After a 4-year-old boy was severely injured while in the care of his foster mother, Los Angeles County officials will strengthen efforts to provide interpreters in Indigenous languages to families in the foster care system.
On Tuesday, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion directing the Department of Children and Family Services to come up with a plan to improve its language services for Indigenous families and to strengthen its Asian Pacific and Native American programs.
The 4-year-old, Andres F., was hospitalized Oct. 28 with life-threatening injuries. His foster mother, Gabriela Casarez, 26, of Norwalk, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of child abuse and one count of assault leading to coma or paralysis.
The boy’s birth mother is a Guatemalan immigrant who primarily speaks Akateko, a Mayan language. Her family has claimed that she wasn’t provided an interpreter and that social workers failed to effectively communicate with her before taking Andres and his 2-year-old brother, Emiliano, away from her.
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