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

For. And with that. We'll get started. Okay. folks first up we have the minutes from the sixteen may committee that's exhibit be. I have a motion and I have a second. The minutes are approved. All in favor say aye hi. And then the second one. We have an appointment to the child. Maltreatment investigation oversight committee and Alex white has been nominated this is the parent that was previously designated as a subject of the report. as defined in the legislation should I have a motion. I have a motion do I have a second I have a second all in favor hi. Route. Yeah Adam D.. Secretary don cantantes are we ready for you. Interview with the announcer so. You senator Wallace represented by thank you for this opportunity on the Thangal Todd of the secretary Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. Thank you Comtat. Senator Wallace from the flight bill legislators and administration have been awful time to the veterans of Arkansas we thank you for the Kentucky moved to be close yes Sir thank you Sir. What I provided was updates the other briefing. Was given a can't seem to get this to go forward their goal thank you. Additionally I'd like to give you an update on the Arkansas state veterans home in northwest Arkansas. Other facility was first put their in the old Washington hospital in two thousand six. In the last several years we've had safety concerns and the current your mess least years of twenty twenty six. What we have a working group look at that facility. And we had a request for proposal in being County submitted a poll sixty acres in Rogers. That was donated by the Walton family foundation. Legislators approved a forty five million dollars appropriation for replacement of home. And fifteen million in state matching funds which we will compete for federal funding for the other two thirds. We think that we will get a pool. In FY twenty three that could move a little bit. And we can begin construction as early as. Two thousand twenty four would completion expect of normal later than fall of twenty twenty six. And it will be a state of the art facility. The working group membership. A broad representation from both the commissioners. The legislators the for legislation. And the Arkansas health association president and the federal VA. The working group. Address these questions should there be a second state regional north was Arkansas is sold so we renovate the existing facility are placed at every place where should be located. The question that we're also asking should be contracted. The first three we've answered it needs to be replaced. We have a location. Should be contracted and will call upon someone else's once we get the. Yes back to determine if it's best to be state run contract to run our hybrid. That is a good news story. In the. If this comes to fruition with thank you will. Arkansas would have replaced both of this region homes in the last ten years. And that's quite an accomplishment from my view. We've had some challenges of the North Little Rock cemetery. We develop the corrective action plan. The lan. Has some challenges in reference to. What. We've had several grants to improve this for referral the eight about twelve million dollars but there are some areas that. Initially in two thousand seven eleven we're glad to go back and take a look. Of how. What's the deal so some of those. Interments so we'll be working through that. And this lack kind explains that. But we do have a detailed plan to make corrective actions. When I tried to provide in this slide here. Is a regional. Look at how the veterans in Arkansas compared to some of the other states around in those. Californian illinois'. This GTX piece of you look at Arkansas. Faster growth to Max gross domestic expenses that Vettel's of Arkansas received with thirty of and we appreciate that we work to get even lower than that. We're pretty proud of that the other area that would prod of. About forty one percent of the records in Arkansas are enrolled in the health care. That's of good health care system. And in some cases it probably reduces. Some of the bedrooms of which may have been on Medicaid. So we advocate for veterans to enrolled in VA health care. Senator Wallace we thank you. And representative love a current legislation. That provided for sin is far county veteran service officers. To be certified and they have BBM BBM S. S. of veterans benefits management system that's electronic system that that County register's office and going and see that that this file rate there. We are challenges incentivizing the kind of a service office to get the training. However with that legislation passed each county veterans service officer that is certified and have the BMS exit receives five hundred dollars. A quarter. For liquidation in the county receives five hundred dollars to have the be a mess in there kind of a service office. The ex mail. We had a the red indicate those who are not accredited. And do not have the BMS access we have a lot of red over the last year. The blue in the case that the counties with accredited CVS souls and the veto is access. We still have some challenges in east. Arkansas and in central Arkansas but we're working. With those counties to and we provide. Purchasers also go out to those areas in do you want the record players. He currently. We have. District registers offices work for the state in these areas across our state. Eight. Six of the. Eight positions are currently me. With the we. Doubled up in East Arkansas. Well we're looking we found some officials is to see if we can put a. Disturbance service officer back in for city so we're looking at the. Of course. I have a strong leadership team is important. Our chief of staff who. Work for representative be original berry for many years. Retired from the National Guard is bald operational in addition to detail to operations. And being a chief financial officer and we're proud. Mr Watkins returned to us. But in twenty twenty one. We had no reportable audit. In our finances were pretty proud of that. Wallace will fight that completes. My update. Members. We do have questions Joel berry Sir you're recognized thank you Mr chairman and secretary tied to your how many counties do you have a vacancies for of BSO's this is about five line okay so and then you still have a number of those that of the others that are not certified yes Sir and goals. service offices have been offices for a long time and have challenges with information systems we try to augment them we sent out this provision services out there to help the. We work with the county judges they asked them to provide some of those who we just don't think it will help the tools to use electric systems if they want our system for the okay and one of the questions German. Go ahead. The cemetery so the national cemetery in Little Rock it's full so it's it's closed other than spouses were injured so the only other option for the for this area would be the North Little Rock cemeteries I correct yes Sir the VA uses a seventy five mile radius. And the North Little Rock cemetery is the only option for veterans within a seventy five mile radius so the the north on Little Rock cemetery are we getting adequate federal dollars to support the number since we're picking up the load for the national cemetery. We receive for the interment of the veteran eight hundred and seven dollars. We don't receive any allotment for the interment of the spouse. That is a chopping a federal cemetery staff to do both the spouse in the better okay so we do anything with our congressional delegation to mitigate some of the challenges with that because what we're essentially picking up the load for the national cemetery since the federal government's not of meeting the needs of our deceased veterans is that troops option Sir in in Arkansas. Senator Baldwin has been a great advocate for cemetery and we provided information on this matter. Okay thank you Mr. Representative Bentley. You're recognized thank you. Current topic you for being here today what