2002 Collaborative Report
APPENDIX I
COLLABORATIVE BEST PRACTICES
Programs that Really Work (and Save Money)!
from the 2002 Collaborative Report
I. EARLY CHILDHOOD
Koochiching
Filmore
Douglas
Beltrami
Brown
1. Prenatal and Infants – Home Visiting Programs
Universal Contact Program serves all families in Brown County with newborn babies. The home visits
provide information and resources to all families, including those identified with risk factors and those
without. This is a primary prevention strategy to prevent child maltreatment, and promote positive
parenting. (…).
Maternal and Child Health Programs - Our Mothers and Infants Action Team has developed a Breast
feeding Support Program and non-traditional prenatal classes.
The Breast Feeding support (…) provides information in addition to one to one consultation with new
mothers. These services are provided at the Hospital and the clinic by a certified lactation consultant.
The non-traditional pre-natal classes are provided through the County Nursing Service. These prenatal classes are designed to meet the needs of non-traditional families. (…)
It has been a priority of the Beltrami Area Service Collaborative to provide interagency maternal and
child care programming. It is our belief that healthy mothers and children provide the foundation for
many other prevention strategies.
Universally Offered Home Visiting provides an option for home visits for parents of children birth to
age 5. This service provides parents with a link to a multitude of early childhood programming
designed to support parents and families.
Partners in Parenting works collaboratively with many agencies in Filmore County to identify parents
and children who may benefit from a home-visiting program.(…). The PIP program works on referrals
from many agencies and also refers children when necessary. Two of the outcome statistics for clients
are as follows:

82% of clients improved the safety of their home, received safety education and or safety supplies
(up 3% from 2001)

100% of children had their immunizations reviewed by the public health nurse (up 7% from 2001)
These are only two of the outcomes tracked, but they demonstrate savings to the county by the nature
of the service received. Potential problems are caught early and prevention works.
The collaborative has increased the availability of the universal home visiting program for expecting
and new parents to families with children up to the age of 5 (the original program guidelines is to age
2). (…) The nurses are trained as wraparound facilitators and have used the approach with families
with multiple agencies involved. The three nurses have also been working with the Children’s First
committee that is comprised of the R.S.V.P. (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) coordinator,
Coordinator on Aging, Falls Hospital Administrator, Family Development Specialist and myself to
make sure all the children born to parents in Koochiching County have a car seat and a home quilt at
the very minimum. (…) The success rate for acceptance has been 78% for home visits. The nurses are
also working with other providers with several families with multiple needs – homelessness, teen
parents, abusive relationships with baby’s father, parents with limited mental abilities, and children
with medical issues (apnea, cleft palate, premature). They have been successful in improving these
situations through intervention and assistance. (…)
1
South Central
Otter Tail
Olmsted FSC
Nicollet
2002 Collaborative Report
Nicollet County Public Health has provided an early identification and intervention service called Leap
to Learn which combines a home visit, a packet of resource information and appropriate toys and gifts
to meet developmental milestones and sign up the child for the Infant Follow Along Program which
provides for self reporting on the child’s development by the parents at significant developmental ages
up to 36 months.
This program has served over 300 newborns and their parents in Nicollet each year since the program
started about 4 years ago. A public health nurse contacts newborn parents either at the time of delivery
or shortly after the newborn arrives home. The public health nurse provides developmental age
appropriate toys and gifts.(…) Hearing loss may also be detected using these toys if the child does not
respond with repeated use of the toys. A warm quilt is given made by Senior Citizens to swaddle the
child and to use when holding, rocking or feeding infants.
Parents who are on UCare are offered a car seat and demonstration on proper securing the car seat and
placement of the car seat are demonstrated as well as buckling in the child safely and correctly.
Immunization schedule information and WIC information is provided as well as information on
Medical Assistance and Minnesota Care for those families who are uninsured or underinsured.
Information on Child and Teen Checkup is also provided in the three ring binder of information
reviewed with the parents. Information on Early Childhood Family Education programs are also
included in the packet. The outreach has increased numbers in both WIC and referrals to the
Interagency Early Intervention Committee (IEIC) which received 22 referrals.
BABY STEPS is a collaborative program that provides a team of 4 professional staff from Public Health
and Social Services to first time mothers with at-risk situations. This team saves program and
administrative dollars by working with combined resources. The Public Health Board, Community
Social Services Board, Family Service Collaborative and Children’s Mental Health Collaborative work
jointly to plan service delivery and monitor program performance.
This program recently received a NACO national award for Counties Care For Kids.
Our universal home visiting project was developed to prevent or provide the earliest possible
intervention for issues that would require costly interventions. Our home visits monitor and encourage
scheduled child wellness visits, on-time immunizations, and Early Childhood Screening between 3.5 – 4
years. Our first four visits occur between a week after birth and twelve months, so that if a problem is
identified children will be referred as early as possible and the lowest cost interventions are most
effective. Home visitors are assigned to families who have additional contacts with their employing
agencies to maximize the opportunities for relationship building contacts. This increases both the
ability to do prevention as well as the earliest possible interventions.
The SCCP operates a home-visitation program for parents with new-born infants, up to the age of 5,
the Partners in Parenting Program. This program is based on the Healthy-Start Program from Hawaii,
and offers voluntary in-home education and support to parents, in an attempt to reduce the incidence
of Child Abuse and Neglect.
Over the years of operation of this and other early-intervention programs initiated by the collaborative,
the CAN assessments in Blue Earth County have declined from a total of 363 in 1995 to 178 in 2002, a
50% drop. The number of cases of maltreatment determined dropped from 168 in 1995 to 63 in 2002, a
62.5% drop. The number of cases opened for Child Protective Services wen from 60 in 1995 to 43 in
2002, a drop of 28%.
Similar declines have been demonstrated in our use of Out-of-Home placements and the associated
costs. Comparing Blue Earth County’s 1998 data with the 2001-2002 data, our Out-of-Home placements
have declined by 26%, and the costs for those placements have declined by 17%, an actual drop of
$320,000.
2
Wabasha
St. Louis - Duluth
2002 Collaborative Report
The First Year Program, a collaborative effort of two public and two private agencies, is committed to
promoting the healthy development of children from the prenatal period through the first year by
facilitating responsive parent-child relationships and creating a supportive environment for families.
