Good parents only in AZ (part 7)
I'm going to have to end it here. I found these articles here.
I wanted to post articles because they asked for a demographic survey and email address (you can use a dummy email address - I did) to see the articles. There's just too many!!
Okay, so I proved CPS drops the ball and children die. Governor is trying to help. Here's a good summary of a years investment into improving CPS:
Fortified CPS still in crisis
Case overload persists year after state pours in millions
Amanda J. Crawford
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 16, 2005 12:00 AM
Workloads remain at crisis level at Child Protective Services more than a year after state leaders pumped millions of new dollars into the agency and authorized the hiring of more than 200 workers.
With CPS investigating more complaints and taking more children from dangerous homes than ever, case managers are struggling to keep up. For example: 3,364 children in foster care did not get their legally required monthly CPS visit in September, up from 2,645 kids in September 2003.
Meanwhile, recent high-profile cases such as the February murder of Mesa toddler Angelene Plummer after several visits to her home by CPS continue to raise questions about the agency's focus on child safety. A family friend is suspected in that case.
Although authorities point to significant progress at CPS since the fall 2003 special legislative session to address problems at the agency, they say the work to fix CPS is far from complete.
"We didn't get into this situation in a year, and we are not going to get out of it in a year," said Carol Kamin, executive director of watchdog group Children's Action Alliance, who said she is concerned about the high workloads of case managers.
"We can have as many bells and whistles or as many committees as we want, but if workers don't have the time to do what needs to be done, the horrors we read about in the paper will continue," she said.
Among the progress:
• CPS now investigates all reports of abuse, 5,000 more in the past fiscal year than previously.
• About 600 cases since July have been jointly investigated with law enforcement.
• Using improved risk- and safety-assessment tools, case managers are removing more children from homes, about 600 a month, up from 400.
But progress is tempered by other consequences:
• With 8,575 children in out-of-home care at the end of December, Arizona continues to lead the nation in the number of children per capita in group or shelter care, according to CPS officials.
• The workloads of CPS case managers remain as high as before the special session and higher than national standards.
• Staff turnover is higher than it was before the special session (20 percent, up from 17 percent). The vacancy rate among case managers was 17 percent in December, mostly because of hired staff still in training.
At a crossroads
David Berns, director of the Department of Economic Security, CPS' parent agency, said CPS is again at a crossroads and needs to hire more staff members and develop new programs to live up to its mission of protecting the state's children.
But he said the agency has made marked improvement.
"I can't say the system is perfect yet," he said.
Pointing to increasing investigations and child removals, he said, "The proof is in the pudding."
CPS was in the public spotlight two years ago after a string of deaths or horrendous abuse of children whose homes the agency had visited.
Gov. Janet Napolitano called a special session of the Legislature to address problems ranging from overburdened case managers to a blurry mission in which keeping families together sometimes seemed to supersede efforts to keep children safe.
The policy changes included a clear directive: Child safety is always first.
Some advocates believe that message has sunk in.
"We are doing a heck of a lot more child protection, the system is, than before the reforms," said Becky Ruffner of Prevent Child Abuse Arizona.
But others raise questions about recent cases and wonder if CPS still focuses too much on preserving or reunifying families, to the detriment of children.
Fixing families
Shawn Cox of Arizona Voice for Crime Victims said she thinks the agency is still too focused on fixing troubled families instead of shielding children from abuse. Cox served as lead researcher on a March 2003 report commissioned by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley on problems in the agency. The report contributed to the call for the special legislative session.
"No matter how much money you put in an agency or how many caseworkers are added to the system, as long as the philosophy does not change, you continue to have children cycle through the agency and be in harm's way," she said.
A CPS investigative-unit supervisor in Phoenix said child safety is always the priority of caseworkers, but there is a direct connection between their workload and their ability to investigate allegations of child abuse or neglect.
Morale is low, said the supervisor, who asked not to be identified. The supervisor said the high workload puts pressure on caseworkers to close files quickly in order to move on to the next crisis.
"It is much quicker to close a case than it is to transfer for services, and there are many staff who take the easy way out in order to save time and no other reason," the supervisor said.
Hiring new staff
Since the special session, CPS has been authorized to hire 154 case managers and 81 supervisors and support staff. Most of the new positions have been filled, but case managers go through at least five months of training before they begin handling cases. With high turnover, the training and rehiring can be constant.