can we I see you looking at your map that to the counties that are not certified or in my district so what can I as a state legislator do to help you with that to get those folks certified. That is recounting in Faulkner county is that yes Yellen Faulkner Perry counties halfway there which I met with the director the other day those are some of our senior council reserves officer in. I think that the county judge would do will provide them assistance. The. The challenge. Due to where they are in a life. Caption thank you one other quick question back to the North Little Rock cemetery are we do we have adequate staff to take their in funding that you need to keep the cemetery up adequately for veterans that has been a challenge. Particularly the one code and now in this labor market. With the construction is happening throughout central Arkansas we have a tough time competing for skilled. Workforce. And some of that could be helpful but could be helped in reference to the salary greets. Okay so submerging the address with us at a future point you thinker currently we've actually. A market. Labour study to the office of personnel management. Once that was received that. Will we would make assessment if we could afford that within our current resources include not then we would come to the legislators and administration to get supplemental funding. Thank you one final follow up chairman says okay go right ahead I'm so we'll funding from the federal government help with that as well as something that you can use for that or no which the general berry was referring so or is that not funding that you can use for salaries for maintenance in. The state is responsible for operation of cemetery we have received two federal grants for realignments and. Improvements in the. Under. In the water that flows through that we will request we've gotten to grants our next grant will. Questia system in upgrading Murdock which is in Cross County in the in in twenty twenty three. We will at we will request another grant. Under the bilberries leadership the. Thank you senator Wallace gift at a hundred and forty one acres. And through this grant we hope to improve that role in that area but that's about three years out there could be some challenges before the end. That we would have to S. the legislators for systems in. Thank you Sir thank you chairman. In the chair recognizes chairperson fight. Thank you Mr chairman I on the external taught on the page that says regional VA compensation statistics what is G. D. X. ranking that is the gross domestic expense. S. the told BA. Resources coming into the State. Divided by the number of that because we have two hundred two. Close as the fifty states and the five territories. So all of that with the to be a home so we have to meet. Yes to the home cemeteries and. Amount of health care this is received in the two medical centers the federal medical centres there's actually three federal cemeteries one and the appeal one is the worst method here in Little Rock. That. S. up to several billion dollars. And then when they divide that by the number of veterans. Our ranking is thirty of the fifty states. And represent fight we're pretty proud of that we advocate. Five bridges and we think the biggest benefit is for them to rolling V. of. Thank you. Enjoy very you're recognized yes Sir thank you Mister chairman I don't want to beat a dead horse anymore but and follow up my earlier question as well as a representative Bentley. And you stated that is responsibility of the state for funds for the state cemetery however I will say because the feds are stepping up to the plate in fulfilling the needs of our veterans we need to be poking the feds in the chest and saying we need to have you know more money since they're not meeting their needs so Again I would encourage you or if there's anything that this committee or that I can help with as far as with our congressmen Health or center Bozeman Center cotton we really need to make sure that they understand that. You know the the the cemetery is full and the feds need to step up to the plate and start helping the state with the interment of our veterans since they don't have an alternative I would concur and we will bring that to their attention the role education attention to closely. Carbon hill instructables Windsor to cart in if you would if you don't mind Mr secretary if you provide any documentation to the federal delegation in the form of a letter or request or pointing out the problem of not having a national cemetery could you provide that documentation to the committee as well so we're just surprised of the situation yes Sir thank you thank. In center Chesterfield you're recognized me thank you good afternoon colonel Senate just feel how are you doing well thank you I just want to say thank you. On behalf of the individuals whom I represent for always responding. And being a very positive portion in resolving a number of issues that are that are in seven in the in my particular area I've never called on you we were not responsive and it was not for me but it was for the men and women who serve our country and I just want to say to you publicly thank you so very much for being open and honest in even more important helpful I appreciate you thank you senator. I will say this is just real. It members are there any other questions. Seeing none Kartheiser thank you for your service to our country thank you for your service to our state per share thank you senator this represents like. In this March we're prepared for you ma'am. And if you would please identify yourself. Good afternoon I'm Mr Martin on the Director of the Division of Children and Family Services of the Department of Human Services yes ma'am and I have to two official reports that you have in front of you they are labeled Eads one fourth. And begin with the quarterly performance for a report. Beginning on page one you will see the total number of reports that was called into the and child abuse hotline at seven thousand eight hundred and eight. I am assigned to DCFS was six thousand two hundred and seventy seven of those reports and then as you can see from assignment I'm sorry centralized okay you're looking I know you're good okay M. so from the six thousand two hundred and seventy seven five thousand one hundred and fourteen were assigned the investigation and one thousand one hundred and sixty three of were assigned to what we call differential response and that is described in the Blue Ribbon on that side of page one. Moving on to page two this is about our investigations data you can see both CACD and DCFS at the top of the percentage of investigations found tree DCFS is in red at twenty four percent of investigations found tree where CACD is I believe you at thirty three percent for a combined total of twenty six percent of the investigations or found trade. You can see the characteristics of the and children involved in those investigations on the middle of page two and then on the bottom you can see that seventy percent of the allegations found tree where do it to abuse forty percent of the allegations or physical abuse eighteen percent or sexual abuse and one percent abandonment and sexual exploitation. You can see our reports involving fatalities and near fatalities on the on the top of page three and also reference you back to the appendix of the back of this report that has additional information about for the tallies. Moving on to the bottom of page three is our data around different to respond as I noted on page one there's a definition of more intense definition to different response but it is what we say it is it's a different way to respond is a low it is our lower level maltreatment and so instead of investigating families are going out with families engaging with them trying to determine if there's any safety issues how we can connect them to community support and agile C. environmental neglect continue to be thirty per the highest number of treatments for a different response to and it was thirty six percent. Moving on the page for you can see