CPS

About nine hours after 4-year-old Jahmaurae Allen died last July, the Sacramento County sheriff's detective investigating the case got a voice-mail message at work from Jonathan Lamar Perry.

Sacramento's embattled Child Protective Services got the nod Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors to hire an outside consultant, but a panel of citizens wants to make sure the agency gets its money's worth.

Sacramento County officials are set to initiate sweeping changes at Child Protective Services today in response to mounting criticism of the agency over a recent spike in child deaths.

Pressure mounted Tuesday for a requirement that California's child protection agencies conduct criminal background checks on prospective social workers before they can be hired.

The discovery that a number of Sacramento County child protection workers have criminal histories – some for drug use, spousal abuse and other violent crimes – has prompted California's top social services officials to urge all counties to perform thorough background checks on both prospective and current employees.

Sacramento County supervisors have endorsed reforms for Child Protective Services, an agency rife with chronic problems, in hopes of providing greater safety for CPS's young charges.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will be asked today to speed up the response to a highly critical report on Child Protective Services and to require monthly reports on progress in correcting problems.

Sacramento County paid up last week, sending a $600,000 settlement to Becky and Dave Giammona and ending a dispute over a drug-exposed foster baby they fought to keep.

The Sacramento County grand jury's anger over years of failed promises to fix Child Protective Services was evident from the title page of its new report released Wednesday.

Lynn Frank, the embattled head of the Sacramento County agency that oversees Child Protective Services, announced Tuesday that she is resigning.

Sacramento County officials announced Monday that they have invited a national child welfare group to meet with the county's troubled Child Protective Services agency to discuss possible improvements inside CPS.

Lynn Frank, the embattled head of the Sacramento County agency that oversees Child Protective Services, announced this afternoon that she is resigning.

Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness called Wednesday for immediate action to correct problems at the county's troubled Child Protective Services agency, joining with District Attorney Jan Scully in urging the Board of Supervisors to make changes at the agency.

Despite strong recommendations that an outsider be brought in to oversee improvements at Sacramento County's Child Protective Services agency, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday put off a decision for 90 days while county officials study the matter.

An independent investigation of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services that is critical of the agency's leadership and handling of children's cases has been made public in advance of Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

The Bee's ongoing investigation of the county's Child Protective Services agency has won an award from the National Center on Crime and Delinquency.

Sacramento County officials have revised who reviews criminal background checks for job applicants at Child Protective Services, removing the authority from top CPS managers and handing it to a county executive who oversees the agency.

Sacramento County Child Protective Services spokeswoman Laura McCasland responded to The Bee's questions via e-mail this week.

Internal problems at Sacramento's Child Protective Services are so deep and severe that at least four children died of abuse and neglect after CPS bungled their cases and missed "clear opportunities" to remove them from danger, a draft of an independent report has concluded.

In Kentucky, a state social worker was fired after being accused of driving a child while under the influence of drugs.

Drug possession, domestic violence, repeatedly driving drunk, assault with a deadly weapon – any one of these charges or convictions could lead child protective services workers to remove children from a home or force a parent into counseling. But all of those crimes and many others appear in the backgrounds of employees of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, a Bee investigation has found.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved without comment Tuesday a report on Child Protective Services that found a sharp increase in the number of child abuse deaths last year.

The number of children who died of abuse and neglect shot up in Sacramento County last year, nearly triple the previous year's toll, a new report has found.

The Sacramento Bee has won two awards for its scrutiny of the county's Child Protective Services agency from the Northern California section of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Though much blame in handling the case of Jahmaurae Allen's beating death has fallen on a case worker, critics of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services say the agency's management shares responsibility.

Jahmaurae Allen was pronounced dead at 11:10 p.m. July 21 of head injuries. Seven fractured ribs were healing. His body – from scalp to tongue to chest to foot – was bruised.

On the first day of her holiday vacation, Child Protective Services social worker Judy Beck played Santa to a house full of teenaged boys.

The 14-year-old girl who survived the slaying of her mother and siblings by her stepfather Dec. 1 had reported him to authorities two years earlier for allegedly beating her with a stick, forcing her to go without food, shaving her head and making her sleep in the garage without blankets, documents from Sacramento County's Child Protective Services show.

A year ago, the decision would have been easy for sheriff's deputies investigating a 14-year-old girl's claims that her stepfather had abused her.