Senate Children and Youth and House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military

I really hit. Good afternoon everyone it's wonderful to see all of you here on this chilly day Mister chair do you have anything to say. Thank you so much our first order of business is item be in your packet consideration to approve those ever fourteenth twenty twenty two many minutes I see a motion okay all in favor say aye. We got one. Next is I'm going to recognize representative Keith Brooks is going to introduce our special Speaker. Thank you madam chair and if I might ask for just a moment of personal privilege as I do introduce our our first guest says Dr Phil goad with every child Arkansas feel you can go and come to the table here so doctor goes into presenting abouts the organization called every child Arkansas and just a quick little background on him I received his PhD in toxicology from you M. S. back in nineteen eighty to serve as the founder principal toxicologist and CEO of an organization called C. T. H. which is an environmental services firm based in North Little Rock and then outstanding job of of leading a small business here in the state of Arkansas has recently become involved with organization international organization called K. for which is the Christian alliance for orphans he served on the board that also serves here locally in the State of Arkansas as a And court appointed special advocate and then now is on the executive leadership council of an organization called every child Arkansas so that's kinda feels qualifications but beyond that filled his wife Starla really exemplify what it means to serve widows and orphans we all know the scripture that we hear of a pure and follows religion is serving widows and orphans Hillman's wife exemplify that more than anybody I know I've seen them take in families not just for a few days or few weeks at a time but I've seen them take in families for months and months at a time to have need a particular foster care families and so he's very very heavily involved in not just trying to address foster care crisis but ending the foster care crisis here in Arkansas and nationwide in just one quick little aside several weeks ago he heard that Christian music artist Chris Tomlin was coming to do a concert at Simmons arena and so he knew that he had worked in the foster care space himself and so he reached out and set up a fundraiser actually in my district and so on a Sunday afternoon last week he raised about four hundred fifty thousand dollars for foster care in Arkansas and so that's the passion behind what we're gonna here today consider he and his wife Starla mentors of myself my family and some of the greatest people that I know so at that manager thank you for limited stock. Thank you so much for that introduction and Mr card you're recognized thank you very much amended chairman Mister chair thank you so much and representative Brooks I think that's for some of ever called him represent brought some levity that here in this setting I'm I'm real pleased to come and spend some time with all of you today here to share with you some I think you're gonna find very exciting I certain I know we do and some of the folks here in the audience to about a movement that's happening now in our state. Related to foster care and that in adoption here in so I'm so glad to come and spend time to you today to talk to you about every child Arkansas. And I'm gonna see if I can. Get this the move for them to test hi this. We're getting someone to help you. Just flip to a different presentation so. Did not mmhm no this is not mine this is. Thank you Dr Martin wants me to do this once this is. Just a second. Technology is a blessing and also occurrences in an it's wonderful when it works. Thanks. There we are all right we made it thank you so much thank you bye some of the stuff those of you in the committee I'm sure been deal with long ties to some of these are going to say I know are not new to you at all but too often as we see in the words that are we hear the words not enough when we're talking about foster care in the state this state of Arkansas and frankly all across the United States those the words not enough we hear very often. And I apologize. There we go. Your bill I'll be welcomes the I'm obviously I usually have a more technical prowess. So I think it's that right to go there yeah your committee click for you that you got it I think I got a very. Three seed in when I say not enough I mean you know there's not enough support there's not enough resources is not of found families and the challenges really that we face are many and again I know that that all of you know this just to name a few of the challenges here in our state there's too few foster and adoptive families we have a very low foster retention rate that's how long do family state when they say yes how long they stay on talk about that a little bit more in a minute and we're hundreds of family short of those that are needed for idea placements for kids in foster care in our state we need we are we do not have enough support for biological and foster families and so the bio family reunification rate that is when children removed from their homes. The hello person is less than half get to go back eventually in DCFS is stretched too thin those are just a few examples why we say there's not enough so in response we formed every child Arkansas in response to these challenges in every child Arkansas is a network of advocates agencies faith based organizations and other organizations working together in trust building collaboration. To fill the biggest caps and care gaps in caring for children and families before during and beyond foster care in every county in our state that's that's what every child Arkansas is. You know I mentioned some of the things that are challenging but I'd be remiss if I didn't say some things that would that are encouraging in this state in in this arena first all we have a very strong DCFS leadership and partner engagement that a from director Martin down her senior staff and many people there are very committed to what we're doing here in the engagement is been fantastic and without their support without that director Martin supporting her teen support we really would not be able to be doing what we're doing now so we're very proud and thankful for that level of support kinship care is at or near target levels as you know that states target is forty percent and we're we're run forty percent every year and so that's a great improvement here for kids to be with people that are their families or or people they already have a relationship with in home prevention services help children families are are present here and are very effective in dark director Martin will probably review in the annual report that when those services are provided to families that are at risk of losing their children a very high percentage or corrected and they're cared for and they don't have to have their children go into foster care more than ninety percent so that's a real positive thing that's happening here in our state and over the years we've have definitely a reduced number of children in non family like settings in fact over eighty percent of the kids now or in family like settings in our state so there's some positive and encouraging things that I think it's important for us to remember the approach of every child Arkansas is is just kinda illustrated here's to a an effort called collective impact I don't know how many of you heard that is really have some common sense ways that communities and diverse groups of people come together to make system change in our country and back in two thousand eleven a couple researchers at Stanford looked at some movements that had been XXL soul and pop. Just a paper called collective impact in in that they found five things that are common in these movements that are able when people come together to make change in their communities first of all there's a unifying vision I'll share that with you here in just a minute minute their shared measurements we need to know how to measure what we're doing to know whether we're successful or not there are coordinated efforts where each part each member does their part in in doing that though in a way we're working together there is consistent communication and finally there's backbone support and by that we mean that any time a group of people get together that are busy in the same field if you start talking about collaborating that takes some work to take that next step and collaborate so they found that having backbone support that is someone helping the collaborative efforts work together well everybody's got their day job and working that's a critical part we have that here in the state with an organization I think that's been before these committees restore hope I believe came a couple months ago there are backbone organization and if this is in the State diagram as some pictures the icons of the kinds of organizations we have like bridge organizations with organizations that bridge the gap between the foster families in the state the service organizations that provide services of various types to the community placement agencies the agencies that actually license families of local businesses that support with with funding or in kind support government like DCFS the other agencies that are it were engage with resourcing partners that say we're willing to partner with you like representative Brooks mentioned last weekend several people came together said we believe in what you're doing will help support you and then finally faith based foster care ministries are our state is well known with this I I've. At the pleasure of being on the board for the national Christian lines four fins which actually began here in Arkansas about fifteen years ago and is now all around the world and I can tell you this people all over the country know about Arkansas and they know what we're doing here and that's of I'm very thankful and and very proud of that because of the strong faith based organizations like the call second chance ranch Arkansas Baptist at work here in our state and I sent my I'm very thankful and proud of what's your vision this is here is very simple I would talked about not having enough our vision is more than enough for children and families before during and beyond foster care in every county in the state of Arkansas and there's a national movement that has at a similar vision more than enough for children families before during and beyond foster care in every county in the United States but we're in Arkansas and I'll just say right now because it's exciting to me I believe with all my heart Arkansas will be the first state that's gonna get to more than enough in the country with a top down from the highest levels of government all the way down to the people on the ground to at work come together and work we're going to be the first state that gets there and I'm very very thankful for that when I say more than enough here's some examples of what we mean we mean more than enough foster and kinship families for every child to have an