Senate - Children & Youth Committee & House - Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affair

It's almost eleven ten first on our agenda today is consideration to approve the december minutes. From our december meeting thank you representative maybe we have a motion and I need a second since this is a joint meaning thank you representative springer we have a motion and a second i'll in favour so I apposed no. Thank you we will consider the minutes approved okay and next on our agenda we will hear from DHS tiffany right and christian harbor in mitch rouse we have a couple of rules that need to be reviewed. If you will introduce yourself and your organization then you will we will consider you recognized. Hey good morning i'm tiffany right and i'm the dc director good morning my name is crystal herper i'm an assistant director with the division of children and family services. And miterals are cheaper staff dhs. We have a couple of rules up for review this morning the first rule is regarding financial support to resource parents meaning foster parents the primary change within this rule is formalising in writing the increased monthly board payment rates as well as other previously existing financial supports and that the division provides to resource periods such as a mileage reimbursement for a travel two case related activities we increase the board payment rates by ten percent in august of last year thanks to this part of the legislature. We move forward with the monthly board payment increases and wait of the increased cost of living and particularly given that prior to august we had not increased the board payments for more than ten years this will also note some technical changes throughout the package and better articulates the process for requesting a special board rate we do not receive any public comments and i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Are there questions from committee. I need to know who's in seat number two it's that you senator hammer or love oh sorry my bad i'm looking at the wrong screen do we have any questions. Okay. The. So without any questions or comments we will consider this we're all reviewed. And you may move to the next row thank you the second promotion packet will allow dcfs to at date rules regarding c payments renders to a line without sixty eight and three forty eight of the ninety fourth general assembly regular session specifically noting that a medical provider under the safe have an act includes those medical personnel with whom a pair at may leave a child and immediately following delivery am in addition we've updated agency rule to reflect that if the identity of a parent or child is inadvertently released or may known to the departments that parent will still have the same protections m from criminal and civil liability as if an anonymous save heaven surrender was made as allowed under actory forty eight in addition the termination of portal rights that occurs following as they've haven't surrender cannot be used as grounds for a termination of parental rates in the future if for whatever reason a child and a parent had another child in that child in the future came into the custody of the department and once again there are no public comments received and i'll be happy to answer any questions. The. Representative may bear your recognized. I just have a question could you explain what is the are focused case management system can you give us a sure I mean we might need more explanation later but can you explain what that yeah so many of the technical changes on our preparation for that lunch director rate is actually going to tell you a little bit more it is our new case management system were all of our and data on clients how we do case plans and everything and will be captured but a directorate will be going over that a little bit I believe in her presentation so it's it is the name of our new case management system that scheduled to watch in twenty twenty five. Senator liberty recognized the command can you tell me so so I guess what would this rule change it and give it to me and practical terms like what's what's happening now what's happening just just tell me basically what is going to change what it looks like sure it will again too so these changes are result as legislation passed during last legislative session but the main change is historically there have been issues and where when when somebody has said I want to strengthen my baby under safe haven't and sometimes inadvertently that parents name gets released and understand even it should never be released the problem is once we know that parents name we then have to proceed as if it were a normal dependency neglect action so if this does is if that happens that parents name gets released when it shouldn't have been that's not going to impact the parents they will not end up on the town or treatment central registry and they cannot be criminally charged for abandoning that child so it's protection to the parent who is trying to do the right thing and make sure the potal goes to a safe place okay so previously have we have we. S as that happened to a pair to wear and it has been a very grey area and so unfortunately yes in the past they may have ended up on the how much it seemed registered for abandonment and so that is what we will no longer happen now okay all right thank you thank you madame share. Senator hammer you're recognized. Thank you and correct me if i'm wrong on either way to start sharing it but managed here can answer the questionnaire and some insight to the question of senator love you may thank you the great method wrong there was a case where this actually happened in a hospital where possibly a hipper violation occurred to no fault of the parent no fault of dhs it was on the facility and on the employer the facility as a result of it that patience name became public and family found out some things that otherwise would not have and has a result of it what this bill will do to keep that person who wanted the baby to be a safe have and baby but once that name was released DHS had to step in and take over and treat it the way they would any other so at this does it protect. That mother in in a situation like this so it was based on real life situation that happened. Thank you thank you membership when she agree I almost said that none thank you i'm not saying that. Thank you are there any other questions by committee. Okay then we