State’s plan to improve child welfare system gets federal OK

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005 | 9:47 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The federal government has approved Nevada's plan to start correcting the deficiencies in its child welfare system and move toward complying with national standards.

An inspection in February 2004 by the federal Administration of Children and Families discovered a number of problems in the system, including a finding that abused and neglected children are kept too long in shelters before being placed in foster homes.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said Wednesday that the state Division of Child and Family Services, the Washoe County Department of Social Services and the Clark County Department of Family Service worked to develop the 80-page corrective plan.

The primary focus in the first year is increased training for social workers to better help families and also to establish a consistent policy in Nevada.

The federal agency in February 2004 said child protection programs in Clark, Washoe and rural Nevada are operated on different standards and policies.

Guinn, in his budget submitted to the Legislature, calls for money to reduce the number of children per social worker from the present 1-to-25 in Clark and Washoe counties to 1-to-22. In rural Nevada, the plan is to lower the ratio from 1-to-28 to 1-to-19.

Guinn said, "Social workers can't do their jobs well if they are assigned high caseloads that prevent them from visiting children and families in their homes."

Chrystal Main, social services system advocate for the state division, said there is a lower ratio in rural Nevada because of the travel time the workers must take to visit children.

If the state fails to follow its corrective plan, it could lose $368,955 in federal funds.

Main said every state failed the federal inspections. And some of them have yet to get their corrective plans approved.

The state operates the childcare system in the rural counties. Clark and Washoe counties have their own system.

The improvement plan requires Nevada to set goals in improving the safety, permanency and wellbeing of children. The state will be required to submit quarterly reports to the federal agency that is monitoring the progress of the state.

Main said this plan covers two years and further improvement plans will be submitted to cover five years.