ideal placement we mean more than enough adopted families for every child waiting for adoption we need needing more than enough help for biological families that are trying to stabilize in reunify and then more than enough wrap around support from advocates churches and other organizations for children for families and for use that are aging out of the foster care system. This is just a diagram of of the growing a network of organizations that are part of every child Arkansas I'm sure many of you recognize many of these the Department of Human Services DCFS the Arkansas division works up for services and you can read these there are many organizations some of these are national in scope and I'll mention that we've all come together and say we're gonna work together in this state so that we can get to more than enough in the state of our Arkansas this is a picture what we believe is a growing network of organizations within the state of Arkansas. I thought might be helpful just to give you a little bit of history on this is real a relatively new history all their organizations here that have worked literally since the nineteen eighties in foster care Arkansas Baptist began in skews me in the eighteen hundreds of the nineteen eighties in the eighteen hundreds the call's been here for fifteen years so people have been on the ground a long time but we only recently began to say let's start talking about doing this together so in the summer of twenty twenty one we begin talking about a collaborative effort to get the more enough in our state in the fall we form the old executive leadership council that I'll mention to you here in just a minute and then on November thirtieth twenty twenty one we held our first forum of people that we're inviting to join in a director Martin came and presented to all of us some of the needs within the state of Arkansas and some of the crisis that were in particularly in Pulaski County and that was kind of the seed of the of of where we first came together and say let's work together so ended in December we will once launched water called working groups I'll tell you a little bit more about those that are in place right now in January we started discussions with the company out of Oregon called the contingent in that we have now partnered with the No well on the chin a little bit more about that in a minute in April we had a meeting here with and in Arkansas with our team but the contingent with DCFS that start talking about can we do this can we come together in this state and make this happen April to August we had more discussions to move forward in the fall of twenty twenty twenty two we continue to work together to see how we gonna coordinate this because the ground game work that's already here in this new thing I want to share with you call their game and then December eleventh just last weekend we we had together a fund raising event with the Chris time of. With the gospel singer MercyMe were here came and held a vent saying some songs and shared their passion and said they want to partner with Arkansas and so we were really excited about that in January of of the coming week lord willing we're gonna be doing face to face meeting with their teens doing all the training and all the launching efforts that we need to do and then towards the end of February early March is kind of our initial launch date for every child Arkansas. I have a slight here just to talk a little bit about our approach how are we doing this I've already mentioned to you were using a collective impact model then we also have shared leadership or with executive leadership council with voting members made up of some of the larger organizations here and then some nonvoting members we've been meeting weekly for over a year planning for this we have sent in it were using innovative technology solutions for this and all Mitchell bit about those here we are are really coordinating between the existing organizations on the ground and this is kind of the the the sweet spot of this movement with these organizations actually coming together to see how are we going to work together in this state we have national partners that we're working with and that we have working groups let me mention some of the innovative technology solutions that we're using now are going to be exploring using one is an organization called care portal I don't know if you've heard about them or not they are headquartered out of Kansas city and work around the United States and they have a software platform to link on the one hand needs of individual families that are input by certain organizations like state agencies and then on the other hand organizations churches and other organizations that agreed to meet those needs so would technology they bring those together and they're meeting the needs of people for tangible needs and goods up connect our kids is a very cool thing that we've had started discussions with to women started this one of which had been in the defense industry for many years her job was to go on to the web at publicly available sources and was tracking down nuclear terrorists who were transporting nuclear waste around the world and finding them so they could go catch them she has a foster history background sissy use some of the same things he learned in that and now as developed a a program called connector kids where. They you can take a family and you can find relatives around the country fictive kin that is those have a relationship with them to build a family trees that that the court wants to see to see who might be able to take these children in the care is very cool they did they don't charge anything for their going into states we're talking about them bring it state of Arkansas to help us find families for the kids that come in the care there's a group called chosen that we started discussion with they do tell a behavioral health in Florida and other states where they're coming in and doing post adoptive counseling that trauma informed counseling and care in coaching for families foster families adoptive families who are dealing with kids who have been a real tough places hope ark is is the technology solution that we shared with you by restore hope is a case management system that is showing amazing results already in the State of Arkansas to help biological families get get problems corrected that has brought them into struggles to begin with with the team of people coming together again to a collective impact movement and connecting them and getting them rien ninety five you reunited with their kids and back from from crisis to career and then the contingents air game which I'm going to mention to you in a minute which is the technology that we're bringing to the state to recruit and train volunteers and and foster families we have some national partners that we're dealing with and some that were in discussion with the mission care portal city services organization in our state and several others who has connections with the big box companies like home depot and others that they get goods from them that are sometimes left over since like the damage whatever they get huge amounts of goods and they have a system where they're distributed to families. That have needs the chosen that I mentioned to you earlier they're they're a national partner we're time but about baby Haverhill Health Christian alliance for orphans has got a national movements develop and some of the best principles of more than enough and then the contingent the organ group that we partnered with to bring the technology to bear here in our state. I mention we also have a working group some working groups or simply organizations that get together subject matter experts to deal for a period of time with that particular topic or area of focus and we have these working groups here we have family finding that is groups coming together like how can we do a better job finding families that are going to foster and adopt and that's where this air games I'm gonna share with you about the comes in wraparound support this is how can we do a better job supporting families when people say yes how can we support them to churches through through groups that will come along side them doing simple things like bringing them meals are supporting them doing respite care weekends off those kind of things so that they can stay in this hard work longer in and stay in it by family support is our third one like how can we help these families that are moving into crisis in our at risk of losing their children or have the they have their children going into care how can we help them be a stabilize so that they can reunify in DCFS support we have a group of people saying what can we are community the non government side of this do to help our friends at DCFS in tangible ways could come along and support and take the load off of an a very busy and sometimes over worked staff of people one thing that I'm really excited that we have a tangible goods working group that just form where these organizations like a mention of care portal and chosen care portal in city serve those of got organizations that get stuff and the organizations that distribute it for the first time they've come together and say how can we put all of this together how can we use the data platform and our goal is to read there's literally not a single family anywhere in the state that's losing their kids are can't keep their kids because they can't find a bad or goods or the physical thing. Things they need to take care of children and ask and I'm that's going to happen with these people coming together and I'm real excited and then coming soon I mentioned is we're bringing we're bringing together the behavior health community we're asking them the same thing we've been asking everybody else's. Let's work together and why should we work together or why not we're asking that is the same behavioral health folks that take care of the tremendous needs of for behavioral health that are I think we'll all agree is a real gap in our state right now so those are the working groups we have and I'm gonna take a little bit about the contention a group out of Oregon that we've gotten to know very very well and they've now partnered with us with the State DCFS and with our private team here that the part of the private public venture we're doing their world world class dedicated people they have cutting edge technology that is making a huge difference they proven that works they have a humble approached are willing to serve us here in the state in ways that fit us here in our state they're making a very substantial a commitment of time talent and treasure to our state because they want to take what they've learned go all around the country and for the first state to partner with with moving to Indiana next year and and well beyond I'm sure but they made a very significant commitment and they've proven worthy of our trust I have a little diagram here to can illustrate the process what's going to happen can at the end of February and you will see a very many of you will see it we're going to launch a very strategic web based media based approach to