Yonatan Aguilar

On Thursday, Los Angeles news outlets started reporting on the death of 10-year-old Anthony Avalos. The home where the boy was found “unresponsive” on Wednesday had been visited by law enforcement and the county Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which investigates allegations of child abuse, according to news reports.

The 2016 death of 11-year-old Yonatan Aguilar reignited a years-long debate about the strengths and weaknesses of a tool used by social workers across Los Angeles County to determine the risk a child will be abused.

It was the dead kids who inspired me to leave my comfortable, well-paid job as a researcher and become a child welfare social worker. Kids like Adrian Jones, Zymere Perkins and Yonatan Aguilar, who were killed by their parents after months or years of abuse.

A new report from L.A.’s Office of Child Protection (OCP), as recently reported by Daniel Heimpel in The Chronicle, recommends revising current policy to enable the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) to offer services to families of children at high risk, even if they do not have a substantiated allegation of maltreatment.

Today, Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors will vote on a motion that would bring a rarely heard from, but critically important, group of investigative attorneys under the Office of Child Protection’s control.

I read with great interest Daniel Heimpel’s column, Yonatan’s Death Spurs Deep Look at How L.A. Gauges Child Abuse Risk. Yonatan Aguilar had been the subject of four prior reports to DCFS through 2012.

When it comes to children’s issues in Los Angeles County, candidate Steve Napolitano is hoping to borrow a page from current Supervisor Don Knabe. Knabe is stepping down from his fourth district seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors because of term limits.

Janice Hahn has a different relationship to Los Angeles County than most politicians. Many voters in the county are at least passingly aware of her father, Kenneth Hahn, who served on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from 1952 to 1992.

As a former child protection worker, I know that the death of a child is the worst possible outcome, the one that we all fear. Words can’t express the sorrow we feel when a child dies.