will consider this role reviewed as well thank you thank you. And director write you are next with your presentation. Good morning again thank you for having me so I have put together a just a presentation I am the request was to put together a presentation telling a little bit about me but are also some things that are going on at dcfs so I skipped over the part about me and went right to the things happening at DCFS but would like to move through these slides a little quickly so that maybe at the end of this we have time to talk and get to know each other a little bit better because it is important for me to have good relationships with each of you in some of you I don't I don't know i'm that someone knew this morning in so that's really important to me and so i'm gonna go through these but if you have specific questions of things that you see in the power point i'm happy to take questions about them if that's ok. Okay and so this morning i'm at your seeds you have a hard copy of our dcfs practice model this practice model came out in two thousand and twenty one and this is really why we dcfs believe as our values and these values highlight the uh care a and commitment we have to serve children and families and i'm not going to go through each of the values there is they had spoken down for you in your book but they give key indicators of things that we're guiding our staff to work on and keep in their forefront of their minds while they're engaging with children and families across the state. And then m I just wanted to remind everybody that one of our huge focuses in one of the things that we're going to continue working on and will never stop working on his perminency and so I have a video i'm gonna play and this video we made a few years ago but it just really defines permanency and puts everybody on the same page about what permanency means because in some of the work that we're doing you know we talk about adoption we talk about faster care but it really means family and so that's what this video highlights i'm gonna play that video. I hope that sure the kids are pleased and the family will work the secure system. It's not meant to read children it's designed to provide a single but temporary place to stay for children at risk I believe it's. What is permanent simply quite common and seed me on. Different things for different just some kids. But feel like you also not possible to go back to parents for relatives. Your seat regardless of what. Anything quickly as possible working without it for this afternoon every child is different there's no one size. When it comes to family. The. And so we share that with our staff and we keep talking about permanency and will never stop talking about permanent tv because it's part of what we do with every child in family that reserve a cost of state. And then I just had there a couple key data points that I wanted to share again obviously the number of children in foster care continues to decline and in december we were at three thousand six hundred and ninety eight children in foster care. A and we continue also to focus on first placement with relatives and so this is a state wide chart of first placement with relatives I do have and we have counties in the state that are doing much better than the thirty five percent we have counties who have a relative placement in the seventies the eighties one was pretty close to almost ninety percent of the kids placed with relatives so that is good work and that's a lot of kudos to my front line staff who were taking calls all night long to make sure that at children's first placement upon entering foster care is with the relative. And then we also continue to watch the number of children and foster here at the goal of reunification erm just because they you know we need them to move through the system swiftly in safely and achieve that permanency and so we every month we watch to see how many kids have been in foster care for fifteen to twenty four months that will be the green bar and in care longer than twenty four months or more and we have several counties in the state that are also really focused in on that and have maybe one or two kids which is huge a couple shot outs boom county and independence county and then bitten county also rings pretty high and work in those cases and moving kids to a permanency three reunification. And then just a view of continue to hear key priorities we have we have a lot happening it was really hard to tell you all all the things we have going on in one presentation and so we tried to simplify it down but obviously prevention strengthening our work force continuing in our implementation of safety organized practice and structure decision making and then our new are focused system. And just pulled out a couple key points around prevention so we are focused in on our intensive in home services you all approve that I work for that happen and we have implemented state wide and it is working we have served with our partners youth villages st frances and the youth advocate program three thousand approximately three thousand families across the state and using that in a prevention tool of kids that did not have to enter in foster care but got key critical services. And then I work force and I just wanted to show one of the things we're doing is trying to highlight the good work that's going on across the state and so we started everyday champion actually in the middle of a covered we started featuring our staff who were going to above and beyond the mission every day and so they submit it if they've been with dcfs for three years I can submit to be a family service worker specialist and we use those applications to highlight those staff in their good work and we get other nominations to buy it and they have to get a letter of recommendation from somebody in the community and so this one was written specifically by a foster payment and we have one that was written by community partner and so we continue to highlight the work that the team is doing across the state we're definitely not perfect and we don't get it right every day but I have a lot of staff across the state who are going to bother beyond for children and families. The. The. And then I think i've shared vacancies before but as of january tenth this was our vacancies across the states we have eighty eight program assistance they get a hundred and sixty family service workers and twenty supervisor positions. And