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Children and Youth Services facing investigation into Tutko case

The Dauphin County District Attorney is investigating claims that caseworkers received warnings about a Harrisburg boy months before he was found starved to dea...
tutko

The Dauphin County District Attorney is investigating claims that caseworkers received warnings about a Harrisburg boy months before he was found starved to death.

Dauphin County Children and Youth Services is also conducting an internal investigation.
State officials say they have six months from the date of Jarrod Tutko Jr.'s death on August 1st to complete a report about what went wrong. Police say Jarrod had been starving and living in severe neglect for years. Both parents are charged with criminal homicide.

Neighbors on Green Street where Jarrod, who had special needs, was found dead in his home, say they're haunted by the sight of the empty house.

9-year-old Jarrod had Fragile X Syndrome.

"A lot of people just keep their children in the house, keep their family members with those conditions in the house, away from everyone," says Natalie Baxter, a neighbor who never knew Jarrod existed. "And just collect their check, unfortunately, and are not taking care of them."

Police say mother Kimberly Tutko told them the family received $710 a month from the state for Jarrod and two other of children who had disabilities. Officials say that likely came from Social Security Disability Income, and not from the Department of Public Welfare. The family also received food stamp benefits.

Police say a caseworker came to the home last October after a tip on the Child Abuse Hotline, Childline. County Children and Youth Services says they can't comment specifically on the case because of confidentiality laws.

In a statement, director Peter Vriens said, "Children & Youth Services continues to cooperate fully with the District Attorney and the ongoing investigations- and remains committed to protecting the safety and well-being of children.”

At the state level, Children Youth and Families will look at how the system failed Jarrod.

"Anytime you hear about a child dying, I always first and foremost think what could we have done differently as a system," says deputy secretary Cathy Utz.

She says new child abuse laws will create a statewide database that caseworkers can use to communicate between counties.

That could possibly have helped Jarrod, because police have uncovered a history of child neglect and abuse allegations in his parents' pasts. Police say Schuylkill County tried to flag the Tutkos when they moved away from there to New Jersey more than 10 years ago.

Utz says caseworkers take reports from other children in a home seriously. Police say Jarrod's brother told a caseworker last October that his father had lied about Jarrod's condition, cleaning him up for the home visit when a caseworker arrived. And he had said his father "didn't care" about Jarrod anymore.

"We know that oftentimes children are going to tell you the truth in what is happening to them or their siblings," she says.

Utz says it will be up to County Children and Youth Services to review caseworkers' actions.

"They would be looking at specifically the ins and outs of what their workers did, we look at it from a more global perspective in what the agency could have done a little bit differently," Utz says.

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