timely initiation of child maltreatment assessment we did have a slight increase from the last quarter as seventy nine percent and that is the combined a priority one and priority two party one investigations have a response time of twenty four hours that means that we have to see the child in twenty four hours and then priority two U. S. we have to see the child within seventy two hours timely completion of town on a treatment investigations is on the bottom a combined total of seventy six percent which was a slight increase our investigation should be completed within forty five days unless we request an extension. You can see on page five the timeliness of initiations of different response did continue to go down as we've had workforce issues sometimes different response is that thing that gets to the bottom of the property because we have to make sure that we're initiating investigations and working foster care cases. Moving on to page six and you'll see reoccurrence of maltreatment a two percent drop which is a good thing and believe with so reoccurrence a maltreatment within twelve months so we investigated we found tree we use that those same kids from a year ago to determine whether there had been another call to the hotline in another tree finding and so it had actually gone down from eight percent to six percent. And then on the bottom you can see that same re occurrence data related to different response the topics for investigation the bottom is for different response. On page seven removing on the in home cases that's where you have an investigation of the kids are not placed in foster care but there's a true allegation of child abuse and neglect within open what we call an in home case at the end of the quarter we had open two thousand six hundred and seventy four cases that that involves six thousand two hundred and seventy three children across the state and I'll just note you'll see it later we serve at the CFS more children in their home than we do in foster care. Will move on to page eight and you can see the age of the children that were serving in Anaheim cases and then on note on the bottom of page eight that we did see an increase which is a good thing of the number of children that we were seeing so a case worker was going out and seeing in their home at least Monday we had an increase from sixty three to seventy percent. I mean it you can see victimization rate which is a similar to re occurrence amount treatment on our in home cases on page nine pretty much the same as far as quarter to quarter. And then moving on to a foster care which is on page ten you can see that we have had at a slight decrease in the number of children in foster care I'm gonna go through this section quickly because I was asked to present on the efforts that we're doing to reduce the number of children in foster care so I'll covered those efforts in my third report but you can see on the middle of Page ten the characteristics of children and in foster care both their age and race as well as a very important data point on the bottom which is entries and exits which is a huge thing that we monitor to really to determine how we're doing as far as kids in foster care you have to but you have to look at both the kids that are coming in the foster care as well as the kids that are just starting to permanency is of course we do not want children to grow up in foster care you can see on the top of page eleven these are the reasons why children come into foster care and asked every other quarter in every quarter at that since I've been director for the last six years and it lacked in substance abuse continue to be the top reasons and have stayed about steady and the percentage at fifty two percent and forty four percent. At the bottom of eleven I'll just call out the reason is that children leave foster care so forty five percent of our kids leave foster care and you're reunification that means that they are placed back with that person from whom custody was removed typically about parent and adoption is that twenty nine percent and just note that adoption can include relatives so even if they are placed with the relative they can be adopted by a relative twelve percent with relative custody six percent with guardianship five percent of the kids age out meaning that could mean eighteen or twenty one or anytime between eighteen and twenty one and non custodial parent custody and non relative custody as you go down that list. Moving on the page twelve you'll see length of time in foster care although it to thirty six plus minds and I will note that we have sixteen percent I'm sorry we have thirteen percent of our children in foster care thirty six or more minds and I'll talk about permit see later when we get to that third report that is below the national average but still something that we're very concerned about. Placement of children in foster care on that that relative placement which is a combination of different types of relative placement but adds up to around forty percent or thirty eight percent of our children are placed with relatives in foster care twenty seven with foster homes and then you can see the other types of care with smaller percentage numbers I'm gonna move on to page thirteen which is monthly visits that top number is the percentage of case workers that saw their kid at seventy six percent which is one percent lower than that when then the prior quarter but then we also track if they were seen by anyone who was employed by DCFS a program assistant supervisors and we had over ninety percent ninety percent of our children were seen by DCFS simply. Moving on to page fourteen which is siblings place together at the end of the quarter seventy five percent of children with siblings in foster care a place of at least one of their seven siblings while only fifty four percent or place with all of their siblings placement stability we believe that children need to have less moves on foster care that this is something we continue to struggle at the as you can see it is going in the right direction though slowly and we are above the national average which is four point one two and this last quarter was five point oh nine. M. as something that we are struggling with is permanency again I'll talk about that as we talk about reducing the number of children in foster care but we continue to struggle that's I'm looking at the chart on the top of page fifteen with our percentage of kids that exit foster care within twelve months it was down to thirty four percent whereas the national average is forty percent. M. re entries in the foster care and did go back to correct the right direction at seven point two that is a that is below the national average of eight point three. If you move on to page sixteen you'll see adoptions we have three hundred and sixty two children available for adoption but about twenty percent of that number are already in a pre adoptive placement is as you know children have to be in their pre adoptive placement for at least six months before the the adoption can be finalized so we estimate we've actually done hand counts in the past and it stays pretty say about twenty percent of that number are in pre adoptive placements you can see the characteristics of the children available for adoption at the bottom of sixteen and then at a good thing to note on page seventeen on the bottom and well it is a good thing that we're going in the right direction it is still a sad thing that from that time termination happens to adoption we are averaging ten months now do you realize that with our work with project zero and like for example last night other adoption so non relative non foster parent adoptions as at twenty months from termination to adoption but we had several kids who had been in foster care for years that found adoptive homes or I work with project zero so um this number does include all our use not just use who are in foster or relative home is it also includes kids who may have been in foster care for a long time who of an adoptive home was identified but that's termination