Blueprint for merged child welfare approved

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2002 | 9:14 a.m.

A legislative committee has approved a plan to pay for a merger of state and county child welfare systems.

The plan accepted Monday by the Legislative Committee on Children, Youth and Families involves a funding swap between Clark County and the state.

Clark County would take over operating and salary costs of the child welfare division. In exchange, the state would take over the county's long-term Match program, a separate program that funds nursing home care for the elderly.

Costs not covered by the swap, such as foster care and adoption, would be divided proportionately between the county and the state.

"This is a major milestone," said committee chairwoman Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, noting it removes a barrier to the merger. "All of us who work with kids say we need better for them. We're their only voice. It's us or they just don't get heard."

The merger had been delayed from January 2003 until July by a budget crunch that left the state unable to pay the county its share of the cost of a combined agency.

The new funding plan will go before the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee Nov. 21.

The committee on children met at the Sawyer State Office Building against a backdrop of long-standing criticism from child welfare advocates, who said Nevada's divided system, the only one in the nation, was unfair to children.

Currently, Clark County takes care of abused and neglected children immediately after they are removed from a home through services such as Child Haven, Child Protective Services and emergency shelter care.

The state takes over once children are approved for foster care or adoption.

"Children were falling through the cracks," Buckley said. "Each time a child would be moved from the county to the state, that would mean a different case worker, therapist and school. Advocates said it was the worst system in the world for children."

Under the merger, the county will be responsible for children in the system from the time they become wards of the court until they are removed from the system or emancipated.

More than 70 percent of all children in Nevada's child welfare system, about 1,600 children, are in Clark County, Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of Clark County's Department of Family Services, said.

Family Services has already leased space to accommodate the 114 state welfare employees who will transfer to its offices in July. Training has begun for the first 16 state employees to move to Clark County this month and next month.

The shared funding plan wouldn't go into effect until about 18 months after state employees and caseloads transfer to the county. The date for the swap has yet to be determined.

In the interim, the county and state will continue to pay for the services they currently cover.

The decision to delay the shared funding came after county officials argued that employees needed more time to adjust to the takeover.

"We don't want to rush into the next stage of having shared funding until we make sure we have it right," Klein-Rothschild said. "We don't want to run out of money."

But some state officials had their own concerns, saying the growth rate in the county Match program could cost more than the salary and operating expenses the county is slated to pick up for child welfare.

"Those county Match funds are massive," said Edward Cotton, administrator of the state's Division of Child and Family Services, who helped draw up the plan. "So the match is not exactly even. That's a risk for the state."

Washoe County, which wasn't affected by state budget cuts, started a pilot program for the merged system in October 2000 and began transferring employees and children in April.

The state will take over Washoe County's Match program immediately. The remainder of state child welfare employees will be moved to county control in January.

Klein-Rothschild said Washoe County's pilot program resulted in fewer children in temporary foster care and more children in permanent homes.

"We've learned from Washoe County that this system can be good for kids and families," she said. "All the data says it will get us what we need."

The committee Monday also approved a proposal to allow social workers to become licensed foster parents, provided the children are not on their caseload.

Nevada is facing a shortage of about 100 foster homes, Cotton said.

State law currently prohibits state workers to provide in-home care to any foster children.

Cotton said a board of three state and county officials will be created to prevent ethical problems that could arise.

"What's important is to match the kid to the right home," he said. "We'd like to have some options to find out which kid fits with which home. Right now, unfortunately, we just have to find an opening."