(…) Program components include on-site weekly concurrent parent education/early childhood
education sessions and a mental health support group and off-site components include weekly home
visits and respite child care. These components are coordinated to provide individualized services to
meet the unique needs of each participant. Based on exit interview data, participating parents reported
increased feelings of social support and connection to others, increased knowledge of parenting
strategies, and increased knowledge of child development. Exit interviews also illustrated that
program services helped alleviate family stress though the provision of temporary child care, one-onone support and encouragement fro staff, and access to a supportive social network of other mothers in
similar life circumstances.
Universal Home Visits by Public Health Nurses strives to contact EVERY newborn and his/her
mother in Wabasha County. This early intervention practice allows nurses to educate, communicate
and refer mothers/infants at a very early developmental stage. Although participation is voluntary,
most contacts result in a trusting relationship with a reliable prevention resource, namely, a public
health nurse.
Wadena
Freeborn
Aitkin
2. Early Childhood Screening
Aitkin County Collaborative sponsors two Early Childhood Screenings in each school district each
year. These screenings allow parents to have their child screened at a time which is convenient to
their schedule, the ability to attend in a school district other than their own, if it is a more convenient
time, therefore increasing the number of screenings done within the county.
It is the belief of the Aitkin County Family Services Collaborative that if children are screened before
they enter school, all agencies and school personnel will be aware of the child and family needs, if any,
and will be able to address concerns while they remain small, rather than wait until needs become
greater.
The Aitkin County Early Childhood Screenings have grown over the past four years and now include
lead testing for all children in Aitkin County, offer physicals by a physician as well as the regular
height, weight, developmental and mental health part of the screenings.
Healthy Families is a joint project of Public Health and Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE).
They make contact with every new birth family at Albert Lea Medical Center. Prior to the start of
Healthy Families, both Public Health and ECFE had a representative at the hospital to meet with new
birth families. Now they have one representative for both agencies who works closely with the
hospital to determine which families should be assessed for eligibility for Healthy Families. The
representative meets with every family to either assess and enroll them in Healthy Families, or, if they
don’t qualify, share information about services in the community (including ECFE classes).
The children enrolled in Healthy Families are screened with the Denver II at six months, one year,
and then annually. The combination of the screenings and the intensive home visits (usually weekly)
helps families identify problems earlier -- infants and toddlers are receiving needed services earlier.
This prevents the need for many services later.
First Years is a committee comprised of preschool providers and parents. Some of their collaborative
efforts include a common intake form and common release form. This saves each agency staff time as
well as parent time, so the asking, completing, and entering of the same information does not need to
occur numerous times. We also work together to assure that child health screenings are not repeated,
and that each agency/provider completing child health screenings uses the same format that meets
everyone’s needs for their particular program. We are hoping to continue working with state
guidelines for documentation for the various programs such as ECS, C&TC, WIC, Head Start, IIIP, etc.
so that forms and documentation required are acceptable and similar for the multiple programs.
3
2002 Collaborative Report
Proactive Intervention Program is a model that uses several approaches to maximize resources while
providing excellent quality services to families. This program addresses the needs of young children
(birth to five) who present challenging behaviors in their early childhood setting. The goal is
behavioral improvement for children and teaching proactive intervention strategies to early
childhood providers and parents.
Four approaches are used:
1) Train the trainer model for early childhood professionals.
2) On site interventions with a Proactive Behavior Specialist
3) Parent’s Time Out groups
4) Local consultation team
Each of these approaches utilize and enhance existing provider’s and parent’s ability to work with
the children within their own setting. Using a train the trainer approach many people can be trained
within their own organizations, and the local consultation team can be consulted for difficult cases.
At a cost of $128,050, in 2002, this program serves the entire county and offers services that were
previously unavailable as well as unaffordable to most organizations.
The Collaborative has established a Prenatal/Early Childhood Partnership with 45 participants
meeting monthly to coordinate, integrate and create programs and services for children, from home
visiting to transitions into kindergarten. This multi-agency, broad-based community group provides
classes, day care center training, screenings, public health interventions, and a deliberate,
comprehensive entrance/follow-up into kindergarten. Special efforts are made at identifications of
early difficulties.
The child and family support program intervenes with young children who exhibit one of the early
indicators of mental health issues: behavioral issues in pre-school or daycare settings. By providing
one on one parenting and teaching support, and developing behavioral strategies for these children,
their situations can be stabilized. The potential savings in mental health treatment costs and/or
special education costs is huge.
The Child Family Support Program provides support and intervention services for young children
(age birth to 5 years old) and their families who have been identified with behavioral, emotional or
social issues, but do not qualify for special education services. Through collaborations with Early
Childhood Special Education, Learning Link, Early Childhood Family Education, and the Early
Childhood Screening nurse, the Child Family Support Program coordinates efforts to minimize the
duplication of resources. Partners include most of the preschools in the community, as well as some
of home daycare centers. By identifying children who are at risk at a very early age and providing
them with the necessary interventions, a significant number are able to avoid special education
classification (and some avoid out-of-home placements), and thus save considerable resources.
Further, Wayzata’s Child and Family Support Program has become a model for other school districts
who will replicate these services in their districts.
The Follow Along Program is an interagency child find effort to identify children at risk for health or
developmental problems. The Follow Along Program provides a simple and easy way for parents
and health care providers to exchange information about the growth and development of children.
The program facilitates the timely identification and assessment of children with special needs in
order to assure services as soon as possible. In Houston County, the Follow Along Program
enhances interagency collaboration between Public Health, schools, IEIC and the Birth – 3 program in
order to assist families with early access to health, education and human service programs. The
Follow Along Program provides a number of examples of the value of early identification resulting
in cost savings. Through the use of periodic questionnaires, children can be identified with a
possible health or developmental concern and referred to the appropriate resource, i.e. physician
specialist, Birth to Three teacher. Early intervention by these resources results in long-term cost
savings for the care and treatment of children with special needs. In addition, the information
provided to families in the Follow Along Program enhances their knowledge of their child’s normal
growth and development which results in cost savings by limiting unnecessary health provider
visits.
