Remembering Thomas Valva: Child Protective Services Reforms Pass

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Four months after Thomas Valva, 8, died of hypothermia after he was left overnight in the frigid garage of the Center Moriches home belonging to his father and his father's fiance, the Suffolk County Legislature voted to pass new legislation, the Child Protective Services Transformation Act, meant to institute oversight and safeguards.

"These reforms will ensure that CPS will never operate in the same way again, and that is appropriate because what happened to Thomas Valva can never happen again," said Bellone. "At the very least, it is our obligation to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to prevent such a terrible tragedy. We can't stop someone from being evil, but we can make sure that the systems in place to protect children are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible."

Bellone thanked the task force that commenced an internal review of the Department of Social Services' procedures and procedures after Valva's death; that task force, he said, will be reconvening after the coronavirus crisis even as the legislation is signed into law. "We're not done," he said. "The work still continues."

In March, Bellone and the Suffolk County Legislature's Deputy Presiding Officer Kara Hahn announced the Child Protective Services Transformation Act, a comprehensive plan of action that they said will institute new measures to strengthen the Suffolk County Child Protective Services system, improve oversight functions, and institute new safeguards to protect children.

The measures passed the Legislature a week after Thomas' mother Justyna Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million wrongful death lawsuit against Suffolk County officials and school representatives.

Manhattan attorney Jon Norinsberg of Norinsberg Law announced that the civil rights action was filed in the the Eastern District of New York on behalf of Zubko-Valva.

The suit was filed against several caseworkers, investigators and supervisors at Suffolk County Child Protective Services; the East Moriches Union Free School District and the child's principal and school superintendent; Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Hope Schwartz Zimmerman; attorneys Donna McCabe and Ethan Halpern, who were assigned to represent the Valva children; Randall Ratje, the county attorney for the Suffolk County Department of Social Services; and Thomas' father Michael Valva and his fiancee, Angelina Pollina.

Tenets of the CPS Transformation Act

Bellone worked with Presiding Officer Rob Calarco to establish an external task force that would review all Child Protective Services' policies and procedures relating to children with autism and other developmental disabilities.

Thomas, he said, is believed to have been on the autism spectrum. The task force reviewed procedures for how services are provided to children with autism or other developmental challenges under current law to determine if the current system leaves children with disabilities more vulnerable, and whether additional safeguards need to be enacted.

The CPS Transformation Act is based on the discussions and recommendations of the external task force, Bellone said.

The most important finding of the internal review, he said, was that the system was not set up to effectively protect children on the autism spectrum or other children with developmental disabilities.

Recent studies have shown that children with autism spectrum disorder are more likely to face maltreatment and abuse, Bellone said.

To that end, the CPS Transformation Act consists of six bills designed to address the current "lapses in the system" as well as additional areas where reform is necessary, he said.

Those bills include measures to create a specialized unit for children with special needs; the law will also set the process for the automatic escalated review of recurring reports once a certain volume threshold has been reached. The law will mandate higher level reviews for specific types of cases for those involving four or more reports of unique incidents, or six or more reports of the same incident, Bellone said.

In addition, the bill would also create a new designation unique to Suffolk County CPS: "unfounded due to insufficient evidence". Nearly 77 percent of all CPS cases are reported as unfounded statewide and the number is 81 percent in Suffolk County, Bellone's release said.

Currently, he added, there is no way to distinguish though whether a case was unfounded because the caseworker has concluded that the report is false or because they believe they do not have sufficient evidence to indicate the case and bring it to court. With the new standard of "unfounded due to insufficient evidence," any new report that comes in after such a designation would trigger a higher level review.

The second bill would implement new investigative training requirements for all CPS caseworkers, and mandate training for the new specialized unit within Suffolk County CPS to handle cases of alleged child abuse, neglect and/or maltreatment of children with autism or other special needs cases.

Implicit bias training will also be required for investigators, Bellone said.

Third, a bill will mandate increased scrutiny for cases reported by certain school officials. The fourth bill would establish criminal penalties for knowingly recording CPS interviews with children without the consent of the investigator, a violation up to $1,000.

The fifth bill will establish caseload standards for Suffolk County CPS caseworkers based on the New York State recommended number of caseloads per caseworker; no caseworker will be permitted to carry a caseload greater than 15 cases, Bellone said, adding that the law would also set the process for corrective action if the caseload limit is exceeded for four consecutive months.

Finally, the sixth bill would provide for greater transparency for the public and create a modernized database within CPS.

After Thomas died on Jan. 17, Bellone said Suffolk County would commence the internal review of the Department of Social Services' procedures and protocols.

On Jan. 24, Suffolk County homicide detectives arrested Valva, 40, and Valva's fiancée, Angela Pollina, 42, of Bittersweet Lane in Center Moriches. Both were charged with second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

They pleaded not guilty; both are being held without bail. If convicted, the couple faces 25 years to life in prison.

Although his father initially reported that Thomas died after a fall in the driveway, gruesome details emerged at a press conference by Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart.

Thomas Valva officially died of hypothermia, according to the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, Hart said. "We believe that he was kept in the garage overnight preceding his death," Hart said, adding that when he was found, the boy's body temperature was 76 degrees and he had head and facial injuries that did not align with Valva's account of what had happened.

Thomas and his brother Anthony were undernourished, begging for food, and foraging through the garbage at school and for crumbs because they were "so hungry," Assistant District Attorney Keriann Kelly said, as she painted a verbal image in court of the house where Thomas died.

The boys were physically abused and sent to school in urine-soaked soiled diapers, she said.

This article originally appeared on the Center Moriches-Eastport Patch