Columnist Sandra Thompson: Child welfare system on verge of change

Sandra Thompson

Sunday, Feb. 6, 2000 | 9:28 a.m.

Sandra Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or through e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com.

There is no quick way to fix broken children and families.

Child welfare workers know that only too well. In Nevada, their jobs often are further complicated by a system where the state and counties handle different components of the child welfare system. That can create service gaps and delays, causing children to languish in foster care for years.

A legislative subcommittee, headed by Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, is charged with devising a "seamless" system that would respond more quickly and more efficiently to the needs of children and families, particularly those in foster care. The subcommittee has been conducting hearings on what constitutes a model system and which entity -- the state or county -- should handle child welfare responsibilities within that system. The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday at the Sawyer State Office Building.

What shape the new system will take remains to be seen. One thing, however, is clear: We need to think "out of the box."

"It's difficult to meet the complex needs of children with silos of programmatic responses," says Paul Vincent, director of the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group, a nonprofit organization based in Montgomery, Ala.

"Tailoring services to families makes a difference on whether they come back into the system."

Child welfare plans tend to be prescriptive, Vincent says. Families rarely have a say in what goes on and they often are expected to secure support services themselves.

Local child welfare officials say it's not only the responsibility of agencies such as Child Protective Services to keep children safe. The community, they say, also plays a role, especially on the front end.

"The key lies beyond the boundaries of this organization if we are to win the battle of kids growing up and not getting involved in our system," says Adrienne Cox, assistant director of Clark County Family and Youth Services. "We must recognize as a community that we must put resources up front.

"The community is first responder to problems -- housing, food, hygiene, kids left alone. We're a partner with the community. We're here as a last stop."

It's a familiar refrain. Child welfare agencies across the country have been reshaping and expanding their missions for the last 30 years, according to an October 1999 report by the Urban Institute of Washington, D.C. The institute prepared the report, titled "State Efforts to Remake Child Welfare: Responses to New Challenges and Increased Scrutiny," as part of its program to assess changing social policies.

The report notes that in the last decade, the task of ensuring the safety of vulnerable children has become increasingly difficult. The recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and social changes such as the increase in drug abuse, domestic violence and single parenting, increased the number of families coming to the attention of child welfare agencies.

Although agencies need the flexibility to address individual problems with specialized solutions, we can't expect them to be solely responsible for solving all of society's problems, especially those associated with poverty. It's a community-wide responsibility. That's why there is widespread support for local control of child welfare programs.

Clark County Family and Youth Services is working on a plan for a model system tailored to meet the needs of local children and families. Under the proposal to be given to the legislative subcommittee, many of the responsibilities and programs now handled by the state would be placed under the county. The state would have oversight and regulatory authority.

There are many issues to be worked out, not the least of which is funding. Can Clark County adequately support a local system?

The larger question, however, is whether we are willing to make our children and families a priority. In the battle for dollars, where do we rank the welfare of our children among the demand for roads, prisons, new schools and other community projects?

It's a no-brainer. Children should get top billing.