Houston
Hennepin- Wayzata
Hennepin
Minnetonk
aa
Carlton
Anoka
3. Intervention Programs for Children Birth to Five
4
Stevens
St. Louis Northern
Rock
North Shore
Norman
2002 Collaborative Report
Expanded ECFE and Evening Parenting Classes have provided a wonderful opportunity for parents
and youth. Working parents are able to attend evening parenting classes while their youngster
attends ECFE. These young children are identified earlier and appropriate services are offered at an
early age. The challenges this youth faces are addressed before they become more difficult to
address. In addition, their parent finds support and information through the evening ECFE classes.
The North Shore Collaborative partners with Lake Superior School District #381, and the Human
Development Center, in order to provide a summer program titled, Partners in Education. Children,
ages 4-5, preschool or kindergarten, are referred by various professionals working with these
children in various settings (Head Start, mental health, schools, etc.) who are aware of some
additional needs that these children may have in order to succeed in kindergarten or first grade.
During the three week program, basic classroom and learning skills are taught, with attention being
paid to individual needs. This is possible by keeping the class size small (10-12 children with three
leaders). In addition, there is a parent involvement component with the intent of engaging the parent
early in the child’s schooling and beginning that relationship from the start.
The feedback from the families, the staff involved, and also notably, the classroom teachers during
the school year, has all been extremely positive. The teachers report less time needing to be spent on
helping some of these children “catch up” or in making them feel comfortable in a regular classroom
setting. The parents express more satisfaction with their child’s learning progress and a greater
willingness to communicate with the school, and other professionals involved also see improvement.
The Collaborative has implemented a Healthy Families program which is designed to educate and
support families from pregnancy through to age 5.
The Early Childhood Partnership that has been working together since July 2002. This is a group of
several early childhood providers that are working together to avoid duplication of services, shared
training, and train the trainer opportunities. This group is also supporting early mental health
interventions by providing early mental health screenings and in-home counseling thus preventing
further costs for mental health interventions later on.
(…) As part of the HUG program, we offer families the Ages and Stages Follow-Along program that
includes developmental questions. Any areas of concern are referred to the appropriate
professionals. This year we have also implemented the Ages and Stages Social and Emotional
questionnaires to help with early identification of mental health issues.
II.SCHOOL –AGED CHILDREN
Ramsey – St. paul CI
1. Check-up and Screening Programs
One of the most important efforts to prevent health problems is to ensure that children receive
regular well child checks. (…)The Well Child Check-up Initiative coordinates and integrates
strategies to increase the number of well-child check-ups. Through this initiative, parents without
health insurance were able to receive insurance coverage. Additionally, families participated in
activities focused on well child check-ups. Finally, parents and community partners were trained on
the well child check-up. These peer parents took the information learned to their communities to
insure that families understand the importance of well child check-ups and access them regularly. In
a further effort to save health dollars, public health nurses conducted well child check-ups at various
community sites to improve access and propagate long term savings.
Cottonwood
2. School Based Social Workers – Family Support Workers
The collaborative’s ability to bring in additional financial resources has enabled it to place staff in its
participating agencies (the schools) to concentrate on prevention and intervention, precluding some
children and families from entering he county social service and court systems while identifying
other children and families for early intervention and treatment, at a much lower cost. All though
some of the children seen by the collaborative’s School-Based Family Advocates and mental health
therapist are also being followed by the county, the collaborative staff see two plus children for every
child receiving targeted case management services from the county.
5
Hubbard
Hennepin St. Louis Park
Faribault &
Martin
Dakota FSC
Crow Wing
2002 Collaborative Report
There are 1325 stories to tell by the 15 Family Services Collaborative Teams in Crow Wing
County.(…)This group of professionals is working in schools and homes throughout the county to
help families with school age children. The FSC Service Team is designated to provide prevention
and early intervention services. This coordination of services in the school and community increases
student’s readiness to learn and improves family participation and satisfaction with the school
system. It also improves their connection to the community.
Partners for Success – Family Support Workers. Through four of the seven local Family Service
Collaboratives, funds were allocated to support the position of Family Support Workers through
Community Action Council, Inc. Partners for Success Program. Family Support Workers are located
directly in neighborhoods, schools, and multi-housing complexes and work to bridge the gap
between home and school for children. A Family Support Worker provides resources, services, and
support to families around issues such as home to school communication, parent to child
communication, community isolation, unemployment, food emergencies, transportation, affordable
housing, financial crises, child care, welfare to work transitions, domestic abuse and sexual assault.
The Family Support Worker works alongside school staff enabling children to arrive at school ready
to learn enhancing a child’s success in the classroom by knowing things are going well at home.
Family Support Workers are unique in that they serve as support persons who are neutral, accessible
and able to make accommodations to meet a family’s needs. Families are referred to a Family
Support Worker by school staff, faith communities, employers, property managers, police
departments, and friends or on a self-referral basis. There are no specific eligibility or fee for services.
Families can use the service on a short-term basis or stay working with a Family Support Worker
over an extended period of time so as to resolve the underlying issues. Family Support Worker
hours are flexible and appointments can be arranged days, evenings, at school or in a family’s home.
(…).
School Social Workers would likely not be a resource in our area schools without the LCTS funds.
We currently have twelve school social workers within the six school districts and the special
education cooperative. Without those workers and their early intervention services, it is our believe
that the abuse/neglect of children would be occurring at a higher rate, out of home placements
would be on the rise, and many more families would be struggling.
The 9th Grade Social Worker Asset Building Program is an intervention based on the Search
Institutes framework of asset development. The program aims to increase the number of assets of all
9th graders and reduces the problem behaviors such as alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, truancy,
discipline referrals and failures. The partners include: St. Louis Park Schools, State Incentive grant
managed through CFL, Minnesota Institute of Public Health, Park Nicollet, Youth Frontiers and the
City of St. Louis Park. (…)The LCTS funds employs a social worker to work exclusively with the
identified high-risk students in 9th grade. The social worker provides services to any 9 th grader in
need (particularly high-risk students as indicated by poor attendance, failing grades, chemical use,
social withdrawal, discipline referrals, challenging familial circumstances, etc.).
Preliminary results have indicated successes.
The Collaborative funds what we call a Healthy Family Advocate whose responsibility is to work
with families with children that are experiencing any problem that is disrupting the families stability.
Families volunteer for services. The service provided is to assist the family find the resources it
needs to deal with the particular problem. The problems may range from securing housing, to
seeking medical treatment, serving as an advocate if the family is having trouble dealing with the
school or county. The advocate is housed in the community and works along side the family seeking
help. They have been given broad flexibility to work with the family and have access to a small pool
of money to address problems if no other resources are available.