CPS also agreed in the special session to investigate every report of abuse instead of referring some families to a community organization, as the agency did before.
Abuse reports are on the rise, in part because of population growth.
And the number of children in state care is growing at a rate of about 100 per month.
Napolitano has proposed $32.6 million more for CPS next year to hire more staff, expand in-home services and child-abuse prevention programs, and support adoption efforts.
"Our budget is designed to make sure that the reforms contemplated in the special session get completed," she said last week.
Her budget would allow CPS to hire an additional 184.5 case managers and bring workloads for all case managers close to national standards.
But Napolitano faces a tough battle from conservative legislators whose sticker-shock from the $17 million approved in the special session has not waned.
House and Senate budgets unveiled last week propose static funding or millions of dollars in cuts.
Among the proposed cuts in the Senate is $8.7 million from the Healthy Families program.
The child-abuse prevention program for at-risk families was expanded during the special session, and Napolitano is seeking $5.5 million more for the program next year.
Some legislators are calling for the creation of a legislative oversight committee to make sure that CPS is spending money wisely and that the agency is striking the right balance between child safety and family preservation.
"We are not going to waste taxpayer dollars on an agency that is not doing its job," said the House Appropriations Committee chairman, Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who said he worries that children are being taken from homes who don't need to be.
Expanding options
Berns said it is imperative that the state now "invests differently" to care for children already in the system and to try to prevent an increasing number of children and families from entering it.
For too long, CPS caseworkers have had only two options, he says: close a report of child abuse and walk away, or remove children at imminent risk of harm from their families.
The agency is working to bridge the divide between investigations and child removals by providing services such as counseling and substance-abuse treatment to prevent child abuse and intervene in families before children must be removed.
Instead of investigating 19 complaints and removing the child on the 20th visit, the agency should be visiting once, providing services to prevent the next 19 complaints, he said.
"The focus (during the special session) was on safety, appropriately so," Berns said. "We have gotten to the point we absolutely have to maintain that as the ultimate, the paramount, the priority.
"But let's look at ways that we can provide that safety short of always removing and placing the kids."
I wanted to post articles because they asked for a demographic survey and email address (you can use a dummy email address - I did) to see the articles. There's just too many!!
Okay, so I proved CPS drops the ball and children die. Governor is trying to help. Here's a good summary of a years investment into improving CPS:
Fortified CPS still in crisis
Case overload persists year after state pours in millions
Amanda J. Crawford
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 16, 2005 12:00 AM
Workloads remain at crisis level at Child Protective Services more than a year after state leaders pumped millions of new dollars into the agency and authorized the hiring of more than 200 workers.
With CPS investigating more complaints and taking more children from dangerous homes than ever, case managers are struggling to keep up. For example: 3,364 children in foster care did not get their legally required monthly CPS visit in September, up from 2,645 kids in September 2003.
Meanwhile, recent high-profile cases such as the February murder of Mesa toddler Angelene Plummer after several visits to her home by CPS continue to raise questions about the agency's focus on child safety. A family friend is suspected in that case.
Although authorities point to significant progress at CPS since the fall 2003 special legislative session to address problems at the agency, they say the work to fix CPS is far from complete.
"We didn't get into this situation in a year, and we are not going to get out of it in a year," said Carol Kamin, executive director of watchdog group Children's Action Alliance, who said she is concerned about the high workloads of case managers.
"We can have as many bells and whistles or as many committees as we want, but if workers don't have the time to do what needs to be done, the horrors we read about in the paper will continue," she said.
Among the progress:
• CPS now investigates all reports of abuse, 5,000 more in the past fiscal year than previously.
• About 600 cases since July have been jointly investigated with law enforcement.
• Using improved risk- and safety-assessment tools, case managers are removing more children from homes, about 600 a month, up from 400.
But progress is tempered by other consequences:
• With 8,575 children in out-of-home care at the end of December, Arizona continues to lead the nation in the number of children per capita in group or shelter care, according to CPS officials.
• The workloads of CPS case managers remain as high as before the special session and higher than national standards.
• Staff turnover is higher than it was before the special session (20 percent, up from 17 percent). The vacancy rate among case managers was 17 percent in December, mostly because of hired staff still in training.