to adoption the average time was ten months. M. moving on to page eighteen the number of adoptions finalized for the quarter we at we finalized a hundred and ninety three adoptions you can also see on the bottom of eighteen and eat it. It for kids who qualify they can receive I should say the pet the adoptive parents can receive an adoption subsidy if it is a federal adoption subsidy basically aboard payment even after adoption if the F. map rate even though right now we have an increased F. map rates you can see during the third quarter a hundred and seventy two children began receiving an adoption subsidies so they're adoption was finalized their adoptive parents sign an agreement they will continue to receive a board payment until they're eighteen or upon when they turn eighteen they based on their circumstances they can request to receive it for an extended period past eighteen I'm during the quarter a total of seven thousand eight hundred and fifty nine children received induction subsidies always notice because we're actually paying for payment for more children and adoptive placements and we do we are in foster care. You can see on page nineteen these are all the different types of cases that I've already talked about this is the top charter is the last day of the quarter how many cases are open the bottom chart to me is more relevant which is the total number of each type of case that we serve during that quarter so investigations we had seven thousand five hundred and forty one thousand one hundred sixty six different response five thousand three hundred and fifteen children in care and three thousand ninety five income cases I did not mention supportive services cases that the data was in the report earlier that is when a family comes to us and ask for services I know it's shocking but we do have people show up to DHS and say Hey I'm in crisis I need help and we offer a supportive services case. M. R. average case load is on page twenty and the slight decrease at twenty three but there is a variation across the state and you can see that chart and that appendix there's a a picture of this state and you can see case leads back County though this is a little behind and we do have more we do keep more current data if you're interested in your county. number of foster homes versus foster home beds is that middle chart on twenty and then the number of foster homes open and closed in the quarter is on the bottom of twenty you can also independent C. breakdown of of county and foster homes opening closing for and the reason in the back of the report. And you can also see on the bottom of twenty one percentage of foster homes that tree report amount treatment it remains very low and that is the end of the report and except for the appendix. Wallace would you let me take questions now. Members are there any questions. You Tucker you're recognized. Thank you Mr chairman. Thank you director I just want to mention one thing I mentioned at a previous meeting you you are here you at your out of town so I just want to mention to you it's suggestion and first of all the practices of all the reports that I received in the legislature this one is consistently as well done as as as any so full full compliments on them. The suggestion is and I totally appreciate the quarter to quarter comparisons but there may be a few items in here that I think it would be good for us to see a longer time frame for and I'm sure with the number of foster cases you'll address this more. In your third report but just know the number of kids in foster care the average case load I think there would be a few that we could see instead of a quarterly average met maybe an annual average going back three four five years just to see if we're trending in the right or wrong direction over a longer period of time and I agree with you I will note that so we did earlier for and then we do an annual report that looks almost exactly like this one and in the annual report we can hear prior years to caseloads and I'd be happy to happy to get you a copy that and then see if that meets your needs if not we can make some changes to the quarterly okay that that sounds like them that may do it so okay does that is that is December every year well I think I don't know it's a it's a state fiscal year so it'll be finished you'll be well presented to the legislature sometime September October normally okay and that we have last year that I can show you a copy at you know to see like how we compare prior years and see if that's what you're thinking thank you very much. In representative Bentley you're recognized ma'am. Thank you chairman thank you director Martin for being here today can you just real briefly on page one we had some assigned to different your response can you for me some more greens still this committee define different response sure sure and I'll just go through the we remain if you don't mind because I want to get it right because I mean you the more the more details so if you so different responses a different way to respond to let me come here at a little bit forget the revenge so investigative approves the investigator goes out in their minds that even other specified things but really their mindset is I have to determine whether abuse or neglect happened so almost like criminal justice and that they have to interview witnesses they have to determine whether there's evidence to support abuse or neglect the difference for us finds that worker is going out yes they're looking for risk factors but they're also going like Hey is this family in crisis like not crisis that appointed removal but is there an environmental issue do I need to get cleaning supplies to help them do I need to get them linked up to their local community mental health it is your of lower level maltreatment not your physical abuse not your sexual abuse that you can see an adequate supervision if the child is at least five environment on the collective S. R. at least three of his children are at least three sorry medical neglected children are at least thirteen lock out if the children are at least ten inadequate food inadequate supervision and added clothing or education to collect and certain allegations of abuse or the incident occurred at least one year prior to the date so the idea is that you're getting in there immediately or assessing the family and then you're also linking them up with community supports as well so an example might be our area one team is really strong washing and Madison been in care all that difference response team is they have partnerships with lettuce and like they've had issues with kids coming to school and clean so they worked with them on washers and dryers. As like we've seen families that they just it was more poverty issues and abuse or neglect so there medially addressing those issues versus going out there and interviewing every child in call in the school that they come to school dirty are not like we can establish that pretty fast great to a couple more questions chairman yes ma'am go ahead the business of my superintendents lately they've had huge I'm a since of it turning for twins truancy and behavioral response and to the point of like ninety just from one school and case workers are so overloaded they can't even get to him so there. The frustrated and not knowing what to do so I just wanna say this option ask you what can they do and what can I get back to my superintendents as a response to that yeah at if it's okay with you I'd really like to get with you and discuss like which superintendents we we were in pre have a lot of work with schools like that's a really tough issue right because right and I'm just to be very Frank DCFS is not a quit is to handle every case related to truancy so we have to work with the community we want to work with the schools in this aspect a lot of times it's sitting down with the schools and saying what are you seeing how can we partner together perfectly set up a time and also not because I looked at Perry County at the numbers and so the case load of Perry County is almost