We have seen the confidence of many families increased with the efforts of the advocate. The
advocate doesn’t necessarily do things for the families but aids, encourages and recommends. A
screening committee with representatives from schools, the county, community action, corrections
and our area hospital review the requests for service and determine which referrals will be served.
To date we have not had to turn away any families who have sought help. The early intervention by
the advocate has been a major help intervening earlier in problems, which if they had not been
addressed, would have lead to more expensive interventions.
6
Mower
Morrison
Mille Lacs
Lyon-Murray
2002 Collaborative Report
One of the programs funded partially with LCTS funds is the Family Facilitator. Various outcomes
have been in place with the overall goal of reducing out-of-home placement. Primary outcomes have
been:
1) improved school attendance
2) gains in academic achievement
3) improved classroom behavior
4) an increase in parental involvement
Information has also been gathered relating to social problem solving, family functioning,
psychological coping, and home and school relations.
This program annually costs approximately $40,000 per year to operate. With just one child not
being placed at a medium cost facility the operational cost is recovered in a short period of time.
Family TIES program is a family facilitator service which works with children/ family on a
voluntary basis. Services may include parenting education and skills, truancy intervention, resource
referral and abuse prevention. Savings can be seen in reduction of out of home placements,
reduction in court costs, reduced special education costs, etc.
A six-month planning process was completed in 2002 to launch Redirecting and Connection
Adolescents (RCA). The anticipated cost savings will result in the reduction of out of home
placement for adolescents.
For example, incarceration for a juvenile in Morrison County costs approximately $2,500 a month.
RCA serves five school districts at no charge to families who wish to participate in the program. This
shared investment maximizes local resources and links families to their schools and communities.
RCA provides professional services to adolescence, as well as support for their families according to
each individual improvement plan. This service is new to Morrison County and will:

Provide one on one services to each student, as well as group activities that foster growth

Establish individual goals with each student to best meet their needs

Identify each individual’s strengths and work to increase self-esteem

Provide direction and support to improve personal adjustment skills

Utilize community resources, including peer support, adult mentoring, community service
and/or employment opportunities.

Enhance parental empowerment and family connections.
The Family Facilitator program in Mower County provides early intervention services for families
with children from birth through Elementary school. These services are free and confidential,
providing both home-based and school-based counseling and support. In 2002, only 29% of families
served were involved in multiple services in the past. 42% of all families served were receiving these
services as early intervention without past history of any other service involvement. Despite the fact
that many families had no previous service involvement, 94% of all families served identified
parenting issues, 79% of all families had divorce and family change issues, and 77% of children had
issues with Behavior problems. 61% of students had learning problems, 55% of students had
ADHD, 46% of family members had depression, 45% of families had marital issues and 42% of
children were in Special Education services for Emotional and Behavioral disorders. 44% of adults
served by the Family Facilitators in 2002 had chemical use or abuse issues. Nearly one quarter of
families also identified physical abuse, domestic violence, and death/loss issues.
A Flexible Fund was available to assist in bridging gaps for families served that would otherwise
create further family stress and unmet needs. 24% of the funds went toward Rent, Housing, and
Repairs. Foreclosures and homelessness was prevented with these funds for eight families. 18% of
the funds went toward Childcare assistance and respite supports, which prevents overburdened
parents and possible child abuse. 16% of funds assisted families with transportation needs and car
repairs to prevent job losses and reduce public assistance dependence. 12% of funds provided
assistance with phone, utilities and food to promote basic needs actualized. 11% of funds paid for
medication co pays to prevent unnecessary voids in medication management. 10% of funds went to
classes for GED, driving school, and camps for students for divorce and special needs. Personal care,
clothing, educational materials and interpreter services made up the other 9% of funds. While the
Flex funds were spent and not saved, the security and needs attained by spending the funds
demonstrates savings in well-being, productivity, academic achievement and positive parenting.
7
St. Louis - Northern
Sibley
Scott
Rock
Pine
Nobles
2002 Collaborative Report
The services provided by the Family Advocate program minimize or prevent services provided by
more costly governmental agencies such as community corrections, social services, or law
enforcement. By providing early intervention with students and families, the Family Advocate
program can help to prevent more severe and costly issues from developing. One thing the Family
Advocate program does is connect kids to positive after school activities. Many of the kids who are
involved with community corrections, social services, and law enforcement are not involved with
positive structured activities.
The Family Advocate attempts to connect kids to activities they enjoy. The Family Advocate will
meet with students to see what he or she likes to do and what they are good at. During these
conversations, between the Family Advocate and the student, a trust level usually starts to develop.
The kids begin to see the Family Advocate as someone who will not only talk and listen to them, but
as someone who will assist them with getting something good in life. When talking with parents to
arrange activities for their child, they will also slowly develop trust with the Family Advocate. The
Advocate is seen as someone who is there to help, not as someone who is threatening or demanding
that they make certain changes in their home life.
Once the child is connected to positive activities, the child simply does not have the same amount of
time to be running around getting into trouble. (…)
Our school-based social workers provide county social services (among other services) to families
with children in their schools. They also provide other school related services to those same families
and other children in the schools. The school based social workers have access to both systems which
benefits both agencies and the families.
Elementary Family Education Program which is designed to address parenting issues for families
with children in Kindergarten to 3rd Grade.
The Child Guide program was implemented in the Luverne School District as a means for teachers,
staff and even the children themselves to connect youth potentially “at- risk” with resources and
supports in the community which could decrease their potential to participate in negative/risky
behavior.
Partners for Success/ISD #191
Family Support Workers are successful in helping families because of the long-term, trusting
relationships they build. This trust allows the FSW to delve deeper and provide support to critical
problems such as parenting skills, isolation and domestic violence. Families routinely access
informal and community supports through the help the FSW. They often never have to ask the
county, school or other formal systems for help.
The Collaborative, Human Services and the 2 school districts in the county provide the funding for
the 4 Family Facilitators that are co-located in each of the county school districts. The Family
Facilitators work with children that have been identified as at-risk of out of home placement or are
having difficulty in school because of some problem at home. Facilitators work with the children and
their families in their homes to resolve communication, parenting and other difficulties identified by
the families. This past year they have seen 136 children from 62 families. 21 of the children have been
diagnosed with a SED/EBD diagnosis. By having this service available we are avoiding many out of
home placements and therefore saving money.