raising the awareness for foster care and adoption in the state of our Arkansas in use you see the blue final there on the left is the the day organic content every day something good is happening in the state with our ground game organization is gonna be put on Facebook and and the you too other places they're gonna buy ads you're going to see ads come out there's a a community experience when someone sees something and they say I'm interested there's gonna be a trained. Group of people that will call them and a human human being visit with them and and talk to them about that there's a great web experience we're gonna have every child Arkansas dot org will launch and then analytics their study in this all the time what they did in Oregon and what we're doing in Arkansas right now is there studying the demographics of the most successful foster families and finding out what do they look like and then the targeted marketing will go to those types of families in this state so they're gonna be getting emails Facebook ads and others to try to target families that we know because of experience are doing doing a better job we partnered with axiom who is actually given the data to every child Arkansas for at no cost they want to partner with us to help us do this so we're real excited added this eventually comes people who say I would like to learn more about fostering or I think I'm ready the foster or I would like to adopt and when that happens and they're plugged into our ground game people to carry them through the process of being license to be trained and ultimately to take children into their homes and is gonna be really cool and you will see it that you're going to see this. When we launch at the end of February just set the picture of the every child Arkansas can it that what we call the ecosystem and Tom is this air game is gonna be story telling through media platforms there's going to be a VIP community experience for people call in the be an eight hundred number people will be talking to them walking them through this and at the right time they'll be handed down to hand it over to the ground game folks that you saw on that that group of all those folks there some of them are here to be handed over to them to help them in the process through the journey of volunteering helping eventually fostering and adopting so the on that number four will have homes to for every child through recruiting foster training licensing and supporting them through at the very the whole process so it's a very holistic collective impact approach to what we're trying to accomplish we're doing a very detailed asset mapping of the entire state of Arkansas so when someone comes in and says I'm interested they will put their zip code in and when based on that zip code they'll get a list of everybody who could use them as a volunteer and they can click on the link and get that person or if they say I'm interested in fostering everyone that that takes care of that in their county will be brought forth in the have chance to choose who's going to help us as very sophisticated asset mapping of our step. Here's some of the goals that we've set preliminarily that would like to T. would like to to move right now sixty percent of the foster families drop out in every year we lose sixty percent so that means forty percent stay would like to move that from forty to seventy five percent just imagine the difference if we don't have to do all this work every year about nine hundred fifty or so families say I can't do it anymore they they closed their homes what if we could cut that in half and so this four hundred fewer families we have to find just stay even a bio family reunification right now forty three percent of the kids get to go back home would like to make that a lot higher by supporting the bio families and then we're targeting the top twenty five families with the most kids in our state and say let's get to more than enough in those top twenty five counties. There's some opportunities that I think that you guys could help us here a we want to dive deeper into behavioral health reform we want to do a deeper dive in the potential public funding sources this is a public private venture where a number of private individuals and organizations are saying will be part of this and will fund this the state is also helping fund this and so we want to explore a lot more about what is the public funds that we can tap some of our organizations like restore opens using Tama of funds the department justice funds we want to explore that more we would like to have the help from all of you in reaching out to local foundations would like to be able to regularly report to you about the progress is going to be very transparent and open and so we want to be held accountable and we want to consider how to increase the resources and support for DCFS tackle the employee retention issue you may have heard this and twenty twenty one in Klasky county the field service workers there's a hundred and five percent turnover I'm bill I was a business owner I could not survive the business that had more than everyone of your employees turnover in the course of years so we believe that we need some help in that area. And so thank you for let me come and share with you today about what we're trying to do in the State of Arkansas what we are doing and state of Arkansas I'm glad to come talk to all of you who are in the middle of this yourself trying to help out from a legislative perspective and I'd be glad to answer any questions. That in you might have. Mr go what would be the best way for us to contact you are someone if we would like to get more information you know you could you could cut out my email address is Phil dot goed. At K. fo dot O. R. G. filled out coded cable dot or G. when we launch our website which should be at the end of February they'll be links through that to get more information but if you if you want for more information be glad to give it to you and we'll have some of our implementation team we call it some of whom were here today reach out to you and and help support. We'll have our staff for with that to everybody if you didn't get that written down with the email address so Blake will be getting that out to you in the next few days thank you. Thank you so much I appreciate your being with us today thank you very much I appreciate. Next we have the presentation of the number of children the Division of Youth Services D. Y. S. facilities and education program by Michael Krupp the director of DYS Department of Human Services and members in your packet that is item D.. Senate. Thank you. Mr trump you're recognized. Thank you moneys microbiome the Director of the Division of Youth Services and I thank you for the opportunity this afternoon to come update everyone about the Division how things been going as well as some things I'm included about where we are going what our plans are for the near future and I've included some things on the back end of this presentation about education just to give you an idea of what the population that we're dealing with looks like on this first page I'll start off with I put this first this is really just a breakdown of our census numbers just to see how things have been going the last few years if you look at the color photograph year the first line you see the blue line is the number of children aftercare aftercare something similar to parole I if you think about it for an adult point of view that is those kids who have left our of our physical custody they have returned to the community and if they don't behave correctly and do the things the court expects them to do during the time there on after care they could be returned to our custody rather easily without even picking up new charges the Orange number is the and this is This Is by year that's the average number of children in our custody or physical custody in our secure facilities on a daily basis for that given year the gray number the grass there is the number of children in a juvenile detention center on the on a daily basis for each given year and that lasts the yellow is group homes are group homes are the lowest security facility type that we we operate we contract for those we don't operate those as part of our secure contract that the big contract we have those if that's for the children that are lower on the risk level and the ones that are appropriate to be put in that setting to spend their time with us at a group home I read some notes here just to kind of give you an idea here to remind myself if you look at the numbers in two thousand eighteen. There was a little bit of the reform effort going on the and you had done some of the larger jurisdictions have taken on a new risk assessment tool the savory to make decisions on what kids needed which kids need to be committed to the vision you services and that was going on up through two thousand eighteen and some of our larger jurisdictions in two thousand nineteen is really when the performance of the legislature of the governor the courts I set out to pass reforms in two thousand nineteen during that session to really make sure the kids are being treated in the least restrictive setting possible it was an effort to only send the kids to the Y. S. that really needed to be there not send the low risk children there make sure you're not sending misdemeanor crime children they're less it's unless they just really got a lot of problems and have real high needs far as treatment goes so those efforts really and also at the same time I've been here for years in this position this month so two thousand nineteen when I first came to be wise we also embarked on sort of a reorganization of the way we were doing things we have been running some of the facilities ourselves for a few years we put that back in under a contract let someone else run those so that all really began in two thousand nineteen those efforts so when you look at these these numbers you see in two thousand nineteen the numbers start to drop you see on the residential side it dropped from two sixty seven on average to two I'm sorry my eyes are not that great but. It's it's actually see better if there to to twenty six two bin to twenty two thousand twenty as we all know was we got from a little bit a curve ball we could see the numbers are really starting to come down I think our our average our number of kids that we had in secure care at that time before coating it was around two hundred and four those are secure facilities we had close we've gone from three facilities I mean seven facilities down to a four at that point we close three those we still have two that are available should we have a need for them in the future but we went out for facilities but then in two twenty twenty is when we just the numbers really start to plummet when the courts shut down the schools shut down everything was shut down those kids were either not being seen their behaviors are not being noticed. Or the courts were not able to get to those kids because of just the difficulty in getting things for so we saw I think the lowest number I saw when I read the census on a day. A basis that