Plan calls for county to take full control of child protective system

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday approved moving forward with a plan for Clark County to take full control of the child protective system in the county, from intervening in cases where children are neglected or abused to foster care and adoptions.

Until recently, Clark and Washoe counties were the only jurisdictions in which the front end of the child protective system was handled by the county while the back end, adoptions and foster care, was handled the state. Advocates for children have long argued that the split system is bad for the children and families it is supposed to serve because it lacks continuity and coordination, among other things.

In 2001 the Nevada Legislature agreed, and it ordered the state to turn over its portion of the system, but because of state funding shortages, unification was only recently completed in Washoe and never got started in Clark.

Tuesday, the Senate committee endorsed Gov. Kenny Guinn's budget, which provides the money to integrate the state and Clark systems. The Assembly Ways and Means Committee had already endorsed the budget. The unification of the systems in Clark is scheduled to be completed in October 2004.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, told his colleagues that two years ago, when the law was passed calling for two major counties take over adoption and foster care, the understanding was that the state would not acquire additional costs.

"That has since eroded," he said.

Before the committee voted, Raggio insisted that Guinn send a signed letter detailing what the state will pay in the next two years.

The state intends to switch 154 employees from the state Division of Child and Family Services to Clark County over the next 18 months.

Under the agreement worked out with Clark and Washoe counties, the state pays for any increase in the number of children that come into the program. The counties will maintain a ratio of one employee to every 28 children.

The state agrees to pay a rate of $21 per day per child to foster parents. If the counties want to raise that rate, they will have to put up the extra cost. Clark County now pays $21 and Washoe pays $30. So Washoe County is paying the extra $9 per day per child to foster parents.

The state employees who will switch over to work under the Clark County system will receive higher pay in line with the increased salary schedule in Southern Nevada.

When the state provides a cost-of-living raise to its employees, it will also appropriate money to cover any pay raise the county gives the employees. If the county does not provide a cost-of-living increase, the child-care workers would not get the higher pay of the state.

If the county provides a higher cost-of-living raise than the state, the state money would be used to offset part of the county's cost.

Sen. Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, said she was uncomfortable creating a "hybrid employee," who is transferred to the county but is still a state obligation.

Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, said these child and family service employees would be county employees with the state paying them.

"The state is obligated for care of these children. They can get better care from the county," Rawson said.

Mike Alastuey, lobbyist for Clark County, said the action by the Finance Committee is "conceptually OK." He said it approves the maintenance budget of the governor, and it allows a fair formula for support of these programs to be developed in the future.

While he understands the value of the switch, Raggio said the future demands on the state need to be monitored. He directed the state Child and Family Services Division to submit reports every six months on the integration and the costs. Raggio at first questioned whether the integration might be delayed for two years, saving the state $6 million, most of which will go to the higher salaries of state workers turning into county employees.

But he abandoned that idea.

The state will continue to operate the child protective services, adoption and foster care programs in Nevada's 15 other counties.