The Family Service Team fosters working relationships and reduces barriers between family, staff
and agencies as they collaboratively problem solve to better assist children and families. The schoolbased staff provides support, assessments, services and referrals to children and families throughout
the school year and during the summer months. The school-based staff concentrated their efforts on
prevention and early intervention through individual and groups skills training, regular meetings
with parents, classroom presentations and clinical consultations with teachers. Working closely with
school staff on issues that arise in the school is an effective and efficient way of service provision, as
issues can be immediately addressed. This results in:
1. Kids absent from school less.
2. Fewer behavior issues in school.
3. Earlier interventions at a lower cost than later interventions.
8
2002 Collaborative Report
Washington FSC
Todd
The Family Facilitator program involves social workers who have been hired by the county and
located in the schools. The program was developed in 1995 in response to the following concerns: 1)
the county was not able to work with families unless there was a crisis, and 2) the schools were
saying that while they could identify children with problems, their personnel were stretched too thin
to be able to spend much time working with families.
There are currently 14 Facilitators working in 9 schools districts in Brown, Sibley and Watonwan
counties. Their main focus is to work with children who are identified (largely by the schools) as
having some difficulty succeeding at school because of some problem at home. The mission of the
program is to provide a safe, nurturing and permanent family for children who are at risk or in need
of early intervention.
The Facilitators spend the majority of their time working with families in their homes at the family’s
convenience. They conduct an assessment of the family’s functioning, establish goals, develop a
service plan, provide case management services, make referrals to appropriate resources, and
provide education and counseling.
Another aspect of their position is to organize and plan summer activities for the children on their
caseloads. The children with whom they work are usually very “high needs” kids or the “toughest”
2% of the schools’ population. Because of this, it is important that these kids “stay connected” to
adults and programs during the crucial summer months when it is so easy for them to get into
trouble if left unsupervised.
Each Facilitator is limited to a maximum caseload of 12 families at one time. The reason for this is the
intense nature of the work they do with the child and the family. They not only work with the family
in their home, but the Facilitators also meet with the children at school and in the community. In
most cases, a Facilitator will work with a child/family for a period of 6 months to 1 year. The
amount of time the Facilitator spends with a family each week depends on the family’s needs and the
nature of the plan they have developed with the Facilitator.
This program has demonstrated significant cost savings by providing early intervention and
prevention of out of home placement.
Last year, the Todd County Collaborative for Children and Families started a program called
Families and Communities Together w/ Schools (FACTS). This program provides early
intervention and prevention services to children (pre-k to 3rd grade) in both a school and home
setting. The facilitators work with various agencies to generate referrals. They work with kids that
have issues but are not yet to the point of being referred to special education or social services. We
want to help them address the issues and get on the right track before the problems mushroom and
cause longer term difficulties. It is to early to determine what savings might be demonstrated but are
optimistic that we can keep some kids out of more intensive services.
YCAPP: YCAPP is a community partnership between ISD 834, Youth Service Bureau, local law
enforcement agencies and other local agencies to provide an intervention for students who have
misbehaved instead of suspension. The goals of YCAPP are: to maintain a safe learning
environment at school, connect students and families with community resources, prevent students
from falling behind academically, minimize repeat offenses and provide restorative measures such as
mediation, restitution and apology to fix situations. Students spend half of their day working with a
teacher and para-professional on school work. The other portion of the day is spent working with
Youth Service Bureau workers on the particular issue that got them into trouble. The student then
spends a portion of the afternoon in some type of service learning opportunity. Students return to
school with improved attitudes and skills.
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Winona
2002 Collaborative Report
Leadership is a countywide consequence program for students who are experiencing academic (i.e.,
by refusing to do work in class) or behavior problems (i.e., acting out) at school. The Leadership
program works very closely with schools and parents as well as social services and other community
service providers to improve the behaviors and performance of students in the community. Prior to
Leadership, schools were struggling with some of these kids and did not have an appropriate or local
alternative intervention to utilize. As a result, some of these kids ended up within the system (i.e..
Juvenile Court) and had to be dealt with accordingly (i.e., placement outside of the home or county).
But these alternative choices were not always appropriate and were least effective in really meeting
the needs of these kids and were very costly to our community. By catching a student at the onset of
a problem or issue, Leadership can help to turn these students around and help them experience
greater success in school and the community.
Leadership has proven to improve school attendance, behavior at school, home, and the community
and help students improve their grades. Leadership has reduced costs in areas of our system (i.e.,
reducing out of home costs) as well as helping to maintain levels of funding (i.e., students remaining
in school = no loss in general education revenue for that school). Other reduced costs are
experienced with less prosecution of juvenile crimes, intervention from law enforcement, juvenile
crime, and parents not losing time at work as a result of dealing with children at school or within the
system, etc.
Douglas
Dodge
Becker
3. Truancy Prevention
The Becker County Children’s Initiative is in its third year of programming in the area of truancy
prevention. We have found that having attendance/truancy coordinators located in each of the four
independent school districts of Lake Park/Audubon; Frazee-Vergas; Pine Point and Detroit Lakes,
and BIA Circle of Life School have been effective at implementing truancy reduction goals. Each
location has seen a decrease in the number of truant youth. They have also seen an increase in the
number of students able to access prevention/intervention services earlier than in the past. Each
student that is kept in school demonstrates savings in more expensive intervention services. In
addition, each student that stays in school represents per pupil income for school districts. This is
critical to school districts, especially in times of declining enrollment.
The Truancy Intervention Project (TIP) has been a successful intervention to deal with the truancy
issues in Dodge County. Before the Truancy Intervention Project, truancy in Dodge County was out
of control. There was a lack of communication between the schools and the county and therefore the
issue was often not dealt with. The schools would impose detention or suspension on high school
age youth, which was often ineffective. When truancy was a matter of educational neglect, the
school tried to work with parents but found the results ineffective. Because of a breakdown in
communication between the schools and the county, CHIPS petitions were rarely filed. Since the TIP
project was developed, truancy issues have been dealt with at the first unexcused absence. Students
and families are held accountable for their school attendance. The family is also offered resources
and information to deal with whatever issues are interfering with the students’ attendance. There is
a communication network now between the TIP worker, the schools, human services, corrections,
law enforcement and court administration. All levels of intervention are active and involved.
