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Nearly twice as many children involved in Nebraska's child welfare system died last fiscal year than did the year before, raising alarm for the Legislature's child welfare watchdog office that spent much of the year shut out by the state agencies the office is tasked with overseeing. In its annual report released Monday, the Office of the Inspector General for Nebraska's child welfare system noted a "considerable increase in deaths and serious injuries" reported to the watchdog by the state's Department of Health and Human Services in the 2023-24 fiscal year, which ended June 30. The department reported the deaths of 21 children involved in the state's child welfare system — though not all of them were in state custody or even known to HHS prior to their deaths, which are also reported to the Legislature's watchdog office when children who previously had no interaction with the system die as a result of suspected abuse or neglect.
Still, the figure marks a substantial increase from the 11 child deaths reported to Inspector General Jennifer Carter's office in the 2022-23 fiscal year and the 12 child deaths reported the year before that. The 21 deaths reported to Carter's office mark the most since the 2020-21 fiscal year, when her office tracked 30 deaths in Nebraska's child welfare system. The office also saw a spike in reported serious injuries to system-involved youths, which jumped to 27 last year following 15 in the 2022-23 fiscal year and 13 in the year prior.
Carter's office is only required by law to investigate the deaths or serious injuries of system-involved youths that did not “occur by chance” and may have been the result of abuse or neglect within the child welfare system. And while not all of the 48 deaths and serious injuries her office was notified of this year fall into the category, the office now has a backlog of 32 pending mandatory death or serious injury investigations, each involving children served by HHS. More than half of those 32 cases have been added to the office's to-do list in the last two years, as death and serious injury cases of children in the state's child welfare system mount faster than Carter's office — which includes her and two assistant inspectors — can investigate.
"That, for us, is an unusually high number," Carter said in a phone interview Monday. "So (it's) something that is obviously of concern that we will both be watching and trying to get to those investigations as soon as we can. Carter "It is also a challenge for our office resourcewise.
We are small but mighty." And the state has not made things easier. Carter's office went seven months last fiscal year without access to any of the information required for the inspector general to provide legislative oversight of HHS, the state's largest and among its most troubled agencies.
In response to a nonbinding legal opinion from Attorney General Mike Hilgers' office in August 2023 that cast doubt on the constitutionality of the Legislature's watchdog offices , HHS — along with the state's prison system — shut the inspectors general out of its online records system and physical facilities , violating state law and leaving the watchdogs in the dark for seven months. The impasse ended in February when Nebraska lawmakers reluctantly signed a memo of understanding with Gov. Jim Pillen's executive branch temporarily restoring access to the oversight offices while a special legislative committee studies the structure of legislative oversight functions in an effort to find a permanent path forward.
Under the stopgap agreement, though, HHS did not restore Carter's office's access to its own internal case management system, instead requiring inspectors to request information in a process that Monday's report described as "more secure but also cumbersome and time-consuming." "It is not the best or most efficient use of government resources," Carter's office wrote in the report. Meanwhile, the state's judicial branch — which houses a portion of Nebraska's child welfare system in the form of the Juvenile Probation Services Division — was excluded from February's stopgap agreement entirely.
That division, which has long objected to legislative oversight on the same constitutional grounds that prompted last year's lockout, hasn't reported a single child death or serious injury to Carter's office since December 2021. The year before the judicial branch stopped notifying Carter's office of child deaths, Juvenile Probation reported the deaths of 10 children under its supervision. It's unclear how many — if any — there have been since, Carter said, leaving the Legislature's child welfare watchdog with an incomplete picture of the state of Nebraska's child welfare system.
"It's hard because we don't know what we don't know," she said. Download the new Journal Star News Mobile App Members of the UNL Army ROTC's Big Red Battalion climb the steps of Memorial Stadium during a silent stair climb in remembrance of those lost in the 9/11 attacks on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in Lincoln.
Starting at 6:00 a.m., various members of the branches of UNL ROTC, first responders in the surrounding Lancaster areas, and former military members began a silent stair climb workout that involves climbing 2,071 steps, or about 110 flights of stairs.
This was the number of stairs that were present at the World Trade Center, which first responders climbed in an effort to rescue people from the towers. The cadets only count the stairs going up, not down. Representing those first responders who never got a chance to descend safely.
Lincoln East's Raheem Popoola (13) leads his team out onto the field before the game against Grand Island on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, at Seacrest Field. Nebraska's Harper Murray (27) embraces Bergen Reilly (2) after scoring a kill against Creighton in the first set on Tuesday at the Devaney Sports Center.
