CPS workers implementing 'blind removal' process while evaluating cases following 2020 death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva

The Suffolk County Department of Social Services is redacting identifying information from reports used to consider the removal of a child from a home, a process county officials said eliminates the type of "biased decision-making" that kept 8-year-old Thomas Valva in the custody of his police officer father before his death.

Suffolk Social Services Commissioner John Imhof said under the new "blind removal" process implemented in the spring, Child Protective Services decision makers are no longer made aware of a parent’s occupation, the names of family members or their ethnic and religious backgrounds in cases when there is a possibility a child will be removed.

"There's absolutely no subjective information," Imhof said Thursday at a news conference announcing changes DSS has made in response to an April report from a special grand jury convened to investigate the department’s handling of the Valva case. "We all have unconscious stereotypes and views in our minds, and they have to be eliminated in the evaluation of child protective service cases."

The news conference also brought attention to areas where the county has not yet fulfilled the recommendations of the grand jury, including efforts to reduce the workload of case workers, improve pay to attract additional staff and the amendment of state laws the grand jury found shielded caseworkers from accountability in the Valva case.

"It isn’t going to happen overnight," Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said of the progress, adding that "change is incremental."

But Imhof said the New York State Office of Children and Family Services has already reported favorably on improvements made within the department, which includes the blind removal process. The commissioner said blind removal was mandated by the state in 2020, but was not in place when he was hired in May.

Romaine said biases likely played a role in the Valva decision "because his father was a police officer."

"There should be no prejudicial information," the county executive said of the reports used in the removal process.

Valva’s father, NYPD officer Michael Valva, and his fiancee, Angela Pollina, forced Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, to sleep overnight in their unheated garage in Center Moriches before the boy’s January 2020 death from hypothermia. Michael Valva and Pollina were convicted of second-degree murder and child endangerment charges at separate trials and are both serving sentences of 25 years to life in prison.

The special grand jury, which sat for six months beginning in September 2023, noted that CPS, a division of DSS, had received more than 10 reports from mandated reporters alleging abuse against Thomas, but deemed those reports "unfounded," following CPS determinations in 2018 against Thomas' biological mother, who lost custody of Thomas and his brothers before the boy’s death.

The grand jury found the state law preventing CPS from disclosing unfounded reports to law enforcement shielded CPS case workers from criminal culpability and a public review of their actions. State Sen. Dean Murray said legislation has been introduced in Albany that would allow unfounded reports to be unsealed for law enforcement purposes, but an Assembly sponsor needs to be identified to push the legislation forward.

Suffolk County Legislator Trish Bergin said the county is also awaiting a report from an outside agency hired to study county salaries before it can implement additional pay increases for social services employees, who received a three-step pay increase this year approved by the previous administration of former Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. Bergin said the salary study was not completed in time for the 2025 budget the legislature approved this week, but she’s "hopeful" it can be done in the next cycle.

"The problem is recruiting people to these jobs," Romaine said, adding that the current starting salary for case workers is about $60,000 "It’s very, very difficult," he said.

A public database shows the county continues to fall short of a reform goal outlined in the 2020 CPS Transformation Act that calls for caseworkers to have 12 or fewer cases. While the county was down to 16 caseworkers with loads of more than 12 as of October 2023, that number has ballooned to 38 today.

Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO of the Long Island-based Family & Children’s Association, said that while he applauds the county for focusing on efforts to improve social services, "time is of the essence" to address staffing issues.

"If caseworkers have too many cases, if they’re overburdened, If they’re overworked and underpaid, that’s not going to produce an optimum outcome," Reynolds said.

Daniel Levler, president of the Suffolk County Association of Municipal Employees, the union that represents DSS workers, said in a statement that the union looks forward to seeing the county's commitment to increase staffing levels come to fruition.

"When that happens we can expect the proposals that were announced today to produce positive results for both our CPS caseworkers and the population they serve," Levler said. 

Romaine, who acknowledged there’s "much work to be done," also highlighted improved lines of communication and increased training opportunities among areas of improvement this year. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said his office provided that training in response to a recommendation in the grand jury report.

"The grand jury found that while there is state training in these areas, oftentimes that state training is woefully inadequate," Tierney said.

With Shari Einhorn

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.