One-year-old boy allegedly beaten to death by Taipei foster caregiver

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) The Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) has apologized and pledged to cooperate with an investigation after it confirmed a 1-year-old boy placed in a Taipei foster home was allegedly beaten to death by his foster caregiver last December.

According to details of the case released by the Taipei City Government, the child was from New Taipei City, but was placed by the CWLF in a Taipei foster home while the foundation attempted to find an adoptive family because he did not have any relatives able to take care of him.

In a statement issued Monday, the CWLF expressed its "shock and regret" over the boy's death and extended its condolences and apologies to his family.

The foundation said it had contracted a legally accredited home-based childcare provider with whom it had worked once before to temporarily care for the boy beginning September last year.

After the boy moved into the home, CWLF social workers conducted monthly check-ins on him in September, October, and November, the statement said.

In December, social workers rescheduled their planned visit after the foster caregiver said another child she was caring for was ill, the foundation said, adding that it received the "tragic news" of the boy's death at the end of that month.

The foundation did not reveal how it learned of the boy's death, but said that upon receiving the news, its employees "immediately rushed to the hospital and notified [the child's] family."

The case has now moved into legal proceedings and CWLF social workers have been asked by prosecutors to serve as witnesses, the statement said.

The foundation is complying with the investigation and will respect its eventual results, it added.

Asked about the matter on Tuesday, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) described the boy's death as "infuriating, heartbreaking and sad."

In response to the incident, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) will increase the frequency of visits to foster homes with children under the age of two, as they are not yet able at that age to express themselves, he said.

Under current regulations, social welfare officials are required to visit first-time foster parents four times in the first year after a child is placed in their care, including once in the first 30 days.

According to the Taipei City Department of Social Welfare, the woman suspected in the boy's death, surnamed Liu (劉), received her license to provide home-based childcare services in the city in October 2022.