double others at forty three so if you're not convinced on that as well I'd appreciate it the numbers are that high because they lost it they lost staff the lost it okay okay they have the positions but they're down staff okay great thank you thank you chairman yes ma'am you're very you're recognized her. Thank you Mr and I'll echo Center Clark's comments to very very good report so thank you very much for making that special effort so I reference to page twenty nine in the table on twenty nine. And what is going on in Logan County when you compare you know the number of reports there in comparison to plaster county and some of the others that are you know the population Logan County just a fraction of the population is that like in one home or something or reserve pandemic going on in loving county because that's a very rural County. I would act. I would need to looking it back to you I suspect it has something to do with the sibling great but because I know of anything at out of the ordinary but I cannot get back to you I'm not sure that the great thank you. Thank you Mr yes Sir in representative Springer you're recognized. Good afternoon thank you Mr chairman I was just following up I know a few months ago we were talking about personnel and hiring and that sort of thing so can you give us an update on personnel and hiring yes absolutely and so we received additional positions from the legislature at hiring it continues to be a challenge we have over the last six months held hiring events and had some success at that but turnover continues to be a struggle I believe that this right now today we have a hundred and eighty nine vacancies at DCFS so now that does include all the in new positions that does include all the new positions which was about a hundred as a the last couple weeks so and take that into account to you as well some of those Iranian positions follow the censure the redhead ma'am so does on point those that account for the caseloads that are reflected on page twenty four of your report the counties that are three of those the counties that you for your having your or of personnel yes yes well there are personnel issues in other counties besides just the ones in right just to be very Frank but definitely in my let me look at all of them yes all of those have had personal issues but like you when you look at cross and leave losing a single person can send caseloads in extremely high right so we're as right now we're really struggling with vacancies in both Pulaski and Jefferson but because they have more staff there he's so they're still not as hot but if you're in small county and they have two people are maybe only have one person in a supervisor you lease a person that that makes the case let's go really high okay and so I see that you see in your report you say the average case load should be like twenty or right case worker yes. Look in the track for and so looks like the majority of the counties have more than. Our our state on the average that's right our state wide averages twenty three so we're above what we believe is often cases of twenty so what's what's taken place to address that so we are over the last year we have with supported you all tried to and put in place several things to help with staff retention so that includes we started paying in October of twenty twenty one overtime pay or I'm sorry on call pay apologist on call pay so not only do they get overtime when they actually respond they get paid for every hour a portion of their hourly rate for every hour they're on call so that was a significant increase we no longer as of July twenty one no longer require them to bank over time they get paid for all their overtime we implemented a a career ladder said that family service workers who have been with the S. three years can become family service worker specialist and that goes into effect on July first our program administrators we I'm sorry our program assistance we raised their base salary in September of twenty one and use the grid to give program at sisense raises based on their years of service in February the governor gave two percent increases for all staff as the last week they receive if you received a score of three on your performance evaluation which is you're doing a good job you're a good worker you're doing a good job so the majority of staff DCFS did receive it three they received a five percent increase and then on Friday sorry last Friday last Friday and all in the comp time banks were paid out of staff were very excited about so if they hadn't still had a bank from when we used to make them bank their comp time we paid out all of that current time bank all of those things were in an effort to try and recreate and improve recruitment. for the increase and it does not increase in the bayside for family service workers but they get paid the basement and then they're in training and then once they get out of training they get a seven percent rate so all these efforts are either an effort to retrieve at any I'm sorry improve recruitment and retention so are you able to track and see if any of those incentives have resulted in a positive results not at this point is still I mean some of them just happened in the last you know month thirteen months but we do track or turn over and will be will be monitoring that. Thank you. The center Chesterfield you're recognized. Here in good to see you this evening this is one of the most demanding jobs. I think we have in this state because some of the things people say. No matter how much money you make. You just really don't get over it that's right and. I'd be interested to know if we are doing. Any kind of exit exit interview with people say I just can't take this anymore. Because I know there were times when I want to go back to school when I saw or heard about some of the things that make you. On a daily basis and to see this as the total part of your job. Has got to be one of the reasons that people are saying I simply can't do this no matter how much money you pay is that what you're getting. So we did exist surveys at all of our staff to leave S. it's not really what people say sorry. It's not really what people say but it's because we don't talk about it sure we don't talk about it we don't write it down if it is a very and I'm not even on the front lines anymore but the I'm the demands of the job related to the crisis situation that our children and families in the safe or facing and that you see on a day to day basis and you want to make miracles happen right you want to help these families you want to save these children but we're not miracle workers and so but there's a lot of people in the community expecting us to make miracles happen so do I think that it's a huge factor for turnover absolutely. We'll. Is there any way that we can have counsel do we have counseling services with staff so that they can talk out some of the things that are a direct do you get together like some around the coffee table or in a in a setting that is more. blast and then talk about some of those issues that people are saying so that they get a chance because many times of the individuals providing the service don't get a chance to debrief other opportunities for them to just talk about this in the brief and is there counseling services are available an accounting services available for them should they need some counseling after some of the things that they see so what we message to staff is both there's the employee assistance program EAP that offers counseling but then we also I have connected with you And masks on their A. R. can act doctor edge at UAMS I don't know she's spearheading that she definitely is a messenger related to that program and so we have really encourage staff to seek out counseling and support for and it is a very stressful job and do you need support also when we have a crisis situation meaning and that a child to tally maybe a high profile and maltreatment cases in the county we then have an assistant director of mental health trainings result if he sees a licensed clinician she then