Social workers resume in-person visits after child’s death

Social workers will resume visiting all children that the state’s child welfare agency oversees in person.

The commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families announced the new policy on Tuesday at a legislative oversight hearing into the death of David Almond, a 14-year-old autistic boy in October, the Boston Globe reported.

Linda Spears, the commissioner, said the policy that all social workers must resume in-person visits to children under their supervision came into effect on April 26.

Since August, DCF’s policy has been to alternate virtual and in-person visits for the 42,000 children that it cares for or oversees. In April, the department released data from December and January that showed it was doing in-person visits for about half of the children it supervises.

An investigation into David’s Death identified the fact that DCF had not prioritized his family for in-person visits as one of many failures. David was found dead at the home of his father and his father’s girlfriend, who have been charged with second-degree murder. He was malnourished and had fentanyl in his system.

In hours of testimony on Tuesday, Spears and Marylou Sudders, the state’s health secretary, could not explain the department’s decisions in David’s case, but defended the management of the child welfare agency, the newspaper reported.