Having a central location for referral saves all involved time and money. In addition, doing an
intervention at the very first unexcused absence often takes care of the problem. This saves schools,
human services, and court services time and money, while addressing the problem head on.
Truancy Tracker provides services to school-age children grades K through 12 who are experiencing
attendance issues. Cost savings result from improved attendance, reduction in drop-out rate and
reduced incidence of court involvement.
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Clay
Rice
Jackson
Itasca
Isanti
Hennepin Minneapolis
2002 Collaborative Report
The Family Outreach Worker and Attendance Liaisons’ efforts to involve parents is preventative in
so far as the barriers to better school attendance are directly reduced as a result of a better working
relationship between the school and the family.
The savings comes in two ways:
1) The achievement of the children is improved as a result of better school attendance and
therefore the child is less likely to need supplementary instruction. In addition, the child’s
likelihood of finishing school is heightened and therefore the child is apt to be a more
productive wage earner.
2) The information gained about the family circumstances can lead to solving problems at a
local level. The likelihood of the issues becoming compounded and intractable is reduced
and therefore the need for more intensive and expensive county services is reduced.
The outcome to the Attendance Liaison Project is that participating schools increased the number of
children attending 95% of the time or better by an average of 10.05%.
We have funded Truancy Intervention at the high school level. In the first year of services, truancy
referrals to Court Services was reduced by 69%. This is a reduction in court costs including time for
judges, attorneys, reporters etc. in addition to probation officer time and resulting actions such as out
of home placements, electronic monitoring etc. The cost of reduced crime because the youth are in
school is vague but potentially huge.
The truancy prevention has been implemented in every school building in Itasca County. It has the
support and cooperation of the schools, human services and corrections departments. It has allowed
for the early intervention and identification of the issues behind the truancy. It also allows for the
earlier identification of mental health issues in children and staff are able to make referrals for a
comprehensive assessment to address these issues in an appropriate fashion. It has also facilitated
earlier referrals to the children’s mental program. Graduation rates are some of the highest in the
state and this transfers into long term savings.
In 2002 a Truancy Prevention Program was begun for grades K-12. At the same time a
Conferencing/Mediation Program was also implemented. Both of these programs have resulted in a
great deal of savings in juvenile court costs. Approximately 15 youth were served the first year in
these prevention programs. Their issues were resolved by a team of parents, providers, and the
youth themselves. These teams were able to come up with alternatives to addressing issues that
would otherwise have resulted in court time and expense.
The Truancy Intervention Project is a cooperative effort between Rice County Community
Corrections (in the person of the Truancy Intervention Specialist) and the Northfield and Faribault
Public School Districts. In addition, the Specialist also serves a few schools located in Rice County
that are affiliated with other Collaboratives. Through these cooperative efforts, there has been an
improvement in the attendance of most middle school students who have been referred and all
elementary students referred to the project. The County has also seen a reduced number of out-ofhome placements resulting from truancy issues and also a reduction in the CHIPS petitions.
The Truancy Intervention Program (TIP) is funded with LCTS dollars and is administered by the
Collaborative. The TIP has reduced truancy at a high rate (at least 75%) since its inception. The
Collaborative has been informed that the TIP has had a major impact on also reducing the drop-out
rate and that Moorhead High School was allowed to increase staff for 2003-2004 because of the
anticipated increase in the number of students attending the high school. (Two years ago, the
Collaborative was informed that the TIP had assisted in reducing the truancy to such a degree that
the increase in students increased State aid for the School District and helped prevent the need to
“lay-off” two teacher positions.)
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Otter Tail
2002 Collaborative Report
The Truancy Prevention Project has provided staff at each school to identify and respond to
attendance issues before they become significant problems. Another component of the project is
Family Group Conferencing, which provides a neutral and safe facilitated process where students
and families and school staff can identify and plan to address issues resulting in lack of academic
engagement. The third project component offers these students project staff to provide
individualized case management, mentoring, advocacy, tutoring and other services to help the
student address the issues that have resulted in poor attendance and lack of academic engagement.
In combination these program components have:
a) saved principals and teachers countless hours and much frustration in having to largely
ineffectively reach out to and respond to students without understanding anything except that
they do not regularly attend school
b) made more efficient use of teachers and principals time improved relationships between the
schools and the parents of students at risk for truancy and dropping out
c) saved the County time that would otherwise have to be spent on investigating and prosecuting
CHIPs petitions
d) prevented students from dropping out and thus losing the schools aid
e) reduces the chance that these students will engage in illegal activities that cost their community’s
law enforcement and tax payer dollars
f) increases the likelihood students will graduate from high school, which improves their lifetime
earning potential and opportunities for their children.
Rock
Hennepin CMHC
4. Mentors
Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) model of one-to-one professionally supported mentorships provides
intermediate school district 287’s member school districts (including Bloomington, Osseo,
Robbinsdale, Eden Prairie, Orono, Wayzata, Hopkins, Westonka, Richfield, Brooklyn Center, Edina,
St. Louis Park, and Minnetonka) with one of the best approaches to reaching and helping at-risk
children. Currently 50 students are being served through the project. BBBS invests in children by
matching them individually with caring adult mentors. This project focuses on children age’s 7-15
years who are primarily from single parent, low income and culturally diverse backgrounds. This
program sustains, creates, and supports one-to-one mentoring relationships designed to benefit
children in need. (…). The reduction in funding of a program such as the BBBS, which focuses on the
prevention and early intervention with at-risk-youth, could potentially result in higher costs by
requiring more intensive mental health treatments down the road. This professionally supported
program typically relies on volunteer mentors from neighborhood groups and corporations, making
it both fiscally responsible and community based.
The Big Buddies Mentorship program was supported primarily to allow for increased opportunities
to “at-risk” children to be matched with caring and positive adult role models thereby increasing the
child’s self-esteem and decreasing problem behaviors in school, at home and in the county.
