Substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness and the failure of the child welfare agency to follow up on reports of abuse lead to these girls death.

At least six child welfare workers will be fired for failing to properly address complaints about a woman's care for her four daughters, who were later found dead in their home, the mayor said Monday.

So at least six child welfare workers didn't do their job, but the New York Times is blaming homeschooling instead of the child welfare workers, how irrational can you get?

Lopes called the city's child welfare hot line and said that she had visited the home, but that she was not let in by the mother, Banita Jacks. Lopes said Jacks told her she did not want Brittany going to school because she was afraid the girl would run away. Lopes reported seeing two or three younger children who also were not in school.

In a second call - this time to police - Lopes expressed frustration at being transferred among several city departments and said she was concerned about Banita Jacks' mental state. "It seems that the mother is suffering from some mental illness in which she is holding all the children in the home hostage," Lopes said.

Lopes clearly stated that the Mother was suffering from some mental illness but social workers choose not to intervene.

Lopes' call was not the first time someone had tried to alert the city about the family's situation.

In July 2006, a nurse who had been treating the father of Jacks' youngest two daughters called the child welfare hot line to report the family was living in a van and that the parents were struggling with substance abuse, officials said. The nurse couldn't provide an address for the family so social workers did not follow up.

Parental substance abuse was reported but because the family was homeless social workers didn't follow up. Maybe in light of all the evidence the New York Times should reconsider their article by JANE GROSS and do an article on how substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness and the failure of the child welfare agency to follow up on reports of abuse lead to these girls death.