comes in my email was about a hundred fifty two kids in our secure care across those four facilities which was just an extremely low number probably the lowest number of the wives had I mean I I don't know but it's has been for for decades we've had anything that low coming out of covid if you look at twenty twenty two especially in the spring of twenty twenty two we saw a little bit of a surge I I you know without having at some sort of you know examination and some sort of research to back it up but we believe that it's mostly because the court started getting back we all we all were familiar with the need to hire more public defenders and prosecutors because of a backlog of cases with that more than likely impact of the juvenile cases well plus the kids were back in school things are starting to open open up things are going to therapy. Kids were were being notice those kids might even getting in trouble or coming into that time in their lives that where they might have ended up in our custody during the first year year and a half of covid they didn't go away those children were still there so what happened we believe in March specially March April may and June we saw numbers we haven't seen in about five years when we look at the data it was just kind of a bottleneck effect and then here they came all at once so we're still dealing with that at this point in twenty twenty to because we've those kids are going to do an average of six months for the lower end kids six to nine months and then you have your you're more aggressive kids with the higher needs are going to a little bit more time so when you get a spike like that in. Spring going into summer you're still going to see high numbers for sometime the other number that you see there was the the juvenile detention center number that is up to nineteen this year when I first came on board it was not unusual for DYS to have anywhere from fifty to seventy kids sitting in a juvenile detention center those are not centers that we run these of the county run centers around the state and at that time it a lot of those kids were there for what we would call time helps. When they were misbehaving in facilities DYS would allow those people running facilities to send in their free time out for a few days until late cannot kind of calm down and bring them back and we we've had a concerted effort to stop moving children as much as possible during their treatment every time you move a kid from one site to another site a kind of set them back a little bit so we that we had a real strong effort to stop doing that we don't utilize. Those timeouts very me has to be a really extreme situation before we will authorize a kid to be taken out of our facility and put in a juvenile detention center where maybe that the services are not as strong the weather being pulled out of the treatment they're undergoing so you see those numbers in twenty twenty twenty twenty one even before that in nineteen they were really low them up most days you know was one two kids there the most now what you see in nineteen is is a product of that same surgeon I talked about we have twenty assessment has under contract right now with our our vendor right of passage and so when we get a kid committed to us from the courts it takes us about three weeks to get through the assessment process looking at their educational needs behavior health needs deciding where they need to be placed in one of our facilities we have a a whole group of individuals the subject matter experts now that meet with the kids during that three weeks and then come back together as a group and make decisions about what their treatment should be it should look like that's something that prior to two thousand nineteen was basically one person sat down and still the salaries you paper but now we have a process that takes about three weeks so when you get nearly fifty kids in one month and you have twenty assessment bids. Some kids are not able to get in right away we have expanded that we've moved some things around we've had twenty five twenty six twenty seven kids in assessment bad at one time sometimes it's gender issues you have a pot that's a beds and if you only have three girls in that pod you basically can't use the other five bed you can't mix the boys and girls obviously the same pod on to spend the night together be during the assessment period so we're still seeing that were in single digits this morning I think we're down to nine those children only spending maybe a couple of weeks typically in a juvenile detention center they go from the Court once or judicata and we get the minutes quickly as we can so we can have them assessed and we moved him on to the next location so. I think that's all the notes I had a staffing we did have some staffing issues especially during covid that was that was specially difficult to staff and some of our our smaller facilities that might be outside of Central Arkansas or there's Personalty in Jonesborough but those staffing issues I've got a lot better we're we're a lot closer than we were the last couple years to being fully staffed at all of our facilities to where we can actually maximize all of our bids so things really started look better I think at this point it's really County therapists are the ones that were really struggling and I know you know I think I'm sure you've all heard this from other agencies even from my perspective finding nurses things like that continues to be something of a a difficult a challenge for us but staffing has gotten better But through that surgical really roughly C. make sure it's correctly. Okay next slide I can wanna let y'all know what our plan is going forward the things will be working on so the first couple of years after I came to D. Y. as the focus is really on getting things in order in the facilities what treatment was going to look like assessments and I think now that things knock on wood same to a somewhat flattened out there as far as that the issues we are facing. We're working more so on what it looks like when the kids go home we're trying to strengthen what we do in the community when the kids return as well as those kids that are not made it to the Y. S. we're trying to do more things to keep those kids from coming into our custody in the first place so one of the things we're doing just from internal standpoint is looking at that assessment that we do that takes three weeks and the individual treatment planning I have my treatment team the clinicians they're looking to streamline that process to make sure that we're not doing too many assessments are we being redundant and the things that we're assessing is there a way that we can maybe do so you know the really course assessments of this shorter period of time so we can go and get that kid placed and then finish the rest of the assessments. After they're placed in a facility where they're going to spend most of their time with us so they can start their education they can be with the population they all need a little bit of time just to sort of assimilate to being in the Y. S. custody orders were making efforts right now to streamline that process you know maybe not every kid needs the highest level of therapy that's one thing we really want to take a look at which is you know therapy can be difficult to provide anyway we will make sure that we're not realizing that as well we want kids to be able to move so if you come in you maybe don't need quite as much therapy then let's not let's use those resources for kids that really do need it but we also want the ability that you know maybe being placed in this type of setting you didn't need that much therapy when you got there but just the shock of being in this facility my move you up a level so we're looking creating sort of a tiered system that the kids can move between that's a little more detail as far as so they're treatment plans don't all look more or less the same set also again we don't want that bottleneck to happen so if I can't do anything about the number of kids coming into that we won the court sends them to us we have to take them what we can do is try to shorten that treatment that assessment process so we don't bottle necks of the kids can move in and into a bit quicker so they're not spending time in the juvenile detention centers. This one is a intensive in home services I think you actually heard a little bit of reference to this in the prior presentation you might of heard this before from a miss Martin I have we are we've been utilizing this for a little while he started a pilot project back last spring and now we've we've been able to we submitted a proposal and were able to obtain some tennis funding to be able to provide intensive in home services for those aftercare kit so when they come into our custody when they're getting close to the time for them to go home we start setting them up with one of the three providers to be able to go home with something more than just a monitoring and and light supervision what we think really will make a big difference is intensive in home this is actually services being delivered in the home those case workers with a really small caseload being able to go into the home be on call twenty four seven to help the entire family deal with whatever issues they might be dealing with whatever's causing instability in that home they're trained to be able to help the family with that and be on call now I think I think we have I'm piggybacking on the surface contract currently for this I think they're up to the point where seventy five counties are all covered now but obviously takes a little time to staff up and they kind of have to be given some notice of what's coming so they can staff up and get those staff in place we just charge the kids they have enough personnel to be able to put them on their case load but this is something that we're really excited about the we think could really help us with the Senate recidivism to help prevent those kids coming back to us because as you can imagine a lot of our kids don't have that much structure in their home they come to DYS where it's just really intense structure and then. It's a great and then you go to court you to review it's time to go home and once you send them home two weeks after being back in the hole with with no structure some of them come back and I mean you know the only alternative we've had the past is to take them back or just keep them there we can't keep kids forever with us they're at least going to go home by the time the twenty one but we don't want to institutionalize and keep them longer than they need to be there so we're looking at the right amount treatment but. When I keep referring what looked like before in the past we've basically you've had two layers of of treatment you have the community based providers who treat a really large number of kids they're providing services to all the at risk kids in the state and that's thousands of kids and those kids that didn't do well they come to DYS and then when they leave the White as they go back into the community and those same committee based providers are the ones are trying to deal