ABOUT CHILDREN'S

Challenges from the Review to Improve Washington's Child Welfare System

• Permanency and Stability for Foster Children: We are very close to meeting the federal standard for placement stability. The federal standard is that 86.7 percent of children have two or fewer moves in 12 months. Washington's percentage is close at 83.7 percent. The assessment noted that we were not consistent in our efforts to prevent children from re-entering foster care and establishing permanency goals in a timely manner. Reviewers recognized that overburdened court dockets, continuances and insufficient representation for parents and the department are barriers to more timely permanency decisions.
• Kinship Care and Continuity of Family Connections: We increased the number of children placed with relatives to 32 percent last year and are diligent in placing children with their siblings and in close proximity to their parents. Challenges include the barriers to both licensed and non-licensed care provided by family and extended family members, engaging fathers, involving children and parents in case planning and ensuring frequent visitation between parents and children and between siblings.
• Foster Parent Recruitment and Retention: We have made some gains in recruiting new foster parents over the last few years, but more has to be done to recruit a diversity of homes to serve minority populations. Retaining foster homes continues to be a challenge. These issues will be tackled as we reevaluate the Foster Care Improvement Plan.
• Child Safety: We plan to examine a cluster of issues around child protection. Of most concern is the need to develop a higher level of consistency and quality in the areas of safety assessments and timely responses to reports of child abuse and neglect, including timely face-to-face interviews with alleged child victims.
• Services for Children: Another challenge is services and educational and vocational opportunities for adolescents in the foster care system. We need to assess the scope of our authority and the parameters of our involvement with children who have been referred to the department, who have educational needs, and are living in their own homes.
• Children's Mental Health Services: The existing mental health system is structured to provide short-term care that does not meet the long-term mental health needs of children in foster care. The DSHS Children’s Administration is working collaboratively with the DSHS Health and Rehabilitative Services and Juvenile Rehabilitation administrations to redesign the entire children’s mental health delivery system.
• Contact between Social Workers and Families: Data and research shows clearly that more face to face contact with children and parents improves outcomes for children and families. Washington needs to improve the ability of workers to spend more time with the families and children they serve.