coordinates with the local community healthcare provider to offer on site counseling and support. Are you one of the things that is troubling to me is all of these reports. About children being used in child ****. And that that is just a bridge too I don't understand account I don't understand it. They don't I know what's happening or we seeing a lot of that here in this state. So I think that question might and not to that major jury on the spot might be a better question for major jury because CACD handles those investigations I believe in again I don't I hate to put him on the spot related to that but we we are definitely. Seeing those cases they are a small portion of the cases that we work but yes if those kids come into foster care we are getting this series case thank you thank you Mr I appreciate the opportunity. Senator Bledsoe you're recognized. Thank you do you work with the call groups like that and is that a help to you. Yes ma'am there are they're one of our main partners that in recruiting foster home so if you want to be a foster parent for the state of Arkansas you can go through DCFS or you can go through one of our partners which includes a call Arkansas that despair as promised which is assemblies I mean which is church of Christ compact assemblies of god free will so we do rely heavily on our partners to recruit foster homes for us all right thank you so much. The Mayberry you're recognized ma'am. Thank you Mr chair I'm just gonna follow up on Senator Chesterfield question because I think if I heard the answer correctly you were saying that there's therapy available like one on one individualized but. When I heard the question I was kind of thinking more is there an opportunity for them to get together as a group and share I know what I've gone through really difficult things I don't necessarily want to go to a therapist I want to talk to other people who walk in my shoes every day and just help validate that my feelings are okay in here from someone else who's been through that and I I think that was kind of the question is there something like that that you do to gather them together only when there's just to be very honest only when there's act like I I don't think he's or crisis I use it too much but when there's a child the tally or have pro from a treatment that suits super serious and will bring somebody in a facility that but we also revive based on leading on our co workers in this state so there's a lot of that happening informally in the local offices. Okay I I don't know maybe just. Not a retreat per se but. I don't know I I I I do agree that sometimes we can get the best you know being revved back up in being re energized and and moving on by just having more of a environment that nurtures hearing from others in the same predicament you know your those that are serving northwest connecting with those that are serving southeast and but I I don't know just a thought thank you yes we do do statewide supervisor conference and we are planning one percent M. as September well what we will bring in all of our supervisors from across the state and they do do a lot of in fact we quit doing it and for for COVID and that was one of the things that they back for us to bring back so we are in September. Representative Brooks you're recognized thank you Mr chairman thank you director mark for being here with us I kind of follow up on Senator Bledsoe as questions on the organizations that you work with and foster care what are we doing are we do anything to work with them to from a recruitment standpoint to get more foster families more foster homes and so actually that partners came together and are working Act Haiti I'm not going to use the right organization agency nonprofit I'm not sure about the right time to call more than an act that and that our partners came together and are working and with more than a knife an initiative and they are currently working with that provider out of or in call the contingent and that he is thinking innovative in Lee and creatively on how to recruit foster parent so we're still in early stages at what that looks like how we use social media how we use just different ways to recruit foster parents but there's a lot at you you are may have seen invites for more than nine for information on the contingent but that there is a lot of conversations in work happening in that space. And representative McClure you're recognized. this is a follow up to the center Chesterfield representative may very. so if I understand correctly there is like not a. Regularly scheduled group. Type of therapy okay. So we all understand the nationwide this is one of the highest turnover rate careers I can be. We also understand that the emotional toll on the social worker you've got the families everybody else but the social worker trying to help but often feel their hands are tied they can't unsee things they can't on here things that weighs on them have only we also understand that you're understaffed over loaded time is. Of precious but may I suggest if you can carve out a group time I think you will see a reduction in your turnover rate. Because they need to be able to process. They they can't carry that load emotionally. And I don't know what we need to do from our end other than increases staffing but I would just there's just a lot having worked with foster parents for many years of I agree I haven't written down will go back and do some brainstorming with the team. Members are there any other questions. Seeing none director Martin thank you for a good report okay so I'm moving on to the ETC which is that sarsen Ross that allows a city. Yes okay M. eighteen which is that overturned investigations report and this is the Legislative really required report and based on an act ten twenty five and twenty seventeen. So once an investigation let me just walking column by column so it's by county so you can see investigations by county and what happens with each of those investigations from the very beginning of the call goes to the hotline is in receive for investigation so that on that's call number one actually the call number three and number of calls received by the hotline and I'll just walk through Benton County because it's the top County so in Benton county there were four thousand seven hundred and seventy two use of calls that were accepted by the hotline for investigation M. well no I'm sorry those are calls received and accepted for investigation was two thousand one hundred and ninety of those two thousand one hundred and ninety investigation. Four hundred and thirty five of them were found tree that comes two eight nineteen point nine percentage number of true investigations of peeled so DCFS investigates we find Terry we notify the offender the offender gets the notification that tells them that they can appeal to the office of appeals in hearings at DHS so I have those four hundred and thirty five true findings thirty two offenders appeal their investigation determination that is seven percent against went walking through bins just to explain that the report of the number of ability investigations overturned so of those thirty two that were appealed only two of them are overturned meaning that the admin judge determined that there was not a preponderance of evidence to support the maltreatment finding that two equates to six percent which is the next column so of the percentage of investigations overturned its only point five and up so that would be that would be your number as investigations appeal thirty teen. Divided by the two overturned TV which gives you eight point five percent and then in your last call on the point one person is so of all the cases boundaries four hundred and thirty five only point one of them were overturned. Any questions. Members do you have any questions. Seeing none. I go the last report okay for the last is not really a roof is like a report to you are not a paper report and but I put together information on and what the division is doing to reduce the number of children in foster care in just one second. So first I'd