ACNJ

Child Welfare Update #3

March 2005

As part of ongoing efforts to monitor and inform the state’s efforts to improve <<New Jersey>>’s child welfare system, the Association for Children of <<New Jersey>> plans to issue periodic updates publicizing relevant statistics that can help measure how the reforms are progressing. They include state Division of Youth and Family Services caseloads and staffing levels, the number of licensed foster homes and referral data from the new central child abuse hotline. ACNJ will also highlight one specific issue, in an attempt to delve deeper into what the statistics means for <<New Jersey>>’s most vulnerable children. This is the third in these periodic updates.

<<New Jersey>>’s plan to reform the child welfare system grew out of the settlement of a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of foster children. It is being monitored by a federal court.

Child Welfare Panel Issues First Monitoring Report

The Child Welfare Panel gave the state mixed marks in its first report on the progress of the court-mandated reforms. The panel was appointed by the federal court to monitor the reforms agreed to in a settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of New Jersey’s foster children.

The panel praised the state for hiring more staff, boosting staff morale, raising the monthly rates paid to resource families and reducing the number of “boarder babies” who languish in hospitals when their parents are unable to take them home. But, the panel also said the department’s bureaucracy hampered progress, with many tasks remaining incomplete because of confusion over who is responsible for what. The panel also faulted the state for failing to set up a training academy to train its many new workers.

The panel said the state must make a “significant course correction” and required several steps to be completed immediately, including further reducing caseloads, improving child safety and boosting efforts to recruit and retain foster homes. Panel also noted that the community collaboratives are stalled.

Kathi Way, deputy commissioner of the Office of Children’s Services, said the state was taking steps to address the bureaucratic problems, including moving all administrative functions, such as personnel, contracting and information technology, from the state Division of Youth and Family Services to OCS.

“This monitoring report covers only the first six months of what will be a 60-month journey, so we still have a long road to travel,” Way said in a statement issued to the press. “I am convinced that we are moving forward and we are learning as we go.”

A full copy of the report is available on the Annie E. Casey Foundation website, www.aecf.org/njpanel.

Other Developments

Child Abuse Investigations Increase

Calls to the state’s new child abuse hotline in February resulted in the largest number of abuse/neglect investigations since the hotline opened in July, even though the total number of calls was down from previous months.

Of the 16,727 calls placed to the hotline, 2,764 or 16.5 percent, resulted in an abuse/neglect investigation, according to state statistics. In previous months, the percentage of calls referred for investigations hovered between roughly 10 and 13 percent of total calls received.

In early January, ACNJ issued a report citing a substantial decrease in the number of reports that resulted in abuse/neglect investigations, warning the numbers may indicate that some legitimate referrals were going uninvestigated. Preliminary data at that time showed a 45 percent decrease in abuse/neglect investigations from July 2004 to December 2004. Since then, state officials updated the investigation numbers for the entire first six months of the hotline’s operation, citing a problem with “delayed data entry.”

The updated statistics now show a 17.2 percent decrease in investigations from July to December.

State officials said there is little change in the number of abuse/neglect investigations when comparing months before and after the hotline’s inception. For example, the number of abuse/neglect investigations in February 2005 is just 7 percent higher than in February 2004, according to Andy Williams, a Department of Human Services spokesman.

“The number of (abuse/neglect) investigations increasing between December and February is not unusual,” Williams said. “It happens every year. DYFS activity has always followed these seasonal trends.”

A March 7 report from the New Jersey Child Welfare Panel, the court-appointed monitor of the reforms, however, said screeners were unable to keep up with the volume of calls, resulting in a growing percentage of callers either hanging up before speaking to anyone or having to leave a message with clerical staff.

“As the volume increased, the percentage of calls actually answered by a screener dropped each month from 87.4 percent in July 2004 to 61 percent in November 2004,” the report stated. That coincides with a nearly 29 percent drop in investigated cases from July to November 2004. Williams said the two are unrelated.

State officials have taken steps to improve the handling of calls at the hotline, including hiring more staff and a new director. They have also implemented new practices aimed at improving the timeliness and consistency of call screening, according to the panel’s first monitoring report. The state continues to make progress in ensuring that all calls are handled properly, the panel said.

The number of child welfare assessments has remained fairly steady, as a percent of all calls, since the hotline opened, starting with a low of 6.4 percent in July and then averaging about 9 percent from August through February. Child welfare assessments are conducted when information provided by a caller does not indicate a child is being abused or neglected, but raises concerns over a family’s stability. It is unclear at this point how many families are actually receiving services as a result of these assessments. State officials say they have not yet captured that data. The panel noted inconsistencies in the way child welfare calls are screened.

“There is, however, much less guidance for referring calls for Child Welfare Services Assessments and this is an area that OCS (Office of Children’s Services) is working on,” the report said.

Majority of New 2004 Hires Hold Social Work-Related Degrees

DYFS hired 599 new caseworkers into trainee and “family service specialist 2” positions from Jan. 1, 2004 to November 19, 2004, according to a report prepared for the legislatively-created Staffing Outcome and Review Panel (SORP). These new hires filled both new and existing positions.

Of these new hires, 56 percent held social-work related bachelor’s or master’s degrees, while 27 percent held unrelated undergraduate degrees, according to the report.[1] Only 11 percent had earned either a bachelor’s or master’s of social work.

The vast majority of new caseworkers – 575 – came on board as trainees, with just 24 new hires moving directly into the “Family Service Specialist 2” position. This is the position that trainees graduate to once they complete the training and have carried a small caseload for one year.

In its report, the New Jersey Child Welfare Panel criticized the state for failing to “improve the qualifications of front-line and supervisory staff. In particular, the State has not amended its civil service job descriptions and hiring procedures to give preference to applications with a BSW or related degree for casework titles and to applicants with a MSW or related degree for supervisory titles,” the report said.

During the same time period – January 2004 to November 2004 -- 232 trainees and family service specialist 2 workers left the division, translating to a net gain of 367 workers in the trainee and family service specialist 2 positions. Of those who left DYFS during this time, about 63 percent – or 146 staff -- were the more experienced caseworkers. The rest were trainees.

In 2004, the division received just 20 exit interviews from caseload carrying staff. Of those, half said they left because of frustration with the job, while 40 percent wanted a career change. The other 10 percent cited one of the following reasons: “found a better position, lack of support from supervisors/management, concerns for personal safety, family/personal circumstances, working conditions and other.” In November 2004, the division launched a new online exit interview survey. Quarterly reports are expected from this new system.

Relative Care Homes Continue to Rise

From January 2004 to Feb. 2005, there was a 50 percent increase in the number of approved relative support homes now caring for their kins’ children. An additional 1,675 relative homes were “presumed eligible.” Under state policy, these relatives are allowed to care for their kins’ children following an emergency evaluation that includes a check of the Division’s child abuse and neglect registry; a check of criminal history record information; and a visit to the relative’s home to complete an application and a safety assessment. DYFS then works with the relative caregiver to complete the comprehensive evaluation which includes a state and federal criminal history record check using fingerprints. Unrelated foster parents complete the comprehensive evaluation before DYFS places children in their homes. During the same time, the number of unrelated foster homes increased about 3 percent.

For more information about this brief, contact Nancy Parello at 973-643-3876 or nparello@acnj.org.