said.

The New York State's Office of Children and Family Services recently published its 2024 Program Quality Improvement Review for Suffolk County in the areas of Child Protective Services, Preventative/Protective Services and Foster Care, officials said.

The report, officials said, indicated that Suffolk County Family and Children Services demonstrated a "substantial improvement in all areas, with many categories reaching the 100 percent compliance rate. The review of Suffolk's Family and Children's Services Administrator is a key indicator that Suffolk's efforts to improve case practice has been impactful and has further renewed the county's commitment to provide Suffolk DSS with the immediate tools needed to best serve Suffolk County's families."

Officials outlined steps taken, including changing the process of removing a child from a family through blind removals. Suffolk County, officials said, implemented the Blind Removal policy on all CPS removals of children from their families.

Blind removal meetings were created to facilitate an unbiased decision-making process in which a caseworker does not disclose any personal and demographic information about a child/family when information about the case is being presented to directors, assistant directors, and others before a removal of a child from their family is initiated. The goal, they said, is to reduce bias in the decision-making process.

In the area of reducing victim trauma, co-location of CPS abuse teams to the Child Advocacy Center has been planned. In December, officials said, CPS will relocate caseworkers assigned to the CPS Teams investigating allegations of child abuse to the Child Advocacy Center in Central Islip. CPS caseworkers will be able to work in tandem with law enforcement and attorneys from the District Attorney and County Attorney's office while investigating a case involving child abuse, officials said.

Another area of improvement, officials said, includes interagency collaboration through joint trainings. Since March 2024, DSS has organized numerous interagency training courses on a range of crucial topics, including child protection, trauma-informed care, forensic interviewing, and the multidisciplinary team approach to child abuse investigations, officials said.

These training courses have been attended by DSS Child Protective Services employees, the Suffolk County Police Department, and attorneys from both the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and County Attorney's Office.

Also, in 2024, the County Attorney's Office Family Court/DSS Bureau, in collaboration with the DSS' Family and Children Services Administration, worked to enhance the attorney-client relationship by implementing a training program among professionals so that both sides could learn from each other as they handle sensitive abuse and neglect matters as a comprehensive and collaborative team.

Next, in September 2024, the county's Adult Protective Services division was returned under the umbrella of the Family and Children's Services Administration of DSS so that APS could shift their focus as a casework and a needs assessment-based program offering not only entitlement to benefits — but also support services. As a result, APS and CPS will work in greater collaboration regarding cases so that developmentally disabled youths nearing the age of majority will be provided appropriate and ongoing adult services.

In 2024, more than 170 DSS employees attended courses hosted by Daemen College, "which is considered one of the top health sciences educators in New York, where caseworkers received heightened training in relation to working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities," officials said.

Employees were further educated about the characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of disabilities such as autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, Fragile X, Down Syndrome, Prader Willi, traumatic brain injuries, fetal alcohol syndrome and language and learning disorders. Training also focused on understanding challenging behavior in children and youth, officials said.

Also, DSS, in collaboration with New York State Children's Alliance, the Suffolk County Executive, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and Suffolk's EAC/Child Advocacy Center, will provide specialized training for Suffolk County's frontline workers on how to serve, protect, and advocate for vulnerable populations including children and adults with disabilities, mental health disorders, and older adults through trainings, expert consultation, peer review and behavioral analysis. This training focuses on the skills necessary to interview, prosecute, investigate and protect these vulnerable populations.

In addition, the Department of Social Services will increase training for its supervisory staff to develop a child-welfare family centered clinical model of supervision within the family and children's services division. This newly developed model focuses on providing middle management with advanced training on the actions, responses and decision-making of each caseworker in ensuring a child's safety and providing the necessary services for the children and their families, officials said.The model includes increased support for caseworkers in decision-making, handling crisis and to build worker competence.

DSS, in collaboration with Suffolk County Fire and Rescue Emergency Services, has contracted with Motorola Solutions to provide more than 600 DSS employees with the RAVE/Guardian Panic Button mobile app. With the push of a button, the app instantly communicates any type of emergency to 911, while simultaneously connecting to Suffolk Fire and Rescue and DSS Leadership personnel, officials said.

Finally, child welfare system employees can experience burnout and compassion fatigue due to the high-stress and traumatic situations they encounter, officials said. To safeguard the overall wellness of its workers, DSS is providing additional support services of its employees so they can manage the high stress and emotional trauma they may encounter as a result of their work helping children and families.

In addition to implementing key policy changes, County Executive Romaine announced an upcoming conference, "Creating Transformational Change for Families Involved with the Child Protective System."

The event will feature keynote speaker Katie Beers and host more than 350 people, serving as the largest gathering in the county's history on CPS to further improve outcomes for children and families. Katie was raised in the CPS system and became nationally famous after being kidnapped in 1992. She will be joined by Carolyn Gusoff, author of Buried Memories, which tells Katie's story.

The conference is scheduled for November 8, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Van Nostrand Theatre at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood.

"We took significant and swift action to reform the Suffolk County Department of Social Services to ensure that our children who are in Child Protective Services are truly protected," said Romaine. "In addition to allocating funds to fill vacant positions, provide more efficient services, reform processes and ensure better training, we will continue to work with all levels of government to ensure proper procedures and oversight is in place so that another child does not suffer the same trauma and hardship that Thomas Valva did."

"We must ensure that we never again have a tragedy like the one that befell Thomas Valva and his brother," said Tierney. "I am proud of the work of the task force, with the new administration of County Executive Romaine and our legislature, to make sure that the recommendations of the Grand Jury Report are enacted rather than forgotten."

"It was important that the grand jury report not sit on the shelf and the true changes be made. We put together a committee to drill down on that report and make the necessary changes to make sure a Thomas Valva case would never happen again," said Bergin.