with our population as well as just the entire at risk populations out there so it's just really just the Committee base providers and the Y. S. what we're trying to create is something that's more graduated system coming up and going down as I like to describe it so a kid starts to get in trouble I would like the courts to be able to refer a child to see if maybe intensive in home as an option because it's a model that works really well juvenile justice just like it does in the foster care system and maybe keeping those kids from coming to the last I would like for the courts to be able to you know what they're getting those that level services the community based provider that's not quite enough you have intensive in home services we have our boot camp at sea step which is a residential diversion program which is kind of the next highest thing intensive in home is not quite enough but courts really not ready to lock them up in a secure facility we have a residential diversion program where they can send the kids to get a short term it's about a half weeks treatment process to be able to see if that will help maybe keep them from getting in trouble and then when they leave the Y. S. the same thing we're working on a few slides going forward you'll see we're working on a community re integration project or a step down that we currently don't have so what I would like is for many of our kids to be able if they're doing well and they have a few months left to be able to move to a less secure setting that still you know within our custody they're not back completely returned to the community at the start working on some things that prepare them to go back and then when they go back to the community they also have this intensive in home service in place so and then you have the committee based provider beyond that so you really have something that. It's sort of a a graduated going up and down instead of these these real start changes from you know no structure no real supervision to the highest level you you have and then back to what you you knew before and just basically monitoring to see if you're going to school see if you're failing a drug test things of that nature so intensive in home services on the after care sigh we have thirty some odd kids on that right now we started that back actually in this this fall I think it was we have several more there pending right now what police would not have the entire state covered so we basically just had the eastern half of the state we have the funds to be able to do I think a hundred twenty I can today on aftercare and you know there's there's still gonna be some that don't fit the criteria for intensive in home services because of their age or maybe the families not participating whatever that may be but this is something we think will really help us going for the next slide is what I was talking about I'd like to be able to provide more this on the diversion side we're looking and hoping that some Medicaid rule changes coming down a down the line will help there to help make this available to courts because I'm probably ninety percent of our kids have some form of Medicaid if we had that Medicaid eligibility that funding source and kids meet the criteria and you can get enough coverage it would be really helpful for the courts to have that available to them I think right now of we might even make a few slots out of our after care funds available just for the rest of this calendar year because it's taking us time to ramp up and we don't want to leave anything on the table that might be able to help kids so we're looking at doing that as well as sort of a pilot project and will be able to see how it works kind of get an idea an idea before we expand this further so intensive in home services there we have three riders right now we would like to recruit more people to become this type of rider to be able to provide intensive in home services because the more providers that we have doing this the better chance we have of keeping the numbers the staffing where it needs to be to cover the statewide. another thing I just wrote in here that I want to mention that is not part of the intensive in home services but I think the last time I was in front of this committee I brought one of my substance abuse peer support specialist Mr bling to gave a presentation letter by know what pub a substance abuse peer support look like and about her experiences in her training she left us for a little while to go she's working her master's degree but she's back with us as a supervisor and we were able to get two more position so now instead of just the one we have three individuals who were doing substance abuse peer support they work with the kids who are in the last custody who have substance abuse issues and the real focus is to help get them set up for when they leave when they go back to connect them with resources to teach them how to how to handle recovery on their own to go to who to contact when they go back into the community that can help them when they're struggling with substance abuse so we have three individuals including a male staff now that we didn't have before they are working to Maybe place some more peers in a couple of our higher need areas will receive the large number of commitments based on the data that they've been working with the kids so we're looking at doing that in the near future as well just getting some kind of model in place we can expand peer support these kids out when they go back in the committee as well. Going to committee yeah Committee re integration services step down program we have some cottages that are available in sterling county there's there's four that we intend to use right now we're we're looking to find a partner possibly a right of passage who is currently the contracted to provide services to all of our kids that are in our our physical custody either and secure secure facilities we're looking a partnership with them that would take advantage of a Medicaid model which is community reintegration the kids will work on this is the thing I was talking about earlier the kids will work in their life skills they would work they would do community service it would be a much less secure setting small setting with six kids per cottage they'll make their meals together they'll do school together in the morning and one of the things I'm really excited about is we've been talking to the slain career education center which is a couple of miles from the colleges that were to we're looking at using about the second half of the day after two o'clock setting up a program they're working on designing a program for us so that so those kids are in the last three months of their time with us the god of this lower security setting they start working on these other things and we want this link career education center set up a model for us where during that three months they will be learning about different trades in different careers that they might be able to go into when they returned home. That facilities also really adept at connecting kids when they go back here's what's available in your community the part of a larger network of two year campuses so they can help us work on finding the funding you know if this is the programme of the trade that you're interested in here's where it's available in your community when you go home because that's what we see when a lot of kids come to us a lot of our kids are not you know a four year degree is not something that really interests them or that's really on their radar a lot of them don't really have any idea what is available to them unless someone in their family as as work in that particular trait they probably don't know so rather than focusing on you know we'd like to get them certificates and things it's something that helps give a sense of accomplishment it helps in treatment we want to keep doing those things but instead of focusing on trying to have someone certified to be a Wilder or a mechanic or whatever it might be during the short time there with us because you know our kids don't come in all at one time they come in throughout the entire year and they're they're different parts of the year so it would be great for some of the longer term kids to be able to get that while they're with us what we really need to focus on is the vast majority of our kids are not going to be here long enough to obtain that that certification or license to introduce them to things so they see a path forward when they go home to be able to get those type of jobs in the training they need to get those type of jobs so we met we went on tour the facility last week he met we are actually going they're going to get a model back to us soon an idea of how we could start that even before we get this committee or integration set up we're going to try and pilot with maybe start off with four kids start off small see how it goes and then build on that as as it goes forward if the if that goes well we're gonna keep building that and hopefully set up this committee reintegration site would be able to move more more kids in that setting and get that kind of training is part of the treatment. Residential diversion services I mentioned before our C. step program which is the boot camp out of camp Robinson we have a we're back up to thirty two kids there to thirty two slots with COVID we had times where we were not able to have classes then we kind of started back slower just not have gets crowded in together how to keep things as safe as possible we're back up to thirty two kids since we've taken it over we done some things to the facility education wise the kids are now earning credits I've in the past they did not really are credits for high school while they were there we have developed a small after care program for the C. step kids to kind of keep up with them when they go home and continue things it's really I think we've we've been able to assess because DHS has some resources and things that they didn't have an upon the military department we do some assessments when during the intake process as well did you see what their needs might be and see if there are things that we can connect the children within their families we have a facility at Lewisville we recently used it as part of a grant for a substance abuse facility that grant ran out last year but the facilities in really good condition so we're looking at opportunities to possibly find funding to be able to open a second residential diversion program we don't have anything currently for girls about twenty percent of our populations girls eighty percent as boys sometimes that makes it really difficult to deliver things to the girls because if you don't have enough girls to sustain a program but in this particular facility we have to twelve a colleges so if we're able to to get the funding get a model that we want to use we would have one specific one twelve that college for girls and one for boys so then you would reflect women's C. step you have close to the same percentage that we have as far as kids coming in eighty percent boys and twenty percent girl so that's something we'd really like to