then the next side is our turnover and the dark the light blue is state fiscal year twenty three the dark blue is state fiscal year twenty two so it's actually getting better it's not great but it is getting better and so i'm hopeful for that and you know we're just going to continue to work through and listen to the feedback of our from our staff about how we can make their jobs easier while they're serving families. And then I gave some highlights just of different efforts we've made around the work for one of the things that we just recently have started a pilot on his c search in that it stands for components of enhancing career experience and reducing trauma and what that means is providing staff or staff real world skills while they're in the moment of that trauma and doing the work and so we did a little pile of it was some of our staff and the feedback we got was they wanted more and they wanted it to be bigger and so we are working closely and partnership with doctor john from uamers and doctor edge in the team to figure out how we can go to the next group of people and continue to work on you know giving them the skills they need to reduce the trauma they experience i'll do the work. And then I mentioned a safety organized practice and so that's really engaged how we engage our families and how we ask questions but also engaged children through the use of tools in the decision making. And then structured decision making as a part of safety organized practice I don't want his acronyms on your i'm sorry I was dead and that is how that is assessing safety throughout the life of a case and and focusing it on that safety but using those engagement tools. In this side shows how those two correlate together so there stakes in the ground essentially is this structure decision making in the sop is our values providing those skills and interviewing in coaching with our staff. Would you add anything to that okay. And then our focus so you all had some questions about our focus this is our new child welfare management system if you've heard us talk in the past about chris it will replace chris and so this is we went live with the first roll out through the mandated reporter portal and then we had a next speeds that rolled out in may of twelve of two thousand and twenty three and we are actively working on the next two rollouts that will come in two thousand twenty four with hopefully a full implementation by summer of twenty five so this is real life technology moving dcfs forward putting technology in the hands of our staff or their outserving those clients through being able to use their phone to do some of those things giving resource periods the abilities to do some of the things that they knew in systems talking together so we're very excited about this project and the work that it's going to do and how it's going to impact our system um. And then additional priorities I tried to can have put them all together we're doing a lot of work around resource parent training through the foster care executive order so we are almost fully implemented on new resource parent training that we have named connecting our families. We're also actively working with our sister division on reducing continuing education hours for foster pair or resource parents because we hear that as a barrier that they experience. Um and then just continuing to work through decreasing length of time from chepr to adoptions getting homes opened opening a foster homes and then we've established them warm lines for foster parents and kindship providers then so they have access to information that they don't necessarily need to call dcfs for we have a partner who is helping us with that. And then we also have the human tracking executive order that our partners at state pull these are supporting that work on and so we are collaborating and working with them. And then we have the work of every child arkansas and so they are currently in five work groups in those five work groups are listed above ins excited to see the work that's going to come out of every child arkansas because it's all of our partners in the same place working together and i'm hopeful that with that work and collaboration will be able to continue recruitment of foster homes because. We have continued to decline in that recruitment. And the last thing I have is another video in because one of the things in the executive order is to export the expansion of private license placement agency and when we say those words some people are like what does that mean and so we decided that it was time to make a video that explains what that is and so I am going to share the video. The. The. I don't remember this but I was in foster care as a baby and like my mom just needed that time and that week of call to get her stuff together and now she's one of my best friends and like that's what I pray for for these families and sometimes it doesn't in that way for everyone but I think i'd still works in that and re right stories for kids and can break cycles through the love that these families are providing children we were in a situation where in the county that we lived in there was a need for fosperts there was eighty children and need for foster care and there was three beds in that county and that was kind of an eye opening thing for me because there is a reality in in our area and where we live that their children that do not have an opportunity to be safe to be warm and to be loved they just don't foster care it's hard but it is a very important thing and these kids there are in hard situations and their families that are broken they deserved them for people to care about them in so we want to partner with foster families and we want to come alongside kids and biological families because this work is important we just want to encourage families who want to be obedient to that called a serve appeal pa is a privately licensed placement agency and what that means is that we partner with the dcfs to help open train license foster families and then we work on matching them with the best placement we provide place but services for foster children in the state of arkansas so most people would compare us to dcfs the department children and family services in terms of our function but the role really is for us to assist the department where working in partnership with them that when they need placement for children in in the state of arkansas. Uh to find eligible screen