Nebraska's Tommi Hill (6) celebrates a pick-six during the first quarter of the game against Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska's Jacory Barney (17) celebrates as fans rush the field after the game on Saturday, Sept.
7, 2024, at Memorial Stadium. Terence "Bud" Crawford (center) takes the field next to Nebraska's Dylan Raiola (left) and Mikai Gbayor on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska fans storm the field after winning the game against Colorado on Saturday, Sept.
7, 2024, at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska won 28-10. Police investigate the scene of a shooting Sunday in downtown Lincoln near 11th and P streets where one man was killed and another man was injured.
While teammate Dante Dowdell (23) celebrates a touchdown with his teammates, quarterback Dylan Raiola (15) reacts toward the home sideline in the first quarter on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska's Dante Dowdell (23) is tackled by Colorado's Shilo Sanders (21) on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Wahoo players pray in the locker room ahead of their match against Ashland-Greenwood on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at Wahoo High School. Lincoln Southeast's Zayvion Campbell (left), Lincoln Southwest's Nathan Mensah (center) and Southeast's Mason Mehta (right) dive after the ball in the end zone during the second quarter on Friday at Seacrest Field.
The play resulted in a Lincoln Southwest touchback. Ian Plumlee, of Lincoln, dances with his daughter, Josephine, 4, as Sandy Creek Pickers performs during the Nebraska Bluegrass Concert Series on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, on Nebraska Innovation Campus.
Jeff Gold speaks after being installed as the University of Nebraska's ninth president during an investiture ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. Junior Dylan Zephier (center) dances with senior Jordyn Guse next to senior Helina Cooper (back left) and freshman Liam Hoffschneider during a Unified music class, Thursday, Sept.
5, 2024, at East High School. Nebraska's Dylan Raiola walks in the Legacy Walk on Saturday outside Memorial Stadium. A great blue heron perches on a rock in the shallow water of Holmes Lake on Tuesday.
Nebraska's Leyla Blackwell (11) throws a volleyball into the stands before the match against TCU on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, at the Bob Devaney Center. The Huskers run on to the field to kickoff the game against UTEP on Saturday, Aug.
31, 2024, at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska's MJ Sherman (48) sacks UTEP's Skyler Locklear (9) during the first quarter of the UTEP game on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, at Memorial Stadium.
Norfolk Catholic players line up on the field before during the game against Bishop Neumann on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, at Bishop Neumann in Wahoo. Nebraska's Isaiah Neyor (18) catches a 59-yard touchdown pass while defended by UTEP's Jaylon Shelton (9) in the second quarter, on Saturday, Aug.
31, 2024, at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska's Bergen Reilly (2) watches a husker light show as a highlight reel of last year plays before the match on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, at the Devaney Sports Center.
New University of Nebraska-Lincoln students run out onto the field during the tunnel walk tradition at Memorial Stadium on Friday. Lincoln Christian's Truman Paulsen holds the Spirit Sword after defeating Lincoln Lutheran on Friday at Aldrich Field. Framed through a children's play set, Jordyn Anderson, 3, pushes her friend Jordan Lara, 4, in a Cozy Coupe toy at the playground outside at Las Abejitas' location at First Lutheran Church on Friday.
Las Abejitas, one of only two bilingual child care centers in Lincoln, is opening a second location at First-Plymouth Church in September. Waverly celebrates after defeating Lincoln Lutheran in five sets Thursday at Lincoln Lutheran High School. Thursday afternoon's football game between Lincoln East and Elkhorn South was postponed due to weather.
The teams will make up the game Friday at Seacrest Field. Lincoln East's Deacon Gehle (from left) and Presley Hall practice passing back anf forth while waiting out a rain delay at Seacrest Field on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024.
From left, U.S. Sens.
Deb Fischer, Pete Ricketts, 3rd District Congressman Adrian Smith, 1st District Congressman Mike Flood and 2nd District Congressman Don Bacon attended the annual summit hosted by the Nebraska, Omaha and Lincoln chambers of commerce on Thursday at Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland. Runners, including Tyler Pooschke (first left) and Mak Krause (right) are led by run lead Trevor White (first right) as they take off along the Billy Wolff Trail for the first-ever run held by the Telegraph Run Club on Wednesday. The new run club is meant to be a welcoming, open and free to any who wishes to join.
Nebraska's Nash Hutmacher hands a football back to Henry Erikson of Beatrice, 8, and Brent Erikson during football fan day, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, at Hawks Championship Center. Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.
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