use in the future possibly can be used for substance abuse that's that whether or not eight nine week program would be enough for kids have substance abuse issues. Mmhm possibly not the least we could work something into the program at least touched on substance abuse as part of that diversion programs and Mr trump I see that the last few pages are with the numbers of each individual unit let members just look at that on their own and contact you with questions they might have and also the information about the special education program which was of great interest to me and I know others will want to look at that we do have a couple of questions if you will take that absolutely representative or senator elect love. Thank you madam chair I was looking at the intensive in home services First of all. What do these intensive in home services look fine. In regards to to this program in this process so as I was explaining before I think I didn't really know this existed until just you know the way things happened I went down as Martin's office to talk to her about something else one day and she mentioned this program to hear these programs and they had a contract in place with you villages St Francis and I think the lasses youth advocate programs these they train their staff to go into the home and provide therapeutic services they work with the family on whether be issues that around housing employment it might be something about just sitting down to family and helping them learn to communicate better because whatever the the instability in their home some of the things that they're having troubles with they might need help with that they will help our kids you know when when the kids go home back to the community a lot of times when I see when I sign off on closing their case out there aftercare case sometimes as a really successful with our committee based rider sometimes or not because the families either through a lack of willingness to do that or maybe they just don't have the resources and the time because of work whatever may be to get kids to all the appointments they need to go to to get them to these things that will help the kids keep coming back to the wires so these intensive in home providers will help connect them with whatever they can and provide any of those services that they can in the home but they're really just a resource to help the family and going to the home rather than having the families and the kids come to them just is that it's a model that we think will work much better when it comes to helping families and kids in the future so how often are the services in a yes ma'am provided up to three times a week in the home it might be less than that they're going to do an assessment of the needs of each family that we refer and I mean that that may change you know as things go for the may start off needing more needing less and that can be adjusted you know when that. Incident home provider as that staff members in the home they may see a need to change the the intensity of services as the as it goes forward I think typically it lasts about four to six months but I'm anecdotally because we we have been doing this long enough the the the personal works for me that was overseeing this is had some really great stories about families that when they were first going home you know a lot of times the father didn't want to stay able to go in the room and shut the door and then after a few weeks dad would start coming out when they were over and sitting down the table with them and and talking and talking to the the issues and things are happening so it's just a much more intense level of of supervision the committee based writers do a great job like I said before they have a really large number of kids that they're trying to serve in their case loads are are much higher yes three to five kids okay all right within our I would like to get more information on this man share but thank you you're welcome. Representative very. Thank you madam chairman so your so see step falls under D. Y. S. now so and it's still a all mail program so do you have a an equivalent program for your adjudicated females we do not there Court we don't we it's we only have one facility and its males So what is the You know just off the top of your head you know the C. step program there's quite a few male students and and every class for C. step do you have the demand for a female C. step equivalent. You know I've had I get that question from judges I went to the conference I guess last month and and talked about a lot of these things I. Apple then did ask you know could we get some diversion bets like this for girls it's something I think there will be a need for I I have a feeling it would probably be just like the rest of our population you don't see the level of aggression violence and some of the things enrolls as often as you see it with boys but I there were there's got to be in need it's just it's probably going to be a much smaller number so if twenty percent of our population is girls I expect that probably twenty percent of kids that could benefit from this with the girls as well okay thank you and one more question madam chairman. I have several in the queue so let's make it quick okay I come back thank you. Representative Brooks. Thank you madam chair and tromping through taking time to be with us today this may be something need to get back to me on but when the last slide so the US education were talks specifically about special AT and dyslexia intervention statistics it's a pretty eye opening percentage I would say there of of of kids who who. Who were tested in and shown to have dyslexia some I'm curious was this the first time they've been tested when they're in the last or have they been to support in a proper setting like your local school or how we just missed that completely a little bit both I talked my superintendent out that issue when I saw the numbers because she's been doing Rick putting the numbers together for me you do have some kids that come in the you already know it when the records we receive there's there's an indication that either they've been tested or they suspect they may have some dislikes but talking to her a lot of times we no one knew in the you know the all the kids that show certain reading level or score that's why you see such a **** hi number they're tested and of those that are tested a large percentage have some level of dyslexia so hello that's one of the great benefits is not just the treatment that they get while they're with us it's the fact that we're identifying kids that maybe don't even realize that that was the issue so that when they leave us all those records go within the go to the school to go to the court everyone in at that point knows they have that problem to deal with thank you flock thank you thank you for being with us I know that members have more questions I'm going to ask them to contact you because we do have other reports we need to hear today thank you thank you. Next we have Mr Martin director of the division of child children and family services to come forward and present the Garrett saw referrals data and summary and then I think some of these reports are going to be gathered into one is that correct. To come and join you I know you have a presentation to make. And you're recognized. Good afternoon I'm Mr Martin I'm the director of DCFS I will I hoped to combine more reports like I normally do but I can only combine the quarterly and annual so I'm down to four but I will trying to summary versions and then I'm always available to take to take questions so let me explain your Garrett's law exhibit you one so that is a breakdown of the actual individual cases related to Garrett saw you can reference that as it relates to your counties but I'm gonna move on to ETC which is the actual Garris Law report and then and that interest of time I'm actually gonna go to the last page of the report which is page nine and go through the summary for you all I can reference back but the summary does a good job of summarizing this report what you will also see in this report on in the appendix you can see breakdowns of your counties of the information that I'm sharing so the report goes over statewide information but you can see in the appendix there is county level broken down data as well as the one which gives case specific information of course it is the identified so you don't see names you can also see if I counties and as a reminder gear it's law is what will what we call Garrett saw is just an added definition of neglect it was enacted in two thousand and five it has had a couple amendments but basically it is the causing of a newborn child to be born with an illegal substance present in the newborns bodily fluids are bodily substance as a result of pregnant mothers using illegal substance at or what at the time of birth and so this is a report on children who are ported to the child abuse hotline subsequently investigated or provided services by DCFS who were substance exposed at the time of buyer. This report reviewed select characteristics of Garrett's Law and the DCFS response to those reports this report is required by the legislature during state fiscal year twenty twenty two one thousand five hundred and fifty two care it's all reports are accepted for investigation that's a four percent increase from previous eight years as you will see at the beginning of the report is the first year since since and admit that we actually saw a decrease though only a very slight decrease at four percent. M. marijuana was the most commonly meant mentioned illegal substance in this report for again state fiscal year twenty twenty to eighty percent side and marijuana use either separately or in combination with other drugs followed by amphetamines and methamphetamines reported that twenty four percent and then opioids at eight percent. And again during state fiscal year twenty twenty two ninety one percent of care so I report statewide were substantiated that means that if we got a report for gear saw from the hotline it was assigned to DCFS ninety one percent of those were found tree that that is in line with prior years and not really surprising because all it takes is a drug screen from the mom or the baby at the time of her versus substantiate the finding. At the rate at which he said this case workers open a CPS case or child protective service case in response to substantiate Garrett saw was ninety four percent. At DCFS remove twelve percent of newborns from the birthing parents tested in response to a tree Garrett's Law now we can also remove prior to entry findings so just know that twelve percent were removed it says as to a tree finding that when we go out either to the hospital or to mom's home whichever happens we don't have to have a tree finding to remove we can assess the situation in place a baby in foster care if they are at an immediate danger mom mom or if there's not a sober caregiver to care for them of the children removed in response to substantiate against law report Dan SFI twenty twenty one twenty five percent either return home are you were discharged to relatives