approved foster holmes for the placement of those children somewhere in a challenge first comes in a foster care we will get a phone call or an email and and see if as well as because if we have an open home so then our team will like and see what openings we have what criteria those families are looking for and whether or not we feel that those channel children are that child would be a good match and then we think it's a possible match all hands on day and then i'm there i'm asking what they need i'm retrieving that whether that means getting back thanks for that helping them get registered for school I help them set up appointments initial appointments for pcp for doctors dental appointments sometimes that means I take kids to appointments in that can really even light of pressure off of the faster parents once we were opened they provided so much support we have a case manager that's in our home you know week later monthly while the therapist is and our home we've even got only with our best everybody jokes but it's really cool hell it's not just a you know they're removed and just kind of trying to help from a farming there they really are there here they're with us and it's a good support system. They can help us see them with taking our kids here setting up doctors appointments and so it's just they kind of help us do what we do and give us the appetite to do it better you know we chose the plpa because they filled every bit of the um that placement phone calls and so we don't get every single phone call their text that comes in regarding foster replacements those all go to the place they know each of their individual homes they know what what type of placements would drive and do well in our home and which ones would your interested in foster care and being a fast repairer I encourage you just to take that leap of faith and step out and apply and find out more there are people who are wanting to come alongside you and tell you about the process and what it looks like an answer all your burning questions and just come alongside you and support you to help you just be the most successful foster parent that you can be and help you as you live on kids who need it arkansas private license to placement agencies include compact family ministries. Children's homes incorporated connected faster care and adoptions southern christian children's home second chance you thranch. And spiros promise to find an agency that's right for you please visit every child arkansas dot org. The. Okay so again that was really high level do we have a whole lot of other things we're working on even last night I was like I didn't add this to my parapoint and in add this to the power point but I am happy to stick around and talk with each of you or talk with you all if you have specific questions about things we have going on and you want to know more i'm happy to meet with you you know with my team in and answer those questions. And you're ready for any questions now yes okay senator hammer you're recognized. They come out here back under previous director martin we authorized some money to be spent in a polite program for pledge county to see if that was going to be successful across the did you touch on that and if not could you can bring us up to date where we are in there yes sir so I can't remember when I was your last but I provided kind of an update of those positions to everybody however I will say as it relates to that t mean model and we haven't ever been able to get there because we haven't been able to fill the positions to get there to really form those teams now we did a higher some of key positions and then some of those have turned over already and so we're still there we're still there and we're still working on them. Okay i'm cheering a couple of quickly yes you may thank you ma'am the sat on page fifty one i'm sure your page five. From from january twenty two to january twenty three a drop of about four hundred sixty. From january twenty three two december twenty three a drop above four hundred and sixty based on current trends have beguarded goal at your shooting for as far as where you think that's going to level off number one and then number two the cost savings that is associated with you know dropping almost a thousand in the young program is is there cost savings attract tax to that are you tracking that at all. So there's not it there is not a magical number for foster care because we weren't children to be safe and so but it is about an appropriately assessing n can we wrap around families in their communities or do these shoulder need to be in foster here to be safe and so I don't I don't want to say when we will level off because i'm not sure and I don't really want to say that we will just because we don't know what's happening with any kid in our state right now in they might need us right and so there's not a magical number we dare do a series of hyper focus so we did a hyper focus around adoption in september october november in december we focused in on kids we pull the selected number of kids and we focused in on moving those kids dependency through adoption because that was their and so that is discharges and then focusing on reunification so that's all impacting and those numbers plus being able to use that intensive in home service to prevent foster gear is really working for us as well I don't have a car savings in front of me obviously if children are not coming into care there are things like board payments out won't be in paid for and things like that but we could work on that insurer that with you and then the less the decline in foster homes or foster foster pairs fraudster homes one of the same correct yes okay so with the transitioning going to the group you know we're or they're going to be the recruiting and all that would watch the reason for the decline is it just that the nature of the you know the calling is it because we're transitioning to a new model or have you got your hands around the reasoning I knew you are going to ask me that today because you did the first time as he and I did not bring that with me but I we can pull that for you but I would say it's probably a mixture of foster homes going into the private agencies and also could be people are do close after foster care has foster. Here's hard and complete transparency dcfs probably own some of that too just in how we value foster parents and we still have work to do around that and we are committed