At a crossroads
David Berns, director of the Department of Economic Security, CPS' parent agency, said CPS is again at a crossroads and needs to hire more staff members and develop new programs to live up to its mission of protecting the state's children.
But he said the agency has made marked improvement.
"I can't say the system is perfect yet," he said.
Pointing to increasing investigations and child removals, he said, "The proof is in the pudding."
CPS was in the public spotlight two years ago after a string of deaths or horrendous abuse of children whose homes the agency had visited.
Gov. Janet Napolitano called a special session of the Legislature to address problems ranging from overburdened case managers to a blurry mission in which keeping families together sometimes seemed to supersede efforts to keep children safe.
The policy changes included a clear directive: Child safety is always first.
Some advocates believe that message has sunk in.
"We are doing a heck of a lot more child protection, the system is, than before the reforms," said Becky Ruffner of Prevent Child Abuse Arizona.
But others raise questions about recent cases and wonder if CPS still focuses too much on preserving or reunifying families, to the detriment of children.
Fixing families
Shawn Cox of Arizona Voice for Crime Victims said she thinks the agency is still too focused on fixing troubled families instead of shielding children from abuse. Cox served as lead researcher on a March 2003 report commissioned by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley on problems in the agency. The report contributed to the call for the special legislative session.
"No matter how much money you put in an agency or how many caseworkers are added to the system, as long as the philosophy does not change, you continue to have children cycle through the agency and be in harm's way," she said.
A CPS investigative-unit supervisor in Phoenix said child safety is always the priority of caseworkers, but there is a direct connection between their workload and their ability to investigate allegations of child abuse or neglect.
Morale is low, said the supervisor, who asked not to be identified. The supervisor said the high workload puts pressure on caseworkers to close files quickly in order to move on to the next crisis.
"It is much quicker to close a case than it is to transfer for services, and there are many staff who take the easy way out in order to save time and no other reason," the supervisor said.
Hiring new staff
Since the special session, CPS has been authorized to hire 154 case managers and 81 supervisors and support staff. Most of the new positions have been filled, but case managers go through at least five months of training before they begin handling cases. With high turnover, the training and rehiring can be constant.
CPS also agreed in the special session to investigate every report of abuse instead of referring some families to a community organization, as the agency did before.
Abuse reports are on the rise, in part because of population growth.
And the number of children in state care is growing at a rate of about 100 per month.
Napolitano has proposed $32.6 million more for CPS next year to hire more staff, expand in-home services and child-abuse prevention programs, and support adoption efforts.
"Our budget is designed to make sure that the reforms contemplated in the special session get completed," she said last week.
Her budget would allow CPS to hire an additional 184.5 case managers and bring workloads for all case managers close to national standards.
But Napolitano faces a tough battle from conservative legislators whose sticker-shock from the $17 million approved in the special session has not waned.
House and Senate budgets unveiled last week propose static funding or millions of dollars in cuts.
Among the proposed cuts in the Senate is $8.7 million from the Healthy Families program.
The child-abuse prevention program for at-risk families was expanded during the special session, and Napolitano is seeking $5.5 million more for the program next year.
Some legislators are calling for the creation of a legislative oversight committee to make sure that CPS is spending money wisely and that the agency is striking the right balance between child safety and family preservation.
"We are not going to waste taxpayer dollars on an agency that is not doing its job," said the House Appropriations Committee chairman, Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who said he worries that children are being taken from homes who don't need to be.
Expanding options
Berns said it is imperative that the state now "invests differently" to care for children already in the system and to try to prevent an increasing number of children and families from entering it.
For too long, CPS caseworkers have had only two options, he says: close a report of child abuse and walk away, or remove children at imminent risk of harm from their families.
The agency is working to bridge the divide between investigations and child removals by providing services such as counseling and substance-abuse treatment to prevent child abuse and intervene in families before children must be removed.
Instead of investigating 19 complaints and removing the child on the 20th visit, the agency should be visiting once, providing services to prevent the next 19 complaints, he said.
"The focus (during the special session) was on safety, appropriately so," Berns said. "We have gotten to the point we absolutely have to maintain that as the ultimate, the paramount, the priority.
"But let's look at ways that we can provide that safety short of always removing and placing the kids."
posted by Jenn @ 09:36
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