within twelve months that means if they came in the foster home twenty five of twenty five percent of them were reunified among those not removed initially five room five percent were removed within twelve months and four percent were cited in a subsequent maltreatment report is a very high level summary of the carrot slaw report would you like me to take questions now. Yes representative Springer. I can wait until thank you thank you madam chair good afternoon wait I want to ask you about something else reports as far as the she knows the hiring. For. Okay I think we're ready then for your next report thank you so the next report is exhibit eighty three I'm gonna combine eighty three this is the quarterly performance report which is was the fourth quarter of the state fiscal year those numbers are actually Chlo included in E. exhibit fees for which is the annual report card for state fiscal year twenty twenty to sell all those numbers that are in the courtroom for are reflected somewhere in the annual report card so I'm going to go over the annual report card if that's okay man chair. Okay. And so again starting with the annual report card will start on page one reports of child maltreatment you can see that the child abuse hotline accepted thirty one thousand eight hundred and fifty nine allegations of abuse or neglect of that thirty one thousand twenty five thousand five hundred and sixty three were assigned to DCFS and then those are brought down and assign either an investigation or what we call different to response again you can see on that on the Blue Ribbon on the right side at description of different response if you're curious about that moving on to page two on the top you can see the percentage of investigations found tree and this this is the annual report card compares to prior years for most of the charts and graphs if you're curious that I will always say it back how we align as into compared to other prior years you can look at the chart and graph and see how we how we compare as to prior years so in state fiscal year twenty twenty which ended June thirty of twenty twenty two we had an overall substantiation rate of twenty six percent and you can see DCFS foundry twenty three percent of the time where I see ACT and bullying foundry thirty for thirty four percent of the time for an overall tree finding and twenty six percent which is in line with prior years on the bottom of the page to. Of those invitada S. investigations that came in neglect continues to be the main allegation that's investigated and percentage of tree that seventy percent. M. as what what might be interesting to you all is findings and reports related to fatalities and near fatalities that's on the top of page three but they're also I in the back is a good impending acts of all the cases related to treat you and your vote tallies and the very back information on the bottom of page three is for difference for response we stayed in line as the two prior years with four thousand four hundred and eighty one cases that we call different jurisprudence I'm page four you'll see our timely initiation of child maltreatment investigation what that means is that we receive a call from the child abuse hotline we have to see the victim child within twenty four or seventy two hours depending on the type of maltreatment it is and then we monitor how late are we in compliance is saying the child in twenty four seventy two hours based on the type amount treatment social C. a combined total of seventy nine percent were initiated timely with priority one says are more severe amount treatments initiated eighty three percent of the time and believe priorities are initiated seventy eight percent of the time a little below where we've been the last couple of years but not a substantial decrease M. and the bottom is DCFS only so the top include one of the top and bottom include DCFS only sorry I'm gonna skip over page five which is more about different respondents but I do want to make sure to note on and page seven the star of in home services so in home services are when we go out and investigate a case and we can offer services before the conclusion of the investigation but by law we should be offering services and there is a true finding for maltreatment we serve more children in their homes on in home cases that we do in foster care and national C. on the top of page seven we had in home cases involving six thousand. In twenty six children I'm sorry that's not yes. Yes no that's not correct I said that wrong I'm sorry at the end of two as a under that numbers are right at the end of twenty twenty there where we were serving six thousand and twenty six kids throughout the year which you'll see later in the report we served over twelve thousand kids in home sorry about that. Trying to go too quickly at on page eight you can see the ages of children that we serve and at that's on the top in that circle graph twenty percent of our kids are are zero to one and twenty five or two to five we also you can also see on the bottom of page eight are required monthly visits you did see a decrease in twenty twenty two and we have been putting a substantial focus on that at the division to trying get our in home cases in visitations back at. You can see victimization rates on on nine there's no substantial differences from prior years I'm going to move on a foster care which is on page ten as you can see we had seen an increase post code of it and twenty twenty one that started to decrease in twenty twenty two and we have continued to see it a decline I believe today we have four thousand two hundred and sixteen children in foster care when discussing if we have the right number of children in foster care or that decline I see I think one of those key charter so look at is at the bottom of page ten you really have to look at entries and exits or what we call it discharges so looking at the bottom of page and you'll see a number of admissions in the foster care and discharges from foster care we this past year state fiscal year we still continue to be a little lower than we were and M. eighteen nineteen and twenty on discharges and that we did see a decrease in injuries this last year. You can see on page eleven reasons for why children come into foster care remember you can have multiple reasons most the time when you have neglect as a reason you have some other reason but neglect still as Iraq number one reason that children enter foster care at fifty two percent was substance abuse being forty eight but again a lot of children who come in for neglect also come in for substance abuse you can have multiple reasons for entering foster care you can see discharges on the bottom of page eleven the majority of our kids you do come in the foster care do you reunify with their with their feet parent or their caregiver from whom they were removed at forty three percent followed by adoption that option number can include relatives but then you have relative custody at thirteen percent and then we did have seven percent of our youth age out of foster care at one hundred and ninety eight children. You can see length of stay on page twelve how like if kids are in foster care how long are they staying that's broke down by several different time periods and then you'll see on the middle of page twenty where our kids are in placement so I think doctor go talked about you know our army to place children with families as you can see and and relatives you can see that total break out and relatives have thirty five percent placement and that's a combination and gets in the box above the foster home provisional foster home which means they're not fully open and license at ICPC they're out of state relatives pre adoptive we have pre adoptive relatives and then we have either so thirty five percent of our kids are with relatives then twenty nine percent with foster home and you can go on down the line to see the other other types of placements of children in care now family does also include therapeutic foster homes because as our foster families as well. You can see on the page thirteen our visits we did see a decrease in twenty twenty two and and like and home visits that is that is a place of focus for us moving on to you fourteen sibling care since the pandemic happened we have seen a slight decrease in siblings place together but as of the end of S. FY twenty twenty to seventy four percent of children with siblings in foster care were place of at least one of their siblings while only fifty four percent were place with all of their siblings we continue to slightly the decrease on placement on places ability which is actually a good thing that doesn't sound like what I mean by that is number of me so we're decreasing the number of memes we are still nowhere we should be at five point five T. the national standard is four point one two and we are having much more placement stability with children who are placed with relatives in foster care. I move on because I know you want me to be somewhat quick adoptions on pages sixteen and seventeen number of kids available for adoption did decrease in SFI twenty twenty two to three hundred and sixty six about we estimate actually we've looked at the data multiple times on this and pretty much every time we look at it twenty percent of those three hundred and sixty six are already an adoptive placement so our kids available for adoption or about twenty percent less than that three sixty six could you there is a waiting period of six months before you can finalize an adoption we last year and twenty twenty one I'm moving on to page eighteen we saw another to another year of decline in the number of adoptions but I'm happy to report that in twenty twenty two we're back up to eight oh three I'm hoping that this year calendar year will be closer to where we were pre pandemic since somewhere around the nine hundred and then a great resources on page nineteen which is really the total number of cases and types that DCFS serves this is where I messed up earlier so if you look at the bottom of page nineteen throughout the throughout the year of count of state fiscal year twenty twenty T. we serve twelve thousand six hundred and seventy six children and home but at the date and time on June thirtieth we were currently serving six thousand and twenty six and how much you can also see that break out so while today we have four thousand two hundred and of the sixteen children in foster care over the course of the year we serve seven thousand four hundred and thirty nine children in foster care. Our average caseloads are seen on page twenty but my what might be more helpful there is an appendix in the back of a state chart that shows caseloads by county and there's other seven several other appendix in the back that are broken down by county that might be more helpful to you and looking at your diskette district around the data that is in the annual report card. Thank you so much and I'm going to ask major drew to come forward and join you okay I do you want me to do the return investigation report I'm so sorry I forgot that when yes please okay so there's another quarterly