Educators knew Henry Cozad had problems at home.

During court proceedings in the Linda Foley murder case, at least one instructional aide testified about noticing bruises, scratches and scrapes on the young man's arms and face. Others smelled cigarette smoke and urine when he arrived for class.

As "mandatory reporters," required to report child abuse and neglect, they shared their concerns about his safety with Oregon's Child Protective Services. Beyond that, they could do little except keep teaching the severely mentally retarded student.

A Coos County judge committed Cozad to a state facility last week, as a result of the beating death of Foley, his father's girlfriend. Court testimony about Cozad's previous violence, along with evidence that he had been mistreated at home, raises the question of whether authorities should have taken action before the teen became a killer.

South Coast Education Service District educators did their best to help him develop better behavior and social skills, said South Coast ESD Superintendent George Woodruff. The goal was to allow Cozad to live as independently as possible. Despite his aggressive behavior, he kept going to his life skills class until about a month before he killed Foley.

ESD made sure two adults were assigned to him at all times and kept him on a different schedule from other students. Despite its efforts, the South Coast ESD couldn't help Cozad.

"None of us individually, whether it's schools or government agencies, have enough resources to go it alone," Woodruff said.

One-way conversation

The way Oregon handles its child abuse reporting leaves little room for collaboration between case workers and the district, aside from perhaps setting up a place for interviews.

"As soon as DHS takes the report, they take it from there," said Tenneal Wetherell, ESD director of support services and school improvement.

Once a school employee, or anyone for that matter, reports possible child abuse, a DHS screener decides whether to assign the case to a Child Protective Services worker.

If a worker investigates, she'll go to the family's home and interview the child, siblings and anyone else who spends a lot of time there. Her primary concern is to determine whether the child is safe. So, for example, if a sex abuse report turns out to be unfounded, the worker will look for other issues, such as domestic violence or drug abuse.

"There's lots of things you will find out once you start asking questions about what's going on in this family. Or you won't find anything," said Stacy Ayers, Child Protective Services program manager in Salem.

One of the trickier issues workers examine is whether living conditions are bad enough to consider them unsafe.

"That's a tough one," he said. "Poverty by itself is not an allegation of child abuse."

It's hard to say where the line is drawn, though Ayers said persistent problems that endanger the health of a child can be considered abuse.

Ayers couldn't comment about Cozad's case, since the records are exempt from public records law unless a child dies or suffers serious physical injury from abuse.

Was Cozad abused?

But Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier has made the allegation Cozad suffered abuse. The DA has charged his father, Fred Cozad, with criminal mistreatment.

"I do know complaints were made," Frasier said.

He said he is aware that some complaints were founded.

"I don't know if DHS ever went out and looked at this place."

Oftentimes, police work in tandem with DHS, so if a child needs to be removed from the home, officers will help make that happen.

Wetherell doesn't think it's necessary for schools to have a greater involvement in the process, but she said educators and students would benefit from working more with mental health services, group homes and support agencies.

"We have a lot of students who have needs in our area that aren't met because of a lack of support agencies providing those services," she said.

Team watched Cozad

ESD did have help with Cozad. Frasier received more than 10 boxes of papers detailing education plans for Cozad. They chronicled meetings in which teachers, case workers, doctors and therapists talked about how to deal with Cozad's behavior. They discussed ways they could make the learning environment better and safer for those involved.

Several federal and state laws deal with mentally disabled children, the DA said. The laws say regardless of the child's disability, the school district must offer services. If a student is expelled because of misbehavior, the district is still required to provide educational services.

"They don't have a choice," Frasier said. "If you expel a kid, you have to send a teacher to his home to provide lessons."

That can cost a district even more money than keeping him in school.

"He had excellent support in the community," Woodruff said. "He had well-trained staff who worked with him for years. Still, the results were tragic."

Woodruff would like to see a gathering of minds to tackle this kind of case. Get police, social workers, educators and government officials together, he said.

"We can't allow people to simply become invisible in our communities," he said. "These are real human beings we are talking about."

Staff Writer Jessica Musicar contributed to this story.