like to discuss the numbers of children in foster care and as as may twenty twenty two there are five I'm sorry four thousand five hundred and sixty four children in foster care as of today there are four thousand five hundred and forty one children and when the pandemic started in March of twenty twenty we had approximately forty two hundred children in foster care that number rose in till June of twenty twenty one to its peak of four thousand eight hundred and ninety eight children so we have been since June of twenty twenty one and last year we have been on trend downwards of the number of children in foster care. So how do we get there there are three main components to our efforts to reduce the number of children in foster care one prevention I'll talk about our efforts to prevent children from coming into foster care M. which remind you we serve more children in the home so we're trying to prevent future maltreatment and to make sure that we do not get it to a crisis placement where children are in immediate danger and have to be removed in the foster care but even bigger back it to reducing the number of children in foster care is all about permanency so it's moving children through the system so if a child has to come in the foster care we we don't want them to grow up in foster care government is a terrible parent I fully on that so we want children if they have to come in the foster care to move to some type of permanency whether at that back with their family to guardianship with relatives or adoption with relatives to it to adoption to a forever family so permanency is a really key in reducing the number of children in foster care and then third which I've already talked about is is our work force because a strong and stable work force helps us to work cases appropriately for prevention and work cases to move children to permanency so first I'll talk about prevention and our prevention efforts as I've mentioned to you all Arkansas was one of the first states to implement the family first law which allowed us to in fact we were the first day that got approval from the federal government to pull down funding for Providence based prevention services and Arkansas implemented via family centered treatment are providers or St Francis and youth advocacy advocacy program an intercepted by you spillages we initially implemented in thirty five counties we at the came to you all in asked for additional funding which you approved and going into this next fiscal year we are expanding statewide to all counties we have already seen outcomes or. Related to to intensive in fact intensive in home services I'm sorry I'm trouble talking today. So from the initial reports on outcomes we're seeing that the areas in which that in which intensive in home services over all the thirty seven counties offering intensive in home services saw entries in the foster care declined by twenty four percent from two thousand eighteen to tease out two thousand and twenty fewer entries were observed in twenty nine of the thirty seven County in comparison the thirty eight counties are intensive in home services are unavailable so entries indicator increased by nearly twenty one percent. The number of children in foster care decreased by seven percent starting in calendar twenty nineteen for the thirty seven counties in comparison over the same period the number of children in care increased twenty one percent and a thirty eight counties that did not offer the services so we're already seeing outcomes for the counties who had intensive in home services and that intensive in home services can be a service that six to nine months it includes that workers have to be on call and said that if the family is in crisis there's somebody there to that respond to that call and it does they do provide evidence based model for intervention and support for that family in addition to intensive family services we implemented triple P. which is a ten session evidence based parenting program not only did we implement triple P. for the cases of the families that we work with at the last legislative review you are repealed approved are using our prevention funds R. C. B. cat fines to find triple P. to families who are not involved with DCFS because DCFS is also responsible for a call primary prevention which is prevention work of families who never get called into the child abuse hotline and in addition to the triple P. an intensive family services we find say actually we don't Medicaid does but it's our program safe care which is the home visiting model that is an evidence based model specific for families who had an allegation of abuse or neglect it's for children zero to five and we serve all families if the children are not removed on Garrett's law cases meaning the baby or parent tested positive at the time of birth you know we only remove about twenty percent of those babies so for the other eighty percent those families are eligible and are referred to safe care safe here has been statewide now for I believe two years we implemented into. He seventeen but full statewide expansion happened in the last couple of years. And then moving on from prevention because and I got to be here all day and I could talk about prevention all day but believing are those are just some of the key highlights around our prevention programs and then around permanency which is a real key for access and we last year did at a statewide initiative that we labeled every day counts and hopefully you have seen some of our every day counts message but the every day counts message is that every day counts for the children that we serve every day that they're in foster care every day that they're with their family that we have a responsibility to work with the sense of urgency around safety and specifically permanency and so we did that work last year as we came into M. as we came into national adoption line it the three months prior to that we partner with project zero if you saw our billboards are in messaging we focus on adoption and then in may of this year we did it do we are we are doing may June July and August we're doing a focus on permanency again around reunification as well as guardianship and adoption and summer tends to be the time when it's easier to reunify with families because kids are out of school if they get period to start started trial home placement so what has happened around that is we're using data but we're also implementing best practices so not only each week do I have a Monday message that and that says the permanency data we support a best practice I deal weekly weapon are on Thursdays the future hopefully you saying we feature an everyday champion as part of our feature of an everyday team being which is a DCFS worker we feature some of their best practices as well as teach of best practice to our staff on my weekly web in our and and then we're tracking the data around reunification trial home placement adoptions we've done a lot of work around how do we get move children from adoption more timely which isn't. Which has included electronically redacting adoption packets we put together a portal so that adoptive parents can now get that a disclosure packet electronically which is one of the huge bears as we met with stakeholders and staff to timely to timeliness adoption was disclosure packet so doing efforts not only to look at the data but also systems process improvements around and adoption and some other things we also have permanency safety council and back in two thousand and seventeen we ask you offer and ten positions across the state at the program administrator level and we specifically asked for those positions just focus on removal council and for something we caught permanency safety council we had a consultant come in last year and look at those permanency safety council they happen at three six nine and twelve months where that program administrator staffs the case with the caseworker and supervisor and we had the consultant evaluate whether they were effective and the consulting is actually the code consulting came