Cutting child services?

Monday, March 14, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

Clark County officials have tried to improve the child welfare system, which six years ago was in crisis and desperately in need of help. There was no shortage of bad news: The system moved painfully slow, the shelter was overcrowded and children were vulnerable to abuse. In 2006, a federal official said the system was one of the worst in the country.

In testimony before the Legislature this month, Tom Morton, director of the county’s Family Services Department, said things have improved. He said the number of children at the shelter daily has been reduced from more than 200 in 2006 to fewer than 10 last year, and the number of days children stay in foster care has been reduced by 41 percent. More significantly, there have been no deaths of children in an open case since October 2007 — in the first part of that year, there were nine child deaths in open cases.

It is good to see improvement, but there is still much work to do, as Morton acknowledged. The county still hasn’t fully met state standards, and advocacy groups continue to give the child welfare system failing grades.

Unfortunately, the gains the county has made — much less any further progress — could be wiped out under Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget proposal. Morton said the proposed budget cuts, combined with a loss in federal matching funds, would cut Family Services’ budget by 25 percent. And that would take Nevada back to where it was.

“To return to 2005 and 2006 would be a tragedy for the children of Clark County,” Morton said. “Their very lives depend on the actions taken at this time.”

The county has taken a step back. Morton said previous budget cuts have meant that 52 of 325 positions in his department have gone unfilled. He gave the Legislature a grim outlook of what could happen if the budget proposal passes. There would be sizable staff reductions, reducing the amount of time caseworkers have to spend with children. There could also be a reduction in the pay foster parents receive to care for children in the system. The payments would drop 14 percent, and that would likely lead to some foster parents quitting. That would leave the county scrambling to find foster parents or put children into the shelter.

Sandoval’s administration has tried to defend its proposal by saying it would give Clark and Washoe counties, which run their own child welfare systems, more flexibility through block grants. But given the reduction in funding, the only flexibility the counties would have is in what to cut.

The governor’s budget proposal, which includes significant reductions to the juvenile justice system, would send the state backward.

“What has become of us as a civilization and as a community and as a state?” Family Court Judge Frances Doherty of Washoe County said during the legislative hearing. “We’re going to go back generations.”

The state has a responsibility to protect the children and the vulnerable, and Sandoval’s budget clearly wouldn’t do that. The Legislature shouldn’t accept that and let the child welfare system slip any further.