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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 20, 2002

FEDERAL REPORT ON ALASKA CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES RELEASED

State effective in reducing foster care re-entry, but report calls for broad systemic improvements

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), part of the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, today released its final review of Alaska’s child welfare system. The report was unveiled in a special presentation by federal Health & Human Services officials to the Child Protection Commission, meeting jointly today with members of the Court Improvement Project in Anchorage.

[Read the report]

“This report identified and quantified a number of strengths in our child and family services system,” DHSS Commissioner Jay Livey said. “This department and other state agencies are using this rigorous review to develop ‘Performance Improvement Plans’ to bring our services up to federal standards.”

“Federal standards that protect children are understandably high, and we welcome this in-depth review,” Livey said. “The findings confirm many areas that we have recognized need to be improved. This report provides the State with a good road map for continuing positive change.”

Alaska is the 26th state to be reviewed as the ACF checks every state’s child protection system during an ongoing, three-year project. So far, no state has met every federal standard.

“When it comes to protecting our kids, we need to set the standard as high as we can,” Livey said. “Along with our strengths, the Alaska report points to problems we’ve tried to address all along - more caseworkers and better resources to help families in crisis, like alcohol treatment and mental health services. But the Legislature has not given us the resources we need.”

“This report is a snapshot that focuses almost entirely on outcomes, but we deserve an ‘A for effort’ for the significant progress we have made in improving our child welfare system in the past few years,” he said. “Our focus has been on getting better outcomes for children and we knew from the start that it’s going to take time, hard work and resources.”

Though not reflected in the review, improvements made through the “Smart Start for Alaska’s Children” initiative and other efforts are yielding better outcomes for children:

  • Better care for more than 25,000 children through the Denali KidCare health insurance program.

  • More reports of harm against children are being investigated - from a statewide average of just 73 percent six years ago to 92 percent today. In many areas of the state, it’s at 100 percent.

  • A tough new child protection law to make the system move faster to help kids. The goal still is to reunite broken families, but if that can’t happen the law now insists on quicker action to help children.

  • Adoptions, guardianships and other procedures to get kids into loving homes have increased dramatically, with more than 1,400 children helped over the past few years.

  • Overall crime in Alaska is down 23 percent.

“People in all parts of our child protection system, but particularly in the Division of Family and Youth Services (DFYS) work hard every day to protect children and help families,” Livey said. “It takes a lot of dedication and more to make a difference. I’ve been an administrator in this field for over 15 years, and I know how challenging this field is. I applaud the outstanding job those in our child protection system, especially DFYS staff, do with the tools and resources they have.”

Alaska is the 26th state to complete this in-depth federal review. The process began in the fall of 2001 and concluded with an on-site review in late June 2002. The assessment is based on:

  • A “Statewide Assessment” prepared by the Div. of Family & Youth Services, key child welfare agencies, and community partners.

  • A “State Data Profile” prepared by the federal Children’s Bureau.

  • A review of 50 cases from three areas in Alaska.

  • Interviews or focus groups with a wide range of stakeholders including children, parents, foster parents, various levels of state and local Family & Youth Services personnel, collaborating agency personnel, school personnel, service providers, court personnel, legislators and attorneys.

Alaska’s Division of Family and Youth Services has been preparing for the review over the past year, according to DFYS Director Theresa Tanoury. In August, workgroups DHSS assembled for the review heard an interim report on the federal findings and began training and work on the Performance Improvement Plan.

“If we have any reservations about this report, it’s because to us it’s very personal,” Tanoury said. “It’s about the work we do with the children and families we want to help. But we welcome anything that will help us do our work better, and anything that may ultimately bring more resources and focus on children and family services.”

The federal report identified a number of strengths of Alaska’s child protective system:

  • DFYS responds to reports of a child in immediate danger (called “Priority 1”) in a timely manner.

  • The State is effective in preventing children’s re-entry into foster care. Alaska’s rate of foster care re-entry for FY 2000 was 4.6 percent – well below the national standard of 8.6 percent.

  • The State is effective in placing children in foster care in close proximity to their biological families and with siblings.

  • The State is operating a statewide information system that can readily identify the location, state, demographic characteristics, and goals for the placement of every child in foster care.

  • Periodic reviews of the status of each child are held administratively or by a court, on time, and the quality of these reviews is excellent.

  • The State has developed and implemented standards ensuring that children in foster care get quality services that protect their health and safety.
    The State has developed and implemented initial and ongoing training programs for all workers and supervisors.

  • The State engages in ongoing meaningful consultation with all stakeholders.
    The State has implemented comprehensive licensing standards for foster family homes and childcare institutions.

  • The State coordinates services and benefits with federal and federally assisted programs.
    Criminal background checks are completed on all foster care homes.

  • The State utilizes the Alaska Exchange and Northwest Adoption Exchange to seek appropriate placements for children with other states.

The federal report noted the following areas of concern in Alaska’s child protective system. “These concerns are focal points of the Performance Improvement Plan that we are working on,” Livey said.

  • The State fell short of national standards for repeat maltreatment, maltreatment of children in foster care, length of time to achieve reunification, length of time to achieve adoption, and stability of foster care placement.

  • In many cases, reviewers found that children and families were not receiving needed services, particularly mental health and substance abuse services. These services are important to children in their own homes as well as those in foster homes or other state custody.

  • In many cases, the staffing levels did not allow DFYS caseworkers enough face-to-face contact with children and parents to monitor children’s safety or to promote attainment of case goals including permanency goals.

  • DFYS is not consistently able to respond to maltreatment reports in which the child is not in immediate danger, and not consistently able to monitor services to children at risk in their own homes.

  • The State’s case review system and quality assurance system were insufficient to provide management with information needed to make system improvements.
    The State needs to improve the recruitment and retention of foster parents and provide them the support they need to be effective.

“The testimony that Alaska’s Child Protection Commission received from the public and agencies is consistent with the findings of the federal review,” Elmer Lindstrom, Commission Chair said. “Although they have not yet formally prepared recommendations, the need for caseworkers to see every child face to face more frequently, and the need for more substance abuse programs and mental health services resonated with the Commission members.”

“We will be using much of this important report to prepare our recommendations in our final report, which is due October 1,” Lindstrom said. “Federal officials told the Commission today that none of the 26 states who have been reviewed have fully met the standards. We are focused on this final report, and on the Performance Improvement Plan the Department is preparing with a number of stakeholder work groups. The next Governor and Legislature will need to make continuing improvements to build on progress made to date in order to develop a system that produces the outcomes we all want for Alaskan children.”

Copies of the Executive summary and the 82-page full report are available in PDF format at http://www.hss.state.ak.us/pdfs/alaskacfsr2002.pdf. (PDF, 421kb)

The final report will also be posted soon on the US Dept. of Health & Human Services web site, at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/cwrp/staterpt/index.htm.

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