Benton
5. Mental Health Therapists in Schools
ISD 47 utilizes the services of a Mental Health Therapist to consult with the staff and teachers on an
as-needed basis. The [mental health] provider has given insights and consultation on a number of
cases of difficult children in mainstream classrooms. Her expertise and training with staff have
reduced or eliminated the need for placing some youth in Special Ed programs, or removing them
from their classroom settings. She has provided techniques for staff to use with children, thus
reducing the amount of time they need to work one-on-one with some students, and freeing them to
work with the entire classroom. This intervention has saved the District considerable money in
Special Ed funding and Para-support.
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Pope
Cass
2002 Collaborative Report
When working together…County, Schools, BI-County CAP, Leech Lake Reservation and 5 Family
Centers, we are able to provide service on all levels (deep-end to preventative) for Cass County
children and families. An example would be having one troubled youth see a YFS worker, which
works directly with the family and youth to prevent a deeper service (special ed). Or a youth deeply
troubled and in Day Treatment setting, this youth will be served with the goal of preventing costly
out of home placement. Or the youth needing intense therapy and who’s family is unable to provide
the service, our Mental Health Professional in the Schools Program will serve this youth and
provide intense direct therapy to try and prevent further costly options. All of our programs serve to
prevent costly options, to help youth/families before the most severe options are presented. We all
know that it is much less costly to prevent problems, than it is to rehabilitate a severely troubled
youth – this is the basis of our belief.
Since the addition of a school mental health therapist to our Minnewaska Area Schools two years
ago, our mental health team has strengthened it’s networking capabilities and provided a connection
for families through better coordination of services. Communication between school and family
services has increased dramatically. In the past, county social workers were not included in the IEP
meetings, now they are which makes sense for the families and will be crucial while they transition
to the IIIP plan. We believe that though there have been times that a 72 hour hold has been placed on
a youth, the number of “new” long term placements have been avoided, resulting in a cost savings to
our county and the strain families feel when their child is removed from the home vs. receiving
support in their own home, school and community. Youth are able to receive mental health services
in the school setting with family support offered throughout the school year. Having therapy in the
school has proved to be more convenient for youth. It is felt that they are seen twice as much as an
out of school therapist due to cancelled sessions due to time restraints.
The school mental health therapist has conducted 14 Rule 79 assessments for children’s mental heath
as well as psychological assessments which have to date as part of the contract, resulted in additional
savings for our county.
Olmsted
CMHC
Hennepin Northwest
Hennepin - Westonka
6. Mental Health – Interventions
Relate Counseling Project - The students receiving help are those who have been identified within
each school building as needing mental health support beyond what the school can provide, but for
whom accessing the service on their own is unlikely.
Early intervention and prevention for emotional and behavioral issues, in a setting that is accessible
for those who could not otherwise receive such services, will decrease the likelihood of escalating to a
more serious emotional and behavioral problem, reducing the need for more intensive and more
costly interventions. This promotes a safer, more stable school and community, also demonstrating
savings in health care costs, police enforcement, and other cost related to family crisis situations.
Offering this service within the school setting helps promote a sense of connectedness with the
school, which would not happen as effectively if provided solely at a mental health clinic
The Pilot Project associated with the Leadership Action Group for Children’s Mental Health is based
on a public health model of prevention and early intervention. This is a holistic model of prevention
and early intervention. This is a holistic model that includes the whole family. Children who are not
involved in a any system, but who show early signs of potential mental health issues are identified
by school staff and recommended to a School Family Coordinator (SFC). The SFC works with the
child, the school and the family identifying cause, doing resource and referral and connecting to
appropriate supportive mental health, medical and other services that support the strengths of the
child and family. By intervening early, this project reduces and, in many instances, can eliminate the
need for more costly, deep end services.
Early Intervention Services are provided to pre-school children with social emotional challenges that
interfere in their ability to benefit from pre-school programming. Social work staff provide
assessment & intervention in the pre-school setting & family home. A partnership with Head Start
adds mental health intervention to school readiness activities. The staff use the Incredible Years
parent training & child support intervention system.
The project is a DHS Commissioners Results Initiative Project.
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Cottonwood
Steele
Sherburne
Redwood
2002 Collaborative Report
Community Alternatives Program – For children with severe emotional disturbance. “There was an
elementary student who was SED. This student was extremely physically aggressive when I met
him. Law enforcement was at school a few times per week. This student was fully self-contained in
school. The in home services I provided assisted the family in getting a psychological and psychiatric
evaluation. He had six months of two hours per day day-treatment and the counseling. This student
has successfully completed the program. He is fully mainstreamed in school and has had no physical
aggression for eight plus months! This is a student without the services would have been placed in
foster care or a group home.”
Sherburne County Children's Mental Health Collaborative has partnered with Central MN Mental
Health Center to bring local child psychiatry services to Sherburne County. In addition to seeing
individual children/families, the child psychiatrist is available for area professionals to do case
consultations, problem solving and general knowledge sharing. During late summer 2002, our child
psychiatrist left to pursue other opportunities. The Collaborative was fully committed to bringing
these services to the communities of Sherburne County and began the search for replacements. The
thought was that if there were several part-time psychiatrists and one left then clients would still
have some service. By September the position was filled with two part time psychiatrists and is
working effectively.
ACTIONS (Level IV) school setting prevents costly out-of-home- placement. This program provides
a therapeutic school for kids who were not at all successful in Level III day treatment. Subsequently,
they remained in school and in the community.
The Tri County Children’s Day Treatment Program involves Cottonwood, Jackson, and Nobles
Counties. The facility is based in Cottonwood County and co-located with an Alternative Learning
Center and a Level 4 program. The SWWC Service Coop. Manages the project, and it is stafed with
flexible and cross-trained individuals that are shared with the Collaborative. Although funds from
the Cottonwood, Jackson and Nobles County collaboratives were used to provide seed money for the
project, no such funds are used for the day-to-day running of the treatment program. It has been a
WIN-WIN project for all involved.
Polk
McLeod
Clay
6. Crisis and Emergency Interventions
The Collaborative has an On-Call Hotline for parents of severely emotionally disturbed (SED) and
violent adolescents to call, after office hours, and on weekends if their child’s behavior escalates. The
child has a “crisis plan” on file and the Rule 79 case manager, on-call, has the folder of crisis plans
with them. The parents are provided the pager number and the Rule 79 case manager returns their
call to address the escalating behavior. If a home visit needs to be made, the Rule 79 case manager
calls an on call staff person from the West Central Regional Juvenile Center to accompany them to the
home. In the majority of cases, the behavior can be de-escalated and an “out of home” placement can
be prevented. The Hotline is funded through the Adolescent Services Grant.