to doing that work with an night head hunter anything but I know what the new approach that you know i've heard some good things about it and I was just wondering if because of the new approach I know there's for nonprofitable reservations out there that traditionally have done things before and if it's kind of like a transition period between the way we used to do things to the way that we are doing things and and did that have anything to do with the so that's that's why I think it could impact it as well but I do know that our data that we've pulled in the past to just see how private agencies work has shown that they do retain foster periods and our replacements are usually more stable because they have that rap around support and so that's why we really believe in private agencies supporting our work with everything I heard is in the right direction so thank you thank you ma'am chair for allowed to represent my very recognized. Thank you very much on page fifteen where you're talking about work force uh down at the bottom it says all staff it says remote work for eligible employees i'm actually excited to see that I believe that remote work can provide for some recruitment in retention of employees but I do want to make sure that there's checks and balances of it too so and many of heard me talk about remote work in the past is there an actual policy that's in place that clearly outlines who is eligible what they expectations are um kind of going over all that and and I don't expect to like bullet point everything right now right up the top of your head but would you mind sharing that with the committee in an email what is the actual policy so that all employees are treated the same way yes man we are dhs actually has their procedure in dcfs has theirs and so we are monitoring and balancing that out and so we will share what we can share both with you all and i'll be at email i'll send it to thank you very much welcome. Representative or are you recognized. Thank you mister mel lemon give you a scenario when maybe you can give me an answer less you say that you have a child it's fifteen years old. The father is a great person okay but the maybe it's a single family in. Father no mother. What do you do when that charles refuses to go to school and get up in the morning now it's it's went to court. And the judge gives us this child something like community work but what can we do to get that charge back on the right track. Yes so I have actually have a lot more questions about that scenario but I think that does the fs could support the family through supportive services case and try to really figure out what's going on wide as in this child want to go to school is there something else going on there's a lot of questions I would want to ask that family so if you want to connect with me afterwards and I can have that family name in and see what what I can see in see if I team can engage would be great. Senator love your recognized thank you madame share not thinking I had to get back in the cube as a house several questions but the first. Tiffany let me let me go I guess first to the prpa is that what you call them aren't so with a plpa's how is that work in your congestion although. When I came through the system I guess you are we were set up with you so now you have these agencies out in their recruiting they're doing the recruiting in the families is that is that what i'm understanding yesterday okay in so or it is DHS somehow compensating these private agencies to do that work well I mean woodsta. So there's a contract we have a private license placement agency contract and though there's a certain percentage of them the amount of the board payment that goes to the foster period but all goes to the private agency and then they have to give a certain percentage to that resource parent. Yeah. So so they receive a not the basic board rate they receive a higher rate and I can share the contract with you if you would like to see that yeah the I guess i'm i'm just want a better understand what how has it so till is at the end making the cost of the over our system shift go up. It would yes. Okay are yeah if you will share that with me I just want a bit honest in the in the end you touch on a lot of different things that I think there's a lot of great things going on um. I would want to talk right now about the mandated reporters you said something. In in your presentation out mandatory reporters. Does whose train in mandated reporters. It is at something that they're the fast under the perfect of dhs so can I back I want to back up one twenty one your first question though about the cost real quick cause I had a secondary thought i'm sorry okay I would want to say that the since they partner with dcfs there is some they those private agencies do tasks for dcfairs like transportation they support supervising visitation a family time if it's appropriate and safe to do so so there are some things that they do that necessarily takes that does take some of the load off of dc that makes sense okay so this would the end let me ask you this does dc dcfs have that staff anymore. So do you are used to have the staff and they're doing they're doing yet I mean yes because we have not not all of our kids are going to private agency placements right now I think it's approximately. Maybe two hundred kids. So of the three thousand and. Foster care with over three thousand and foster care only about two hundred with a private agencies right now. Cash okay. Her we can get together I mean we can get together I just wanna. I just want to cannot see how those figures are working out yeah and I would like to introduce you to some of them as well so you could really understand their models okay because they have case managers just like dcfs does and so they support the foster family I would say more intensely than the cfeskin in that I mean this good okay so must go to the mandated reporters in the I get back in the key manager erm so I have mentioned the main data reporter hortel which is the new online reporting system for mandated reporters in regards to training christ anyone. Absolutely so officially and the commission on a domestic violence rep intelligence is tasked with an training mandate of reporters and they do that through several ways and that said and we at dhs we we do it to upon request right and factor going out next week and to bryant to do some training there and but officially that