State must better protect its children
Published January 22, 2016
Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, January 21, 2016.
Roughly 10,000 children are in North Carolina’s child welfare system on any single day, and a new federal review finds the state should be caring better for many of them. The state should promptly respond with better care.
While the review did find some encouraging news, most of the revelations were sobering.
Regulators with the federal Children’s Bureau who visited Raleigh earlier this month disclosed findings from their latest review of the state’s programs that investigate maltreatment of children, as well as foster care and adoption programs, The Associated Press reported. North Carolina failed to reach the standards that designate its programs as successful in all of the 14 performance factors that are measured. This is a step down from 2007 — the year of the last review — in which six of the 14 factors were judged to be in “substantial conformity.”
The review found that children who received attention from the state Department of Health and Human Services were safely maintained in their homes in only 57 percent of the cases reviewed. Children were found to receive services to meet their educational needs in 90 percent of the cases, which is better, but still a bit short of the 95 percent required.
The state has 90 days to come up with a plan for improvement.
The DHHS, while disagreeing with some of the review’s findings, isn’t oblivious to the shortcomings. Department leaders pointed out that the system relies on case workers, the courts and outside service providers to succeed. And over the past two years it has tried to address the concerns mentioned in the report with a list of initiatives, the AP reported.
The General Assembly and N.C. counties have found financing for another 123 child protective service workers, with a goal of reducing caseloads to 10 families per worker. Money for in-home services for children in challenging family situations has grown by $4.5 million. A new statewide computer system is being implemented to improve tracking of children in the system.
Wanda Reives, an associate professor at University of North Carolina School of Social Work, told the AP that the review results were “pretty typical” of those from other states. But she said it’s still a great opportunity for changes to meet the federal government’s high standards. “We should always be concerned when they are finding that our families and children are not as safe as they should be,” she said.
Sherry Bradsher, the deputy secretary overseeing social services in the DHHS, told the AP: “We know that there’s always room for improvement.”
The state has tried to address the problems of low funding and high caseload levels. But more is needed — and not just to meet the federal criteria, but for the sake of our children. The state DHHS must work harder with the courts and outside service providers to better serve our children, who are our future.
