PROVIDENCE — The state has failed to make some of the most important changes that a review panel called for after a 3-year-old boy was beaten to death while in state custody two years ago, according to a status report from state Child Advocate Jametta O. Alston.

While it has made progress, the state Department of Children Youth and Families hasn’t held the caseloads of overburdened caseworkers to recommended levels, and it has missed target dates for new training programs and performance evaluations, Alston said in the report.

The status report, written Oct. 31, coincides with the second anniversary of the death of Thomas J. “T.J.” Wright, the boy whom authorities say was beaten to death after DCYF placed him with his aunt and her boyfriend. Katherine S. Bunnell and Gilbert Delestre, both of Woonsocket, are charged with murdering T.J., and have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say the couple, angry that the child made a mess, beat him so viciously that they broke his skull and his leg.

“It’s so easy to forget that little boy,” Alston said in an interview yesterday. “But his death has meaning, and these recommendations will help social workers to handle their jobs.”

In response to T.J.’s death, Alston’s office formed a Child Fatality Review Panel, which concluded that DCYF had missed multiple opportunities to save the boy.

The panel made 15 recommendations, and Alston said one of the most important was reducing caseloads to no more than 14 families per caseworker. But as of September, average caseloads stood as high as 20.04 families per caseworker in the region that includes Woonsocket, the status report says.

“It’s just not safe,” Alston said of caseloads that can run as high as 25 families per caseworker. “In the end, it comes down to: Are the children safe?”

Alston said she understands the “stresses and issues” that the department faces. The report said, “DCYF has identified the rising increase in case openings, coupled with a high staff turnover rate, as impediments to achieving a caseload goal of 14 families.”

But Alston said the review panel set reasonable goals and timelines, and she said she’d give the state a “C-minus” or a “D” grade for its response.

Alston said she wouldn’t give DCYF an “F” because it had addressed 7 of the panel’s 15 recommendations. For example, the report praised the state for purchasing “a live scan machine which enables DCYF staff to more efficiently process fingerprint background checks on prospective foster parents.”

But, Alston said, “I would not give them an A, B or C because of the caseload concern. That is the first line of defense — having a caseworker visit a child once a month or more, and you can’t do that if you have a caseload of 18 or more.” She noted a caseload of 18 families could include more than one child per family.

Patricia Martinez, the director of DCYF, said, “Overall, we have accomplished a lot. It is work that takes a long time, sometimes, to make changes.”

Martinez said the department hired and trained 74 social workers and, at least temporarily, brought down caseload levels. The report noted that on June 5 caseloads averaged 14.63 in Bristol and Newport counties, 14.14 in Kent and Washington counties, 15.7 in Providence and 18.33 in other parts of Providence County, which includes Woonsocket.

But Martinez said the department ended up losing 38 social workers, with some retiring and some leaving because they “felt they couldn’t handle the work.” The report said that by Sept. 4, caseloads had risen — averaging 18.62 in Bristol and Newport counties, 16.43 in Kent and Washington counties, 17.31 in Providence and 20.04 in other parts of Providence County.

Martinez said DCYF took a major step in April 2005 when it adopted a protocol saying no child can be placed in a home before a Child Protective Services background check is conducted.

She said another new policy requires social workers to contact doctors when a physician’s reference form contains “ambiguous and/or adverse information” about a prospective foster parent. (The review panel said that in T.J.’s case, a doctor refused to recommend the boy’s aunt as a foster parent, but the doctor changed his position after being pressured by a DCYF employee.)

Martinez said the state is using new technology, such as a “cyber secretary” system that allows social workers to call in information and have it accessible on their computers by the time they return to the office.

Also, Martinez said she has been meeting once a month with Alston and discussing progress on the review panel’s recommendations. “That says a lot about where we are moving as a state to ensure the safety of children,” Martinez said.

While acknowledging the progress, Alston said DCYF failed to fully follow recommendations and timelines for staff training. “In the meantime, overburdened caseworkers, many of whom are experiencing burnout and fatigue, are not getting the training they need,” the report stated.

Also, DCYF has failed to follow timelines for a performance evaluation system to assess whether the department follows protocols and procedures, the report said.

The review panel, which included experts in social work and the law, made its recommendations a year ago after concluding that DCYF had missed at least five opportunities to rescue T.J. For example, the panel said DCYF had:

•Placed T.J. and his brothers with a couple who had a history of drug use and problems, detailed in DCYF’s own records.

•Let the woman’s boyfriend stay in the home even after DCYF found he had lied on his application about a previous arrest.

•Ignored e-mails from a caseworker alerting supervisors about the boyfriend’s 2003 arrest for drugs in Arkansas.

Alston said she issued the status report because she did not want the review panel’s work to become just another set of recommendations collecting dust on a shelf.

The report concludes by saying, “it is necessary to stress that the purpose of the review team’s recommendations is to prevent future child deaths and to improve Rhode Island’s child welfare system.”