lies with the with the commission and so and so mandated reporters are required to get travel required to do training or is it just that they were not required and but it is available on thing the commission does there is an online training and it's free and and self peace and available to everyone and they can get a certificate to do that and I do believe some some schools are they may require it for them but as as a mandate across all mandated reporters now it's not required okay or thank you thank you matter representative spring or you're recognized. Thank you madame chair good afternoon in thank you for the information that you provide thus far I do have a question what respect to the unwinding plan that's taken place with respect of medicaid coverage to up persons has that had an effect on any of the participants in the in this particular program I have you all looked at any numbers to know whether or not that head up and adverse effect or any effect on those. Persons within the s. So I don't want to give a wrong answer to that question so I would like to provide that back to you in writing via email if that's okay and it has not directly impacted kids in foster care cause they have foster cure medicaid coverage yeah okay are but then you can respond to it otherwise I would yes thank you reption of richmond to recognize. Thank you madame chair. While we go you are discussing hiring and turnover which has always seemed to be a consistent issue with the hs. You have some positions that you haven't been able to feel and and my question is is that because of a lack of applicants a lack of qualified applicants is that a pay issue is it you know just. We don't want to work that hard issue and what are you trying to do the fix that particular issue so I would say it's all of those things that you mentioned I don't think there is one specific answer if and you could go even as far as and sometimes our staff don't want to do this work anymore because of safety issues so we have been working closely with ADH s hr and promoting our vacancies dcfs had we made a video with one of our staff talking about why they should do this word why it's important the impact you can have on children in families and. Honestly it's really hard work in the end you don't know until you're in it what it's like and we don't know it's hard to explain that to applications and so we get in the cycle of we hire people and they quit because it's hard and they don't understand the level of the the work that's coming at them and then we ask them to be on call we ask them to give basically have no free time so we're trying to be more transparent in that process as we're hiring but also in a place where people say I can do that and so we hire them and bring them on the other part of it that we struggle with this we have supervisors in the state carrying case loads and so it's hard to be a strong effective supervisor when you're carrying your own case load and need a coach and train other staff and then everyone gets frustrated because they don't know what to do so. It's across the board on. All of those things and were discontinuing to try to brainstorm ways to. To make it impact to that. Looking at just different world and ideas we have not hit a magical solution but we do know that other states they're child welfare agencies are struggling just like we are it's not a stand alone issue for just arkansas. Follow up mountain you recognized. You just mentioned safety and I know that a lot of your workers that are involved in this kind of work go and get into some pretty I don't know creepy or. Dangerous. Situations what are you doing to insure their safety as much as you possibly can ensure they're safety the one thing we can do is continuing to build strong relationships with law enforcement so that law enforcement can support us when we know we have to go to situations that are unsave and and part of knowing that we don't always know but part of knowing that would be seen what history we have asking law enforcement what history they have but the one way we have to protect ourselves is by using law enforcement as that tool. What about the the the in the individual themselves that are doing the investigation i'm sorry madam chair. On this but continued with the follow up on this senator live went back in the queue so you can have this one in the new york back in the house i'll be done after this but the an individual do they ever do you ever have a Themselves in a situation they feel compelled to carry and if they do is that is that a non starter with you guys. I. I don't know how to answer that i'm doing bed I have staff across the state who are curing we don't that we have come from a position of staff they do need to protect themselves but also we're carrying guns that brings a different approach to what the work that we're doing we are out in these homes you engage children in families in when work area if we're carrying a gun that brings a different approach and so we have I don't I can't say every person that works for me is not but we come from the position. We're out to engage with families we will never be able to build relationships and keep children safe if we come at an authoritative approach to that work. Thank you thank you for your thoughtful answers thank you manager representative shepherd you're recognized thank you out of machine I have two questions and i'll make them quick and thank you tiffany for being here we appreciate the work you're doing is very important my first question in the years as relates to the agencies are their contractual audits conducted in how often are those art is conducted for the private agencies yes yes so we do have audits on like the board payments and that kind of thing we meet with our providers to know it's going on as questions engaged with them understand you know what's going going on and within their agency but also in the homes that they recruit but we're still required to go out and visit those children in those foster hours and if we invite those agencies to attend family team medians and be engaged in the work so. They inserted your question is yes can we have access to the findings or outcomes of those added yes I don't know if it's going to look like an official audit for you but I can I can write and tell you exactly what we do and how we do those home visits and that kind of thing and maybe we can connect if there's something specific you're looking for now just