Nebraska state wards down 12 percent
By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star
Thursday, Jul 10, 2008 - 07:18:44 pm CDT
A concerted effort by both the courts and the state human services agency to get children out of the foster care system and into permanent homes is paying off.
In two years, the number of children in the state’s child welfare system has dropped 12 percent, to 6,829 in June, state leaders said.
More children have left the child welfare system than have entered it in the past two years, Gov. Dave Heineman said at a Thursday news conference with Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Heavican.
In the past two years, the state has focused on some of the easier cases — younger children and kids who are at home but still being supervised by the juvenile court.
The state closed 80 percent of the 1,184 cases identified as a priority.
Now the state is going to take a look at the harder cases — children who have been in the child welfare system for more than two years.
The state’s Foster Care Review Board, a separate monitoring agency, will study 550 cases, involving 700 children who have been in the child welfare system for 24 months or longer and who have a plan to be reunified with their family.
Foster care board staff members will look at the demographics of those children. They also will examine the barriers to either going home or being adopted, and the lost opportunities during their time in the system.
Caseworkers will use the data to help find permanent homes for the children.
The state also will use the data to look at potential trends and problems inherent in the system itself, said Todd Landry, director of the division of Children and Family Services, part of the Health and Human Services Department.
The Foster Care Review Board staff members will conduct the study in August, with a report expected before the first of the year.
It will be useful to identify the larger issues, said Georgina Scurfield, chairwoman of the review board.
“We know that parents who are struggling with addictions take time to get well. We know that parents who have mental illness need time. And that children need their parents,” Scurfield said.
Case workers and courts are always looking at this balancing act between giving parents time and allowing children to have permanent homes, she said.
The study should give the state more information about the barriers to permanent placement, she said.
HHS and the courts made improving the foster care system a priority several years ago after a statewide task force recommended reform in 2003.
In June 2006, Gov. Heineman set out a six-point plan that included the focus on younger children.
Over the past two years, case workers were asked to review cases on the priority list monthly, to remove any paperwork obstacles to ending a case.
At the same time the total number of children has been dropping, there also has been a slight decline in the percent of children who come back because of new problems, Landry said.
“That’s a very good indication that this isn’t just about the numbers. It is about moving kids into permanent homes and they are able to stay there safely,” Landry said.
The state courts have set up 25 local teams to improve the process, and created guidelines and a training program for the attorneys who represent the children’s interests, said Chief Justice Heavican.
Juvenile judges also have tried to speed up the process by holding pre-hearing conferences within days of an incident where a child is removed from the home, rather than wait for weeks for a formal hearing, Heavican said.
These families typically have serious, longstanding and complex problems, he said.
“Drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness and/or domestic violence affect most of these families.”
The court’s goal is to protect the children, to preserve relationships with parents if possible and to be fair, Heavican said.
The court emphasizes looking at all the court processes through the eyes of children, especially considering a child’s sense of time, he said.
The partnership between the administration and the courts will continue, Heineman said. “We can get the number lower. We intend to get that number lower.”
But the issue is “much more than numbers,” he said.
“Every child counts. Every child is a human being, not a number for us.”
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.
