Just a month ago, members of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee were wrestling with the question of whether to hold field hearings on the Maine Department of Human Services’ child-protective system. In the end, the committee decided that enhancing the public’s opportunity to participate in the reform of this necessary but troubled system trumped concerns that the hearings might degrade into unproductive gripe sessions and two sessions were scheduled – the first last week in Ellsworth, the next Oct. 9 in Portland.

The Ellsworth experience shows the committee made the correct decision. As expected, testimony was highly emotional as people described their experiences with DHS. The testimony was overwhelmingly negative, although some rightly observed that protecting children from abuse and neglect is one of government’s more necessary tasks and certainly one of its most difficult.

The committee’s goal in this was not to solve individual cases of dispute between DHS and a child’s biological family, but

to hear testimony that might reveal patterns and trends. With one field hearing down and one to go, that goal already has been achieved.

The pattern that emerged, the trend that must be reversed, is that parents dealing with DHS increasingly feel powerless. Common themes of the testimony were that DHS acts too quickly to remove children from their homes, that baseless accusations instigate too many removals, that appeals to DHS decisions are fruitless and can even result in reprisals, and that the department often uses privacy laws to protect itself instead of children.

Whether these accusations are true, and to what extent, is far beyond the scope of the committee. What is within that scope, however, is that these accusations have been made for years and that there has been no significant and sustained effort to address them.

People, even people who have made mistakes as parents, must not feel powerless when dealing with any agency, state or federal. Fear of retribution and secrecy for secrecy’s sake are utterly alien to democracy. The 13 members of this committee are performing a valuable public service by holding these hearings – they are, in fact, working diligently on this issue throughout the fall while their legislative colleagues are enjoying the off season. There is perhaps no higher public service they will ever perform than to conclude this inquiry with recommendations that reform and revise whatever DHS policies give rise to these perceptions.

In addition to restoring the public’s faith in this vital government function, the committee also must develop recommendations that address specific shortcomings. At an earlier hearing held in Augusta, for example, children in foster care testified that their only contacts with their overburdened caseworkers are telephone calls every few months. The disparity in family reunification rates – only 18 percent in the impoverished DHS region that consists of Washington, Hancock and part of Aroostook counties to nearly double that in more affluent southern regions – betrays a disparity of access to counseling and treatment services.

This inquiry and a parallel investigation under way by a panel formed by Judiciary were sparked by the suffocation death last winter of a 5-year-old girl at the hands of her foster mother, a tragic incident that unleashed years of pent-up anger toward the child-protective system. The series of hearings in Augusta and in the field began amid an atmosphere of suspicion and accusation. The outcome will be for the full Legislature to decide when it convenes in January, but the willingness of the Health and Human Services Committee to hear the public –

and the willingness of the public to express itself forcefully yet peaceably – offer encouraging signs for improvement.