just just if agencies if we are spending funding our agencies to perform at a certain level are they meeting those expectations and I would say yes they are okay thank you in the in the second follow up mansion i'll be done as a relates to where can I find demographic information for children data in fost car. I have that to you thank you doesn't include age raised gender and where they are yes yes it does thank you you're welcome. Sender live your recognized thank you managed here tivening lemme go back to representative richmond's question in regard to you said there are there are employees that carry. I said I don't I don't know okay are I just I just want to clear fact as I was going to ask you about the liability to the state and so so madam cheer don't don't care that is one of my questions but they just pick my attention when she say all right so because it I mean that would be important because II don't want to I don't want to state to have the liability. If you know somebody to just go into a house and. You know. It goes up I mean this is about launch so or it's so. The turnover issue also was it was a address back but representative of richmond so we are on the save way they thought i'm not sure that's a good thing our bad thing that were on the same way gear it loud babies. I want it I want to touch on there because I know the unification reunification is the main thing but what is the number of gear law babies that we we took into into dhs for twenty twenty three if you have that number in the end are you seeing an increase in decrease in place I do not have that number with me but it was I think in the garage law report that I presented last time I was here but I can resend that back out to committee I don't know that number of the top of my head and then what was the second part of the question well I want to seek as we were saying that the we're seeing a foster care numbers are going down. I just want to see if that's a correlation with the number of gear now. Children that we are taken in a custody I just want to see if there if it's in the same trajectory okay so I can I can provide you that report the gear talker I don't know that off the top right nothing. I think I think i'm finished mansion. Thank you thank you. Senator hammer you recognized they can live chair two quick ones and if you don't know they shouldn't get it back to me the money that we appropriate for that pilot program in plash county. Appropriation or actual funding that you guys are sitting on in its park somewhere else somewhere in the dhs budget or do you know you know I give you that answer back in writing. Try I think it's an appropriation but I don't want to give a wrong answer not an operated man I too that means more than you'll ever know to legislators that you will do say it like that not not give us of a different answer so thanks for that but if you'd find out like no i'm trying to move that was appropriation if that was actually caused I thought we gave you what funding for it and if you'd find that out the same one you mention about the train while go and how takes away from your stay off. But doesn't mids out or you have attractual arrangement was someone to provide training. What would talk about there for a second if you would because if. When you say our staff are you tomorrow people down here a main street or spell that out a little bit more to it hand christian isla training experience. So I think maybe the comment you're referring to useless if and he was talking about when supervisors are current case loads it's difficult for them to do that training and coaching and because one of the functions other supervisor by nature is is to train their staff now the formal training yes that has contracted out this house and training academy with ul are they provide all of our classroom training statewide and then in addition to that we have a partnership with eight other at universities and colleges throughout the state that provide what we call field training to new workers during their first year of employment and those fuel trainers they are there with the staff and the office to do you're on the job training but I think I think the comment was even though we had this formal processes that relationship with the supervisor and being able to go to them as a coach and mentor is so important and but any additional questions you have on training i'll be happy to to internet as well so the seasor training that's referenced some page fifteen hours a different and are they compensated for that. In addition to what we're paying mid south to provider reset different it it's it's different it's it's a brand new training again with just on one pilot group so far m through our best with they have so far with existing funding they have and we're projecting over this next year they will be able to do that for us with what their existing funding so we are currently not paying for that training okay or whenever ideas that they're going through mid south. Are we able to detect at that time look you may not be able to cut it in as field and are we are we seen some peel off at that point and say to get him all way through because I mean that the cost of retraining a rehiring is staggering so at that point is myself doing anything to connect. Polamouth they comment here. Yes and we get weekly reports on how the workers do in class but from engagement and on their pre imposed test evaluations and the field trainers also meet with the supervisor and so that communication is ongoing throughout training and then there is a formal sit down process after the complete foundations to kind of discuss what's working well maybe areas for growth and if there are two concerns and those would be brought to our attention and the still local management position attention and before from there as as needed thank you representative pierce you recognized thank you madame chair thank you my question what you said some about your relationships getting better with law enforcement could you give me first of all some examples of how you're doing that in some feedback from them that you have recognized. Yes so we have so I never has had I friends that sold the feedback we get from law enforcement is just not we don't respind when I responding timely they're waiting for us they're frustrated when they don't understand why we make a decision if they have a different opinion and so some of the work that we've done is just putting