report but there were as I went through it just there was no significant changes and I have reported on the current number of children in foster care and then very quickly looking at looking at the six which is the return investigation report that is required by the legislature and I reported on this just a couple of meetings ago but it was for a different period of time so I'm gonna walk there is an excel spreadsheet just gonna walk through to explaining this because even I get confused on it and then you can look at your county so the DCFS area is the first first column the next com of course is your is the county the next column is number of calls received by the hotline so that's because actually went to the hotline and then you get number of reports accepted for an investigation which means this child abuse hotline Screamin accepted them they're going to one of the investigative agencies for investigation. Once DCFS investigate the next column is how many of those we found three then you have your per se the percentage versus the number then the next column is the number of tree investigations appeal so you have an investigation DCFS worker finds tree notifies the offender of those that were notified these are the number of people are number yet they're the number of people that then appealed. And then you have at a percentage so an actual number and then a percentage the next column is the number of appeals of investigation overturned so of the investigations that were repealed how many were actually overturned so that the actual number and then the next column is the percentage. And then you have the percentage of true investigations overturned so of the ones appealed what's a per percentage that were overturned and then the last fall which is most confusing if if this wasn't confusing enough to start with the last call is if you take all the investigations that were found tree and divide that by how many how many stood so either appealed or state without an appeal that's your overall percentage of investigations that were overturned. And if you're wondering why we do this the legislature was wanting to look at several years ago they were wanting to take a closer look at where we making good findings and and some rationale behind that was if we were getting fifty or seventy percent of our investigations overturned thing we might have had issue with whether we're making good decisions but as you can see there's not a large or a substantial percentage or number of investigations that are getting overturned on appeal or overall. Now I'm ready thank you so much major drew. So M. as major jury comes at I had asked represent fight because I know that and she let me at appreciate in you all very much I appreciate the work that crimes against children and state police state and I am along with major jury and I major in state police have already and then some honoring but I wanted to do that publicly and I wanted to do it in front of you off you're recognized the work that we do at DCFS and that we do have partnerships with C. ACT but Gary class and he's investigated supervisor I'm asking to come up and he is retiring this week and he before he went to crimes against children he was at the CFS over my almost fifteen years I have worked alongside him but staff that have worked with him for over a right at twenty eight years I hear. Thirty two and he has done everything from the accounting supervisor to be an investigative supervisor at DCFS the foster care manager he's been an area manager he has taught me a lot over the years he is a man of integrity he cares about kids he has done tremendous work for this state and said DCFS wanted to honor him in front of you law M. with a little plaque or trophy I hate to make income tax here can I come to you he has an injury you sure you don't mind okay. Hello. And it got this at any time somebody retires I'm like I see you back in six nine so yeah it is but I hope to see you back in six months even though you have other plans thank you so much. Thank you Sir for everything you've done for the children of Arkansas we appreciate you. Major true. We know this is been a rough week. For the state of Arkansas we have lost to law enforcement officers in this week one detective Paul knew all of that county sheriff's department. Who was in a terrible accident as he was escorting rates across America and stat guard police officer sergeant Donald Scobee who was killed in the line of duty so let's remember the families of these two brave officers thank you we're ready for your report. All right before I jump into it just. February on the back a little bit more is not came came to see see about five years ago he was in the role of our our hotline administrator and now my investigated ministry. Many of you know how how good is when when you got a right hand that you can rely all especially been freshened something and gears definitely guided me through the time that I've been here and been a great assistance to me so I I can't the knowledge how how big of an acid that he's been force and hopefully have his replacement. Hi will be. ODM to much in comparison to what what I've had with him exceeds been of the time that he's been and just to have somebody that not only. I understand the maltreatment but knows why a lot of decisions were made and we're losing all that in him and with that I'll go ahead and jump into my report. All right I'll be doing the. July through September quarterly. So if you go to a. Page two you can see the hotline because of the the previous three months at a total of sixteen thousand fifty nine calls eight thousand eight hundred thirty seven those calls works was accepted SEAC how the one thousand six hundred seventy six of those. A DCFS handled five thousand seven hundred and sixty five well one thousand three hundred ninety six of those were differential response. And now this sixteen seventy six referrals was one thousand four thirty seven forty one allegations which will be listed on page three. Break down by month of those. And on page four. We'll give you a list of the mandated reporters and because we had come in from them. And on page five U. you see the monthly breakdown of cases open and close within the last three month period at one thousand five hundred ninety six cases open one thousand four hundred seventy four close of those five hundred and eighty eight were found true with S. with a forty percent substantiation rate. The president but if you had two thousand five hundred seventy eight active cases and a hundred eighty two of those were over forty five days. And if you look on page six six and seven will be a break down of the assigned cases to each county. One pages nine and ten will reflect the reported allegation types and alleged victim age groups. On page eleven through twenty one we show the relationship between the offender and the victims with age groups of those those offenders. And on page twenty three as the thirty is the break down the prosecuting attorneys the judicial districts and cases that were submitted to prosecutors and per or broken down. The estimated declined and and files. What we had on the bottom of page thirty. User we submit it eight hundred and fifty two charges with eight four eighty four were filed we have two hundred and thirty thirty seven pending with a hundred thirty one of those And decline so we have about. The fifty seven percent of one's file twenty percent pending and fifteen of those were with the client I'll be glad to take any questions. Thank you so much for your report thank you for being with us today. Members we have several people who have asked to be recognized before we do that how many of you this is your last meeting with the legislature would you stand up. How many people this is your last meeting with this committee you will not be on this committee accession would you stand up. I want to thank all of you for your service I always say that this committee will break your heart and it does over and over but you have been faithful and you have given wonderful service so thank you. This is my last committee to be chairman last meeting to be chairman but I'll still be on the Committee next session so looking forward to working with those of you who are returning and the senator Wallace had asked for a word. The representative Fite just stole some thunder sorry members Chairperson fight his read this chair this committee for three sessions and she was the vice chair before that her leadership her love. The children of Arkansas secured all of this I just like to recognize her for all that she has done. Thank you senator Wallace and representative Christiansen has asked for a word. Thank you madam chairman elected under additionally brief. I second what senator Wallace is said that your leadership you've been available by call by phone by email by text to answer things that come on. Breaking your heart is an understatement because this committee is one of the most important one yet on song because it doesn't get all the trumpets and drums and publicity. But it does showcase man's inhumanity to man especially the way we treat our children and we treat people in kind I think. Going forward in the next year those who stay on this committee into the new ones that are coming on it treated with the utmost importance our children our youth and our veterans. In compass the beginning and the end of the cycle what we have in our service life. In our youth is our foundation for the future and we see them maligned and mistreated in so many ways that we need to strive to make that better for everybody across the board in for our veterans as I was discussing with with three representatives earlier we send our soldiers to boot camp we pumped him up we teach them what to do we need to find a way to have a boot camp that brings them back down from military way of thinking back into civilian life and I think if we did that we would find that some of our motion problems mental instabilities would go the way side because they would be treated before they happen without I want to say it's been a privilege to serve each and everyone of you women always have agreed we certainly always are in focus in this blending of our hundred and thirty five representatives and senators everyone comes from a different walk of life it is an honor to be part of this group to serve with you and let's look at the long game down the road less partisan out the weeds and more towards what brings our great state and our country together with that have a blessed Christmas thank you and representative cloud has the last word today. Thank you I appreciate it very much it's been an honor and a privilege to be with this esteemed group and senator Wallace represented by thank you just create being able to say to serve the people of our great state it's been an honor privilege also just a point of personal privilege I have my representatives elect here Mr Mandeville so if you all would join me in welcoming him thank you. And members with that we are adjourned I wish you all a merry Christmas I think we are the last legislative committee to meet for this calendar year thank you all.