Overhaul of child welfare system urged

Sandy Thompson

Friday, June 16, 2000 | 10:59 a.m.

A legislative subcommittee is recommending a complete overhaul of Nevada's child welfare system, transferring the bulk of services from the state to Clark and Washoe counties.

Under the recommendations approved Thursday, foster care and adoptions, emergency shelter care, family foster care and related child welfare programs would be handled by Clark and Washoe counties. The state will be responsible for regulatory oversight and licensing, as well as providing child welfare services in rural Nevada counties.

"This is a significant piece of legislation," state Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, said.

His subcommittee colleagues agreed to send a strong message to the Legislature: The current bifurcated system has harmed children; it must be changed to better serve them.

Nevada has the only system in the country in which the county handles certain aspects of child welfare and the state handles others. That has created delays and gaps in services, causing children to linger in foster care for years. The federal Adoption and Safe Families Act mandates that a permanency plan be in place within 12 months after a child enters the system. It's a deadline Nevada can't meet under the current system.

While the subcommittee agreed on the framework for a new integrated child welfare system, many details remain to be worked out: Computing actual costs, finding additional revenue, devising a fair process that allows state workers to transfer to the county, and addressing pay disparities.

The cost of Clark County providing child welfare services is estimated at $25 million -- $9 million short of projected available revenue that includes state and federal funds. Not included are the costs of an interim pilot program and a federally required single-state computer system.

Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, who chairs the subcommittee, on Thursday gave agencies a strict deadline to submit cost figures and other data on how the new system would work.

"The rubber has hit the road," she repeated throughout the hearing. "Give us what we need to make these recommendations."

Initially, Clark County's new child welfare system would be under the umbrella of the Department of Family and Youth Services, which also includes juvenile justice and Child Protective Services. Whether they would continue to operate as one large agency has not been decided, said Family and Youth Services Director Kirby Burgess.

He said the immediate priority is coming up with a transitional plan to integrate the state and county systems, identifying funding, and addressing computer system and staffing issues. Youth and Family Services has 455 employees, is adding another 100 under an expansion program, and expects to hire 80 to 100 more state workers to handle the child welfare component.

The subcommittee's child welfare recommendations also would permit youths to stay in foster care until age 21 under certain circumstances if they are finishing high school or attending college or a trade school. That would help many foster children who "age out" of the system and feel lost because they don't have the skills to be on their own at 18, with no family advice or assistance, Rawson said.

The subcommittee expressed concern about how the new system would handle child mental health services. Those programs, along with purchased services for therapeutic care, would be administered by the state Division of Child and Family Services.

Christa Peterson, deputy administrator of DCFS, said 31 percent of the division's child welfare population is severely emotionally disturbed. A local survey showed that only 18 percent of those children receive services from DCFS, she said.

Thom Reilly, a UNLV professor who helped design the integrated child welfare services model, said the amount of money for children's mental health services is woefully inadequate.

The subcommittee agreed it's an issue that should be addressed, but not as part of the current child welfare recommendations.

Reilly recommended that a legislative panel on youth and families continue to oversee and monitor the transfer of child welfare services from the state to Washoe and Clark counties.

The sixth and last meeting of Buckley's subcommittee will be Aug. 9 to finalize recommendations and cost estimates that will be presented to the 2001 Legislature.