Big gains have been made in eliminating shelter use for abused and neglected children, but problems persist in maltreatment of foster children and finding placements for kids with special needs, according to a progress report released Friday.
But the state’s $1.3 billion shortfall is a significant concern from the monitors of an improvement plan for Oklahoma’s child-welfare system. The three-person oversight committee of the Department of Human Services’ Pinnacle Plan, which is the agreement stemming from a federal class-action lawsuit, found a mixed bag of results since its last report in December.
“DHS began to show meaningful progress toward reasonable caseloads late in 2014, and continued to do so through the most recent period,” the report states. “For this reason, it is deeply concerning that DHS may not maintain all planned activities in this reform effort due to Oklahoma’s reported revenue failures. The gains made by DHS since 2012 are fragile, and in many instances have not taken root firmly within the agency. Following the investment of new resources to set this agency on a trajectory of reform, it could be a shattering setback for children, DHS, and this reform, if efforts now halt and progress is reversed.”
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The five-year plan was approved in 2012, which means the original deadline expires next year. Options for noncompliance include returning to court for an extension, or plaintiffs could argue for a court order mandating change. The monitors could go to the court before that point and ask for intervention, which has been suggested by plaintiffs’ attorneys for DHS not making more substantial progress.
The monitors are Eileen Crummy and Kevin Ryan of New Jersey, and Kathleen Noonan of Wisconsin.
Since the December report, these are the areas of improvement found by the group:
- Caseworker visitation with children: “DHS continues to report strong performance in the area of caseworkers completing required monthly visits with the children assigned to them ... DHS continued to improve from last period and is expected to further improve if DHS continues to stabilize its workforce and reduce the turnover of caseworkers.”
- Reduction in shelter use statewide: “DHS has successfully closed the first of its two state-operated shelters and is in the final stages of closing the second,” which is Tulsa’s Laura Dester Shelter.
- Substantial improvements in caseloads: “Through a concentrated focus on managing, hiring, training and retention, DHS increased the percent of workers meeting the caseload standard by 26.6 percentage points between December 2014 and December 2015. This is four times the progress DHS reported over the first two and a half years of the reform.”
- Increased number of children receiving permanent homes through adoption: “DHS made good faith efforts to finalize adoptions for children who are legally free living with identified adoptive families.”
These are areas of continued non-compliance:
- Maltreatment of children in foster care: “The rate of child maltreatment in care in Oklahoma is unacceptably high, among the highest in the nation. The (monitors) have long stressed that achieving manageable caseloads and developing a robust pool of family foster homes are essential for DHS to substantially reduce child maltreatment in care.” Recently, DHS made changes in policies and practices to address this problem, the report states, noting that protecting children in state custody “must be the department’s top priority.”
- Inadequate number of therapeutic foster homes: “The waiting list for children in need of a placement in a TFC home persisted, while a significant number of existing TFC homes also continued to sit vacant. Further, DHS continues to struggle to build its pool of therapeutic foster homes and to achieve net gains of available.”
- Lack of finding permanent homes for older youth: “DHS has not made adequate efforts to improve permanency outcomes for youth ages 13 and older.”
- Increased placement instability for children: “Children experienced greater placement instability during this report period on each of the placement stability metrics when compared to the last period.”
Some of the changes DHS has recently put the focus on contract providers for care and on foster homes, according to a DHS press release
With the contract providers, the agency has reduced response time when safety threats are known, heightened monitoring for those with abuse and neglect reports and implemented financial consequences for non-compliance. For foster homes, the agency has improved the process of reviewing background checks and added more reviews for homes with allegations of abuse or neglect.
“Because the safety and well-being of the children entrusted to the agency’s care is our highest priority, every improvement we have made is intended to keep children safe while ensuring they receive the best quality of care,” DHS Director Ed Lake stated.
“It is taking time for all of these system improvements to make an impact on the rate of abuse or neglect in care, but we have started to see positive results during the last quarter of 2015 and are confident we will continue to see the safety of children in our care improve.”
