For several years, Roe says, he had been hearing complaints about the Lucas County Children Services. Too often, abused youngsters were returned to homes where they were battered, molested or neglected again. Some children were placed with relatives, friends and previously absent fathers, although some of these people were drug users, sex offenders and child abusers. Children Services often waited months, sometimes years, before removing children from such homes.

To do the story properly, Roe needed records, documents that proved—or disproved—the rumors. But children's records are confidential.

Roe was helped by two of the traditional aids of the reporter: a source and Roe's knowledge of the system. The source had in a downtown basement copies of complete files of Children Services' records. But the records were voluminous, and it would take months to pour through them for a representative group.

Roe decided to use only cases of children currently in foster care, most of whom had been in the system many years. But the names of foster children are confidential.

"Then I discovered a useful bit of information," Roe says. "Foster parents receive monthly checks for caring for abused children." He knew that the county auditor issued the checks, which are public. By obtaining names from the list of the issued checks, he was able to find what he needed in the files in the basement.

The Files

Roe said he found a "wealth of information that included police reports, social histories, psychiatrists' reports and school records." Some of the files were a foot thick, and they were all up-to-date.

"At first, I wasn't sure what I would find," Roe said. "But after reading through the first few cases I knew I was on to something.

"One of the first cases involved a mother who had abused and neglected her children for years. Twice officials took them away, and twice they were returned to her.

"They even gave the kids back after her infant son died of pneumonia on a night she left him home alone so she could go cruising with friends. Officials never arrested her, though they could have several times."

As he read through the cases, patterns became apparent:

• Abused children were returned home, where they were again battered, molested and/or neglected.
• Cocaine babies received little or no care.
• Bad parents were sent to counseling classes, not jail.

These groupings became the basis of the organization of Roe's story. "If the file indicated the child was a cocaine baby, I put a circled C on the page. If officials had to remove the child more than once, I wrote down '2X' or '3X.'"

The Writing

By organizing his notes by themes, Roe was able to structure his articles. Then he went back to the files and took detailed notes on the cases that supported these themes. (His source would not allow Roe to make copies of the files.)

"By now, I realized that my story was more than an exposé of Children Services. The entire system, including doctors, lawyers, judges and social workers, was often to blame when kids fell through the cracks."

Roe did not want his story to read like a records-search story. "So I tracked down parents, children and officials in several key cases. Their quotes and anecdotes help bring the stories to life."

His work led to a four-part series, which begins:

Marquell Scott was tired of living this way. Tired of living in a foul, filthy home with no heat, lights, water and refrigerator.

When he wanted to wash, he had to borrow water from neighbors. When he wanted to see at night, he had to feel around with candles. When his mother's monthly welfare check came in, she blew it on Wild Irish Rose wine.

For six months, the 14-year-old and his four younger brothers and sisters lived like this.

And for six months, child-protection officials did nothing.

So one night, just after midnight, Marquell called the police on his mother himself.

When officers arrived at the Old West End home, they surveyed the squalor. Exposed electrical wires. A toilet that wouldn't flush. An unbearable stench.

The mother was nowhere in sight, and Marquell told the officers the children generally fended for themselves.

Convinced this was no way for child to live, the officers removed them all including the youngest, who had never been enrolled in school, even though she was 7.

Yet all of this could have been prevented. Lucas County Children Services knew about the conditions but did not act.

Plus, the agency had previously taken custody of the children because of years of neglect, but instead of finding a proper home for them, officials placed them back with their mother.

This case is not unusual. Time and again, children in the Toledo area have been returned to wretched homes and abusive parents—then battered, molested or neglected again.

In each case, the children were returned with the blessings of Children Services, the local government agency legally responsible for the welfare of abused children.

Some children have been so severely abused after being reunited with their parents that they had to be hospitalized.

The Reaction

The Lucas county commissioners called for a special meeting with Children Services immediately after the fourth article in Roe's series ran. There were a total of 17 front-page follow-up stories, one of which, Roe said, "broke the agency's back. A few days after the series, with pressure mounting, a 5-year-old boy was found, bound, beaten and bloodied in his home. Police took him to the hospital, then Children Services for safekeeping. But officials there returned him home hours later. Only after the police complained did the agency go back and remove the child."

Two days after Roe wrote about this, the agency announced it would overhaul the system. A month later, Roe wrote:

Lucas County Children Services became involved in more child abuse cases last month than in any month in three years.

It is also removing children from their homes for safekeeping at a skyrocketing rate.

Children Services attributed the increases, in part, to a series of Blade stories that have detailed problems in the child-welfare system.

"There is a heightened awareness in the community," John Hollingsworth, a Children Services program administrator, said yesterday. "There is a heightened awareness even in the agency."