dcfs and law enforcement in the same space and having some really open conversations about roles and responsibilities but also just. Sometimes there's just power of everyone sit around the table and sign what they need to say and and then they can move forward and we've seen it works on been in unfortunate been in bittenville so there's much more work to do around that relationship but also just trying to coach staff through that through each of those situations if there is frustration. Thank you welcome. Representative unger you're recognized. Thank you madame chair. Is there a safe house. For unaccompanied miners who are escaping either a violent home situation. Being traffic or something like that that law enforcement can. Talk to you and in place and unaccompanied minor somewhere thank you. There is not a there is not a safe house but if law enforcement calls and they have an unaccompanied minor we respond i'm because those kids are in arkansas we we want to keep kids and arkans are safe and so we will respond and if if the child inners foster care then we would look for an appropriate replacement for them. Which could be a foster home could be emergency shelter their petite foster hum it just depends on that specific child. Maybe a shelter that you have an ongoing. Contract with that you knew you had them on speed dial that they would take an unaccounted minor. I don't at one another I don't want children to go to a house I want them to be with a family and a foster home if appropriate so we have staff exact exhaust those efforts first but we do have an emergency shelters in the state that are already part dream with us to take children that are owned companies in emergency situations. Thank you you're welcome representative weldridge your recognized and thank you madame chair. Typically thank you for being here up my question will be and I think that we've spoken about this somewhat in the past but the need for foster care parents in arkansas what is that look like are you seeing a trend in more foster parents now less over the course of the past few years I mean is that something that's becoming a growing need because we're taking in more kids or just not as many people signed up so we are decreasing in the number of open and approved foster homes it is still a need because when a child interest there's not a safe and appropriate relative we would prefer they go to a foster home and in a foster home in their community at that so they don't want to leave that community in so yes we need people to continue to inquire to be foster end work we're continuing that work okay can I have one follow up and after my I guess my question i'm not in a very good job either of asking it to you but the burden of the regulation and obviously this is something that you've got to do your dollar just to vet anyone that we're going to place children with to ensure they're safety but what's the requirement. For someone to become a foster parent are you and I guess my question being the decrease and foster parents is that because of the burden some requirements that are in place to become a faster payment had those getting worse than the has the regulation gotten harder. That regulations haven't changed no change in the regulations the the process is sometimes cumbersome but we've were decreasing the length of time for training and decreasing the continuing education hours that they required to do and I have were committed to walking alongside them through that I think that's one reason why private agencies are necessaries because they have teams that that is what they do and they open homes and if someone are a family comes you know the dcfs route its like in the mixed right we're working through each of them but we are focused in on that through our work with every child ark on where are our barriers what what do they take to get through and how do we get there and decrease the time just like everybody else okay well I appreciate what you do for the definitely most gradual law state thank you. Senator like you recognize the command she just want more thing tiffany to speak and about representative woodgards say because I think we read into this issue some only question the strenuous ness of the process of foster care. In getting parents to the system and and I do want to go record to say this because i've been through that process I think that is a very vital process because we still want to protect kids in so i'm not really for I mean i'm not for the hey we're going to take these hours away we're going to cut this process down because really every step there that my family went through even though it was it was a it sometimes seems like a love bit of a headache. I think it proved after we got a child in our home we start working with their chown improve very vital so I mean I think. We need to really be thought for about what we're trying to do in the long run of just to find you know either current time and just II just want us to be thought when I want I want to be on record of sand that i'm not for cutting out any of the of the things that you know pairs have to go to because here's the thing if the key it is if the key it is our number one priority and somebody wants to be a foster family then they will do what it takes to be a foster family. In car i'm not only i'm i'm very very serious about that I want to be on the record of saying there because i'm telling you everything that you have to go to everything that my family went through we needed to go through it in order to ensure the debt shout was in this safe place so I just want to be on record of saying that i'm gonna clarify okay I also agree with you and I believe that kids should be safe when they're in foster care so when I say decrease the hours we already create in the hours but the quality of the training is much better and hopefully will give foster fame was the skill more skills that they need versus the traditional pride training that we've had so it's about an increase in quality even though the hours are decreasing so but I also agree with you I believe in kids being safe when they are in foster care with appropriate adults who are curious for them who've opened their home to be foster parents okay thank you manches thank you directory in staff we appreciate not just your information today but all that you do. Throughout the state thank and thank you committee for your good work today and with no further business we are adjourned.