New federal figures show that the number of U.S. children in foster care has dropped 8 percent in just one year, and more than 20 percent in the past decade.

The drop, welcomed by child-welfare advocates, is due largely to a shift in the policies and practices of state and county child welfare agencies. Many of them have been reducing stays in foster care, speeding up adoptions and expanding preventive support for troubled families so more children avoid being removed in the first place.

An independent state agency charged with watching over foster children released a report Friday showing six months of the ups and downs of child welfare reform.

The Foster Care Review Board staff recorded information on adoptions, placements, caseworker changes, family visitations and sibling contacts and other elements of child welfare between Jan. 1 and June 30, the first six months of reform.

In Nebraska, about 4,500 state wards are in out-of-home care. The agency reviewed 2,381 of those children.

The No. 1 concern was the missing information in children’s case files, said Executive Director Carol Stitt. That information includes case plans, documentation of court-ordered supervised family visits and contact with siblings, placement details, and progress toward permanency. The information is important in tracking children, and ensuring they are getting court-ordered services and working toward getting out of the system, including going home or being adopted, Stitt said.

Two private agencies, Visinet and Cedars Youth Services, have already dropped out of the state’s still-evolving, child-welfare reform effort, citing inadequate funding from the state.

On Wednesday, some state senators and an advocate for children expressed fears that some of the three remaining providers might be next.

During a special legislative hearing to gather information on Nebraska’s efforts to improve its treatment of troubled children and their families, representatives of the three remaining providers said they are spending millions of their own dollars in an attempt to make the effort work and cover losses.

The effort’s goal is to reduce the number of children in expensive, state-funded out-of-home care, such as foster homes, and to help families and children stay out of the child welfare system.

State senators from two legislative committees listened for four hours Wednesday to the challenges, costs and progress of child welfare reform in Nebraska.

Eleven senators got the opportunity to fire questions at state Department of Health and Human Services officials and directors of the three lead private foster care services providers. Those questions reflected the concerns and complaints that have come to their legislative offices.

Some attention was focused on Boys and Girls Home, which provides services in three rural service areas — central, northern and western.

Boys and Girls Home has laid off at least 50 workers in the past month, including 28 on Monday. The group let go on Monday had been hired as part of the foster care reform contract with the state, said Jeff Hackett, chief operations officer.

State human services officials will consider removing certain people from the child abuse registry – if they appeal their cases.

The Iowa Supreme Court recently ruled that state law doesn’t authorize the Iowa Department of Human Services to put people on the registry for neglecting their children by failing to supervise them.

Worried that they’d have to remove all 26,988 people on the registry for that variety of neglect, DHS officials asked for the court for a rehearing.

The supreme court rejected that request, but on Wednesday DHS officials said they believe they can still keep most of those people on the registry.

SUMMARY: A modification of text was made in the opinion of In re Interest of Emma, 18 Neb. App. 389, 782 N.W.2d 330 (2010), namely that a September 30, 2009, where active efforts findings were improperly made was a continuation of a previous order and therefore not final and appealable.
 

On a motion for rehearing, the Nebraska Court of Appeals overruled the motion but modified the section entitled “Active Efforts and Expert Testimony.” In summary, the Court of Appeals found that it was error for the juvenile court to make active efforts findings in its September 30, 2009, adjudication order because no evidence was adduced at that hearing regarding active efforts or expert testimony. However, the Court of Appeals concluded the error was harmless because the issues were full addressed in the previous order issued after the June 11, 2009, hearing, and that the September 30, 2009, adjudication order was a continuation of the June 11, 2009, order and not final and appealable as to the issue of continued out-of-home placement.

Full Opinion

Iowa social workers’ old way of abruptly pulling children from parents suspected of abuse or neglect is too traumatizing for everyone involved, the state’s top child welfare officials believe.

That method is still the norm in almost all of Iowa’s counties. But in an experiment in Polk County, social workers forewarn parents that they intend to remove a child. And they invite parents to help make the removal easier: pack favorite belongings, schedule visits to see the child in foster care, hug their son or daughter goodbye.

National experts view the Iowa Department of Human Services’ new strategy as only a partial step toward better involving families in protecting children. Iowa has one of the higher rates in the nation of social workers removing children from their homes.

MINDEN, Neb. — A failure of the system.

That’s what former neighbors say contributed to the death of 4-year-old Landon Payne of rural Kearney County.

Landon’s aunt, Sharon Payne Turnell, 37; her husband, Charles Turnell, 38; and her daughter, Katie Payne, 19, each have been charged with aiding and abetting child abuse that led to Landon’s death Dec. 22.

The family lived in Pleasanton, Neb., from September 2006 to October 2009. During that time, neighbors say they called law enforcement and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services numerous times to report suspected abuse and neglect.

“No one ever really watched after them,” former neighbor Bernadine Dauel said of the children in the home. “They just took care of themselves. You never saw affection like you see with parents and children. They were just all there. They didn’t have a ball or anything. The kids’ biggest pastime in the summertime was just the hose and running water. That was their one thing to do for fun.”

SUMMARY: Adjudication was proper where there was a prior case involving physical abuse by a brother against Seherzada and current credible evidence establishing that both brothers had physical harmed Seherzada and that the mother was allowing them to do so.
 

On August 31, 2009, the State filed a petition alleging Seherzada came within the meaning of N.R.S. 43-247(3)(a) because the mother failed to protect Seherzada from bodily injury by her siblings. In 2007, the court adjudicated Seherzada under 43-247(3)(a) on similar facts, namely that a brother hit her in the face for talking with a black male student. That case was closed in December 2008 after it was shown the mother was able to protect Seherzada from her brother. In this case, Seherzada alleged that one brother hit her in the shoulder on August 25, 2009, after becoming upset in not knowing where to pick her up from school. Seherzada also alleged that in late August 2009 another brother shoved her into a wall and slapped her multiple times while her mother urged the brother to calm down. After trial, the court adjudicated Seherzada, finding her to be credible and without any motivation to fabricate. The court likewise found her brother while testifying to emote a sense of entitlement to discipline and lack deference to his mother’s role as the parent. The mother appealed the adjudication and alleged that this adjudication was merely a collateral attack on the previous decision to return Seherzada home in December 2008.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the adjudication. It first rejected the argument that the adjudication was a collateral attack on the first case, finding that the mother successfully corrected the conditions at that time. The Court of Appeals then concluded that it found no error in the juvenile court’s adjudication based on its findings noted above.

Full Opinion

An Omaha center that provides psychiatric treatment for adolescent boys will close next May, raising concerns about the availability of such care.

Officials of Cooper Village — one of just three organizations in Omaha providing residential care for that population — confirmed the decision to The World-Herald.

Uta Halee Girls Village, which runs Cooper Village, and the Omaha Home for Boys, which helps pay for it, informed their staffs on Wednesday.

Uta Halee’s management agreement with the 47-bed Cooper Village will end next May. Uta Halee provides residential psychiatric treatment for adolescent girls, along with a range of community-based programs for girls and boys.