Director says Kelsey report is confidential
The Oklahoman, July 1, 2007
Nolan Clay
The Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth is a state agency whose mission is to improve services
to children.
It makes recommendations to state leaders.
The commission's office of juvenile system oversight inspects state facilities, private group homes
and county-run juvenile detention centers. It also investigates the children and youth service
system.
Commissioners on June 22 finalized the 33-page report on the Kelsey Smith-Briggs tragedy, then sent
it to key state officials. It was obtained last week by The Oklahoman.
The commission's director, Janice Hendryx, and the commission's legal adviser, Assistant Attorney
General Grant Moak, said this report was not made public because it contains child abuse information
that by law must remain confidential.
"It's federal and state law," Hendryx said. "A court of competent jurisdiction could order it
released, and it could be made public that way. ... If a court orders it, I wouldn't have any
problem with it."
She said the commission has made similar reports public after editing out identities. Hendryx said,
"With this case, of course, everybody knows it too well, so there's no way ... to redact it that it
wouldn't be obvious to anybody who read it. We do issue public reports where we redact the
identities. ... We see that as part of our responsibility as to get information out ... so that the
public and the policy makers can work to improve the system."
The commission did in 2005 and 2006 release limited information about Kelsey's case, which is
allowed under state law when a child dies and someone is charged with a crime.
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