State officials have intervened yet again at Bertie County’s Department of Social Services, making a dramatic gesture by removing power from the current DSS director and assuming direct control of the county’s child welfare services.
Despite being stripped of her authority, Bertie County DSS Director Daphine Little is still employed by the county, officials told Carolina Public Press on Thursday.
Bertie DSS has been under strict state supervision for much of the last three years.
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The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services took control of the county’s child welfare once before in 2022 after discovering that the county had unlawfully removed children from homes using custody orders that hadn’t been signed by a judge.
Little was hired by the county later that year to replace the previous director. The state returned control of child welfare services back to the county in May 2023, but required that Bertie continue to be supervised through a corrective action plan which lasted until September of last year, according to reporting by the Bertie Ledger-Advance.
It wasn’t long before Bertie DSS was back in hot water. In December, the death of a child previously involved with child welfare services prompted the state to return and put the county back on a corrective action plan.
On Aug. 14, DHHS officials notified the county that the embattled department had failed to sufficiently improve its services in the wake of the child fatality.
The child whose death prompted the takeover, as reported by several local media outlets, is 2-year-old Jamie Drain, who died on Dec. 2. The timeline laid out in the DHHS letter and a copy of a child protective services assessment viewed by CPP confirm that the county was involved with Drain’s family shortly before the state’s intervention.
Local law enforcement haven’t yet filed any charges related to Drain’s death, but Bertie County Sheriff Tyrone Ruffin said in a Facebook statement on Aug. 26 that his office had received a copy of the autopsy report and considers the investigation a homicide case.
A letter from DHHS addressed to Little, County Manager Juan Vaughan, social services board chair James Lee and County Commissioner Corey Balance gave a scathing assessment of Bertie DSS.
“The mismanagement of this case and failure of (Bertie DSS) to adhere to the directives of NCDHHS has magnified our concerns about (Bertie DSS’) ability to adequately assess child safety and risk that is vital to the protection of all children in Bertie County,” the letter read.
“NCDHHS also has serious concerns about the accuracy, integrity and transparency of information provided by the child welfare staff of Bertie County DSS at all levels of the organization.”
Neither Little nor the county commissioners responded to requests for comment on the state’s takeover. Vaughan said in a statement that the county is “fully cooperating with state oversight.”
The incident marks only the fifth time that DHHS has divested power from a county DSS director. Bertie is the only county to have had its social services department be taken over twice.
State statute lays out the legal requirements for such an intervention.
First, if a county’s social services is found not to be in compliance with federal and state requirements, it must enter into a corrective action plan that may last up to 18 months.
If DHHS determines that the county has failed to complete its corrective action plan, the state must temporarily assume all or part of the department’s social services administration.
The first time that the state took this step was in 2018 with Cherokee County, which also unlawfully removed children from their homes. State takeovers also happened in Nash County in 2023 and Vance County in May of this year, both of which had to do with the administration of child welfare services.
Even though the state may impose corrective measures and potentially withhold funding from counties, there’s little they can do in terms of the removal of problematic child welfare staff. That goes back to the inherent separation of powers in North Carolina’s state-supervised, county-administered child welfare system.
Only a county’s governing board for social services has authority to discipline or dismiss a county DSS director, according to UNC School of Government Professor Kristi Nickodem, who specializes in human services law.
Bertie County’s social services board has yet to take that step, nearly a month after the state’s takeover.
“DHHS may temporarily divest a county DSS director of the director’s service delivery powers, but cannot terminate the director’s employment,” Nickodem said.
“However, as the state supervising agency for social services during the corrective action or divestiture process, DHHS may provide a local social services board with guidance and information regarding problems and concerns with the administration of social services in the county.
“This could include expressing concerns to the board regarding the DSS director’s noncompliance with law and policy. Failing to adequately address those concerns could potentially lead to liability or a loss in funding for a county.”
DHHS is currently assessing Bertie County’s child welfare practice and reviewing cases, the agency said in a statement to CPP.
“This assessment is the first phase of divestiture and must be completed before additional conclusions or recommendations can be shared.”
The next meeting of Bertie’s social services board is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 15. There’s been no indication yet that the board plans to discuss disciplinary action for Little.
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