A New Direction in Foster Care
A PLAN FOR A RADICAL CHANGE IN THE
FOSTER CARE SYSTEM
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Eliminate foster care as we know it in the
State of Florida
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Incremental Change Radical Change
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Guiding Principle: Protect the safety and well-being of Florida’s children & families
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A New Direction in Foster Care
At-risk children who remain with their families do better than children in foster care.
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Arrested at least once
Became a teen mother
Held a job at least 3 months
Children Who Stayed with Families
14%
33%
33%
Children in Foster
Care
44%
56%
20%
*MIT’s Sloan School of Management
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Minnesota Study shows: “children placed into unfamiliar foster care showed higher levels of internalizing problems compared with children reared by maltreating caregivers, children in familia care, and children who received adequate care giving.”
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Chapin Hall: The 500,000 children in foster care are more likely than other kids to drop out of school, commit crimes, abuse drugs and become teen parents.
Jim Casey: Confirms what experience and observations tell us:
Kids who can remain in their homes do better than in foster care…Some kids, for their own safety, need to be removed from their families, but in marginal cases of abuse, more should be done to keep them together.
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Ulrich Group Focus Group Comments
“Clients expressed remorse and frustration at being removed from their home to foster care.”
“ Many clients were defensive of their own parents’ lack of parenting skills, claiming they would never neglect or abuse their own children.”
“A lot of the time it makes things worse for the kids than the situation they were pulled out of.”
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4
2
12
CA
10
8
NY
FL
IL
OH
6
0
2002
TX
A New Direction in Foster Care
Out of Home Rate Per 1000 Children
CA
NY
FL
IL
OH
TX
CA
NY
FL
IL
OH
2003
Year
CA NY FL IL OH TX
2004
TX
CA
NY
FL
IL
OH
TX
2005
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Safely reduce the number of children in foster care through intensive family support
• Meet or exceed the State of
Florida’s goal of a 50% reduction of Children in Care by 2012
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A New Direction in Foster Care
•
•
Assure a safe and permanent home for every child who comes to the attention of the child welfare system
Align Results with the Casey
Family Programs 2020 Vision on foster care reduction and addressing diversity disproportionality
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Change the culture of removal to a culture of safe services
• Expedite permanency and reduce time in care by identifying where existing services and protocols can be augmented or changed
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Introduce preventative services to divert children from coming into care and supporting a family in crisis
• Focus on timely permanency for the child
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Use results analysis and “best practice” reviews as a catalyst for change and as a measurement of success
• Develop a community consensus to support family-based prevention services
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Other than start-up, Title IVE Waiver would support this initiative
• Florida is only state with this ability
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Change the culture of the Child Protection
Workers
– Offer support in decision making
– More team decisions on removals
– Provide Master Level Social Workers to staff
• Develop training on new system utilizing a practice model with real cases
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Rocket Docket:
Specialized staffing to ensure permanency achieved as quickly as possible
• Increased Expedited
Termination of Parental
Rights (TPR)
• Shorter case plans
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Introduced Mediation Process to Expedite
Reunification
• Create special supports for Domestic Violence cases
– Intensive Training
– Specialized CPI “experts”
– DV Advocate funded through Auditor General’s Office
• Create special supports for Substance Abuse Cases
– Family Intervention Specialists conduct assessments
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Offer alternatives to families in crisis to ensure child safety
– Enhanced VPS (Voluntary Protective Services)
– STEPS (Strengthening Ties and Empowering
Parents)
• Co-located with Child Protective Investigators
• Trained in Family Team Conferencing
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Do everything possible to safely reduce the number of children in foster care!
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Make it Unacceptable for a child to grow up in Foster
Care
• Do what ever it takes to keep a child safely with their family
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Training
• Team-Based Decision making
• Neighborhood Centers
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Co-locate CPI & Prevention Staff
Domestic Violence Specialists
Drug Court on every case involving drugs
Increase service offerings
(Alternative Response
Pilot/ARS, Enhanced Voluntary
Protective Services/VPS, STEPS
Diversion)
Casey Peer TA
Domestic Violence Advocate
Casey Specialists – Master Level Social
Workers
Florida State University MSW (Social
Work Program)
Mediation
Develop additional Neighborhood
Centers (Cassat House)
Revise Assessment Tools 24

A New Direction in Foster Care
• Rocket Docket • Shortened case plans
• Expedited TPR • Youth Villages Program
• Aggressively Adopt • Substance Abuse Protocol
• Relative Searches • Domestic Violence
Protocol
• Relative Caregiver
Supports
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Project Manager
• Project Plan
• Metrics
• Outside Evaluation
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Media Plan
• Community Meetings
• Monthly Communiqué
• Internal Communications

A New Direction in Foster Care
We’ve reduced the number of children coming into care…

We’ve reduced the number of children coming into care…..

A New Direction in Foster Care
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Do Your Homework
• Get Your Facts Straight
• Review Data Trends
• Review Secondary Research
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Create Teams and Work Groups
• Executive Oversight Committee
• Steering Committee
• Core Management Working Committee
• Field Staff Advisory Committee
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Clear The Deck
• Solicit The Community
• Review ALL Current Processes
• Select Project Manager
• Identify Key Barriers
• Partition The Project
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Initial Strategy
• Change Management Project
• Change the Culture-”Out of the Box, Means Out Of The
Box”
• Train Everyone On Culture Change
• Audit Everything: Reinforce The Message
• Communicate At All Levels All The Time
• Develop Processes For Change
• Determine Measurements
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Examples Of Change Management
• Co-located Investigative and Prevention Staff
• Created Neighborhood Center
• Joint Training of Staff
• Non-Judgmental Process Change
• Look At Everything That Affects TIME IN CARE and REMOVALS
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Engage the Community
• Develop A Marketing Plan
• Communicate Early and Often
• Be Transparent
• Emphasize the Success Stories
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Look For Funding
• Casey Family Programs
• VOCA
• TANF
• Title IV Waiver
• Medicaid
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A New Direction in Foster Care
Redesigning The Foster Care System!
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Implement comprehensive changes based upon Phase 1 experience
• Licensed Foster Care is eliminated and replaced with short term professional Respite Homes
• A single, comprehensive service plan is immediately available to protect the child and support the family through reinvestment in resources from deep end to preservation services
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A New Direction in Foster Care
• Comprehensive programs are available for Domestic
Violence, Substance Abuse and Mental and Physical
Health issues
• The Child Welfare Worker is viewed as an asset to the family in crisis, not someone to be feared
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