The Crisis Intervention and Supportive Counseling (…)is designed to intervene with elementary
children who have been determined to have emotional behavioral disturbances. Our goal is help
these students remain in mainstream school settings through crisis intervention assistance to staff
and supportive counseling to students and their families.
The Collaborative has provided funding for scheduled and crisis respite care services for children
and families. These services have been invaluable in giving children and their parents a break from
one another. Parents feel confident and comforted that their children are being taken care of by
licensed foster/respite providers, who have case management support from staff with social services
or the mental health center. Respite care has been a deterrent from unnecessary hospitalizations or
other out-of-home placements.
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Wright
Stearns
2002 Collaborative Report
One of the projects that this Collaborative funds is the Mental Health Crisis Triage Assessment
System which is a program designed to assist in meeting the needs of the St. Cloud School District
students who are in crisis. Project partners include the Stearns County Family Services Collaborative,
Central Minnesota Mental Health Center, St. Cloud Hospital Behavioral Health Clinic, St. Cloud Boys
and Girls Club, and St. Cloud Area School District 742. Two full-time Mental Health Crisis Triage
Therapists coordinate the following services: (1) access to psychiatric evaluations through the St.
Cloud Hospital Behavioral Health Clinic; (2) access to diagnostic assessments at the Central MN
Mental Health Center; (3) liaison for community agencies currently utilized by referred students; (4)
liaison for school staff and mental health services within the community; (5) assistance in setting up
appropriate mental health services for students and families; and (6) assistance with transportation to
mental health appointments as need is determined. This program has been beneficial for students in
a crisis situation to be seen by a professional before the situation accelerates further.
Face to face mental health crisis services: A mental health practitioner saw 39 children who were
brought in as mental health emergency cases in hospitals in Wright County in 2002. 23 of these
children were able to return home rather than out of home placements. Having a mental health
specialist provide services to general medical physicians during emergencies has been very beneficial
for families as well as a cost savings to reducing placements.
PACT 4
Dakota CMHC
7. Wraparound Process
Following is an example of savings through use of the Wrap Around process in Dakota County. The
child involved in the process was a 17-year-old male with a long history of involvement with the
corrections system, who had been in out of home placement 17 times over the prior two-year time
period. The Wraparound facilitator noted the family reported a desire for the child to have a success
of some kind. The Wrap team determined it would be beneficial to bring a therapist on board to
work more in-depth with the child. Three main goals were determined for the child surrounding his
conduct disorder and medication regimen. The Wrap team worked intensively with the child and
residential treatment center. As a result, the child was able to be discharged from the facility at 4 ½
months instead of the anticipated 8 – 12 months of placement. The child continues to do well. As a
result of the Wraparound process utilization, it is estimated between $13,000 - $32,000 were saved.
PACT 4 Families employs a psychiatrist who has an interest in, and expertise in serving children.
During the year 2002, the psychiatrist was funded to have him sit as a member of wraparound teams,
for children with a severe emotional disturbance (SED), that met at least once per month. Through
these teams, partners’ resources/staff received in-person, hands-on training, consultation and
education about clinical issues related to the child’s emotional mental health. The clinical
competence of families, children, social workers, school teachers and other staff, other clinicians,
medical doctors and family liaisons was raised to a level that would not have otherwise been
possible.
Freeborn
Faribault and
Martin
8. Youth and Children involved with Juvenile Justice
The Collaborative authorized the Department of Corrections to hire a Family Preservation Social
Worker. The Collaborative funds this position 100%. By having a worker within the Corrections
Department who can work with families and juveniles that have already committed violations, we
have been able to maintain these juveniles in their homes or return them from placement much
sooner. This position is similar to a Family Preservation position within Social Services, but directed
at those juveniles within the Corrections Department for which Social Services has no authority.
The out-of-home placement funding for Corrections kids has been in a steady decline due in large
part to this position.
The Restorative Justice Program is diverting many first time juvenile offenders from the court
system. Last year, 89 youth participated. A graduate student at the University of Minnesota did a
cost effectiveness study on the Restorative Justice Program. The study showed the average cost of a
juvenile going through the court system is $900-$1,000. The average cost of a juvenile going through
the Restorative Justice Program is $200-$325.50. $700 multiplied by 89 juveniles equals a cost savings
of approximately $62,300!
In addition, youth going through the Restorative Justice Program have a much lower recidivism rate
than youth going through the court system.
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Washington
CMHC
Pine
Hennepin - Robbinsdale
Goodhue
2002 Collaborative Report
The Family Advocate is a no-fee service offered by Catholic Charities to families with youth who
have become involved in the legal system. Referrals are accepted from all communities in the
county. The expected outcomes to increase the functional assets of parents, children, and
adolescents, reduce delinquency risk factors, and referrals to other appropriate services needed by
members of the family. The measures for the Family Advocate are those actions that will help the
family address behaviors and circumstances that may be contributing to these risk factors.
The multi-jurisdictional juvenile diversion work in the communities of Robbinsdale Area Schools
continues to remain strong in prevention of further involvement with the law and in savings of outof-home placements. This multijurisdictional work combines the efforts of our cities, schools,
nonprofit organizations and the Robbinsdale Area Redesign in a collaborative manner to:
1)Send the message that the community cares about them and what happens to them
2)Provides alternatives to a costly court appearance for status offenses such as truancy, curfew
violations, tobacco violations, runaways and other minor status offenses
3)Offers support and referrals to families and juvenile offenders
4)Keeps middle school students off the streets and out of trouble when they are suspended due to
violation of zero tolerance behavior policy
5)Support healthier and happier families
6) Reduce out-of-home placement
Enhanced Correctional Services were provided to youth who were at high risk of re-offending. This
intensive supervision helped to prevent placements and reduce the time in placement for the youth.
The Adolescent Services Grant (A.S.G) that this collaborative receives, funds the Family & Youth
Interventions Program. This program has successfully helped its clients to remain in the community,
avoid re- offending /or new charges, and improve school outcome, and general functioning. In 2002
fifty-eight young people were serviced. All were at risk for group home, correctional or RTC
placement. Thirteen others experienced some placement primarily shelter or short term (less than 30
days) placement. A significant saving was achieved via these services.
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