Legislative panel OKs new child welfare plan

Sandy Thompson

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

An interim legislative subcommittee has reaffirmed its support for a new child welfare system that transfers foster care and related services to Clark and Washoe counties, with the state handling those responsibilities in the rural counties.

The subcommittee, chaired by Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, will recommend that the 2001 Legislature approve the integrated system. The estimated additional costs would be $6.8 million for fiscal year 2002, and $12.6 million for 2003 and 2004.

If approved by the Legislature, the changeover would occur in phases, with Clark County assuming foster care cases by July 1, 2002.

The subcommittee, at its final hearing on the proposal Tuesday, stressed the importance of adequately funding the new system, providing mental health services for severely emotionally disturbed children and ensuring that state workers are treated fairly in the transfer to the counties.

The goal is to have the costs included in the governor's budget.

"If the sums are not in the governor's budget, we'll have a difficult -- if not impossible time -- to get this through (the Legislature)," Buckley said.

She added that Gov. Kenny Guinn "indicated he had an open mind" on the issue.

The subcommittee urged the counties and state to continue working on salary and benefit issues. The main concerns are pay rates, benefits and how longevity will be calculated.

"This is the stickiest wicket," Steve Shaw, administrator of the state Division of Child and Family Services, said of the pay and benefits issues.

Clark County's longevity benefits are significantly higher than the state's or Washoe County's. A worker must be in the system eight years before being eligible for the benefits. Some subcommittee members questioned how the longevity of a worker who has been in the state system for 10 or more years would be calculated in the transfer to the county. Those details have yet to be worked out, according to Kirby Burgess, director of Clark County's Department of Youth and Family Services.

Another issue, which also had been raised in previous subcommittee hearings, concerns licensing. The state has licensed social workers in the child welfare system. The county does not. Investigators with Child Protective Services are not licensed.

A woman representing social workers pointed out that as more workers are moved into the county system, there will be a need for social workers with specialized skills. She said the positions need to be licensed.

The new child welfare system would include money for increased foster care reimbursements and to adequately fund staff for lower caseload ratios. It also includes one-time costs for information technology (a unified computer system) and vacation and sick-time buy-outs.

The federal government mandates an automated statewide computer system. Clark County said that it will operate two parallel systems in the beginning to comply with the requirement. The level of effort to maintain both systems, according to the county's own proposal, "is anticipated to be substantial."

On Tuesday, Clark County also outlined its vision for the new system, which would include five geographically based community centers to serve families and children.

At these centers, Child Protective Services investigators and permanency teams would join mental health clinicians, family preservation specialists, and eligibility and foster care licensing staff to ensure children remain safe and families stable.

Additional partnerships at these centers would offer domestic violence advocacy, parent mentoring programs and Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) support. Community Resource Teams would be formed at all center sites to help coorindate services offered to multi-need children and their families.

All administrative and quality assurance functions; the CPS hotline; the Children's Advocacy Center, including the Sexual Abuse Investigative Team; foster care licensing approval and adoption subsidies would be housed at the Children's Center at the Department of Family and Youth Services' main campus.

Child Haven, which has a good reputation in the community for its care of abandoned, neglected and abused children, would no longer be the central shelter. Children entering the system would be placed more quickly in foster or relatives' homes.

Child Haven then could be used for more specialized programs such as caring for children with special medical needs, those who are severely emotionally disturbed or to house large sibling groups.

The goal of the new child welfare system is to reduce the time children spend in foster care limbo. The federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, and state legislation, Assembly Bill 58, placed new requirements for lessening time a child spends in foster care and initiating a permanency planning process from the first day a child enters the system.

Supporters of an integrated system in Nevada say it will save the state money in the long run by reducing costs of additional time in foster care, eliminating duplication of services and reducing multiple placements and staff time due to changes and transition of care.