Pennsylvania has spent years trying to atone for child welfare failures.
There were generations of abuse in churches. The Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal put the state under a national lens. There have been persistent questions about ChildLine hotline reports that went unanswered.
There was also the moment nearly 20 years ago when a grand jury delivered a clear recommendation: The state needed an independent watchdog for children in its care.
And yet, it still does not have one.
The obvious question when looking at that lag is what the cost has been.
The cost has a name: Renesmay Eutsey.
The Fayette County girl — and others just like her — paid the price for a system that didn’t have an independent check.
That is why advocates were back in Harrisburg this week, calling on lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro to finally create an independent Office of Child Advocate.
The idea is not new. It isn’t even hard. It just isn’t done.
Advocates say the office would provide something the current system lacks — an objective layer of oversight for a child welfare structure that largely reviews itself.
“Concerns and complaints — even alarm bells — are raised within structures that may have contributed to those concerns,” said Cathleen Palm of the Center for Children’s Justice. “An independent Office of Child Advocate remains an essential — yet missing — tool … to ensure transparency, accountability and better outcomes for children.”
That gap matters most for the children with the least power.
Jonathan Budd of KidsVoice in Allegheny County noted that foster youth, particularly those placed outside their home counties, often have no meaningful way to raise concerns or be heard.
“These children need an independent avenue for complaints to be reviewed,” he said, “to ensure that the basics of childhood — safety, health and education — are provided … as we would expect for our own children.”
That expectation should not depend on where or how a child is placed.
It should not depend on whether someone inside the system chooses to listen.
And it should not take another tragedy to force the issue back into view.
We have watchdogs for other things. Money. Consumers. Why not kids? Children have the least power and autonomy in our society. Many are too young to ask for help.
Renesmay was 9 when she died in an unofficial kinship foster setting with no one to turn to.
Pennsylvania has had nearly 20 years to act on a clear recommendation.
It has had reports, hearings and working groups.
What it has not had is follow-through.
Lawmakers and Shapiro do not need more information. They need to make a decision.
Create an independent Office of Child Advocate — or explain why a system entrusted with children’s safety should continue to answer only to itself.
Renesmay Eutsey’s death — a little girl thrown away like trash in the Youghiogheny River — should not have happened. The state did not give her what she needed.
It can still give her something — a legacy of change.