in and said Hey these are this is not really evidence base we don't we don't really know if I should be doing this and we said back to them but it seems to be working in some areas that can actually evaluate the program intellistation to support well the data supported that it has been effective and that then the areas that have had strong program administrators who are staffing cases that six month that those kids are more likely to achieve permanency that are areas where we were not having the permanency safety council and and really just one area in one area where we are not having the permanency safety council so we continue to use that position which we ask for in twenty seventeen to help me of our cases department saying and then the last bullet I was gonna talk about was workforce but I feel like I talked about that earlier in all the efforts that we're doing to you higher. and retain staff and it's continue to be a work in progress and I do continue to lease staff to companies that hire for remote work but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to be completely competitive I have my staff is always going to have to see children B. and homes the ability to hundred percent work remote will never be an option for DCFS but we have offered since flexibility in scheduling to try and hopefully recruit people who are passionate about the work and will come to us because they have a heart and a passion for the work. Representative Crawford you're recognized. Thank you Mr chair great job. I'm so proud of the work that you're doing for the kids in this state I have my question is. Everyone says we're headed for a recession. And so how do you think we are equipped for that. Through your program because not collect I guess would be food housing. I have an do you have any idea. How you're gonna approach that as things get tougher with the families. It it's hard for me to respond to that just because that in some ways ACT I can't even say that I don't know how it gets any tougher than than surviving the second wave of the pandemic when I had almost fifty percent of my staff either positive or quarantine in a couple of weeks like there was a couple week period where I was like I don't even know how we do this work at this point but we got through it so I do think that we are in a place where we're preparing to work with families like we set up prevention programs we're connecting with the community we still have a lot of struggles but it's hard for me to think that it's going to be worse than what we previously suffered in the last two years just to be very honest with you. Do you believe you have the money available to you. To help that the legislature and the governor has been very supportive of child welfare we are you know preparing for a budget Senate session but we are in a good place when it comes to offering prevention services our biggest challenges is not only as having the staff but our providers having the staff as well. Thank you. Members are there any other questions. C. nine ma'am yes go ahead Senator Wallace Matt man mention one more thing before I guess it's a fun thing I'm said this mind is national reunification my in an effort to celebrate we are hosting family night at the travelers game tonight so if you guys have your families are around the lead for you to join us at the travelers game and DCFS their partnership with Casey family programs has been able to pay for a couple of families to come out to the travelers came experience but we're inviting our stakeholders and our employees to purchase a ticket come to the travelers game and celebrate families so thank you senator thank you ma'am. Major if you will. Recognised assessor. A major Jeff through Arkansas state police crime against children division. Are we going of January through March quarter for. So if you look at page two shows the allow received fourteen thousand seven hundred and thirty seven calls a thousand five hundred seventy four those were accepted CACD handle one thousand six hundred and forty seven. DCFS hello five thousand four hundred seventy two R. one thousand four hundred and fifty five with the differential response. And on page three it reflect allegations by tight with vested by CCD in a monthly break down. Page four wheel will reflect the. Because it came in from mandated reporters. Page five you'll see a monthly breakdown of the cases that were open and close. The one thousand five hundred four cases open one thousand four hundred ninety two of closed and of those five hundred and eighteen were found true would substantiation rate of thirty four percent. President presently two thousand five hundred twenty three cases that is still active and a hundred seventy two of those being within forty five days. pages six and seven you'll observe the the county breakdown of the cases that were assigned. And on page nine and ten were fake the reported allegation types and the latest age groups Senate Chesterville you noticed on this page will be the. Or you you inquired about the photography the sexual exploitation for to cover a prostitute to tion of scene photography filming an obscenely fostering children as for the child porn **** that is primarily handle bar I can't unit internet crimes against children and they'd be able to track the information better for you. And pages eleven through twelve we showed relationship that the offender has worked with the victim and age groups of those offenders. Pages twenty four through thirty one will give you a break down of prosecuting attorneys judicial districts and the case is that what we're submitted that were accepted decline filed and pending. If you look at the bottom of page thirty one you see we submitted six hundred and fifty five cases three hundred fourteen of those were filed. I would forty percent pending a hundred nine eight which is thirty percent and a hundred and forty three of those were were declined. Any questions. The number you're recognized. Thank you Mr chairman and good to see again major appreciate all the hard work and effort but I have to say it's not as pretty as director Martin's report you've got one color page in the whole thing very extensive and we appreciate the hard work how's your staffing doing over there I know you've had some challenges in the past presently investigated what we're in pretty good shape of the Senate three positions we have I think we presently have about four of the thirty five hotline operators we're only twenty one right now we're still working and trying to make changes so we can get it so people feel seeks to get get a call volume down. Okay and one other item Mr chairman yes Sir you know I I kinda get concerned that it's when these prosecuting attorney things that I just have challenges with all the time because you know some of the prosecuting attorneys are doing a good job prosecuting the and filing charges against you know based on your investigations and there's some that's more than half of the of the the charges actually get file based on the investigations that you do and and I understand you know they're the standard you know the prosecuting attorneys are using but there's such a disparity in the the number of cases based on the judicial districts FOR those cases are are being filed. Are you seeing anything in that arena does that ring any concerns to you as a by the director. I think with the bass of Boyzone to is the grass of a of the prosecutors in what they think they can Prosecute where they can get conviction all I think plays a leading what where they decide that they want pursuant and I and it just seems strange that a lot of the prosecutors you know they'll they'll file charges based on the investigations of that you send them and there's others that less than half of it that they filed charges against him and you know it's just tragic because there's probably a sin of perpetrators that are getting away with crimes against children so anyway I appreciate to get off my soapbox and appreciate to everything that you do thank you thank you Sir. Members are there any other questions. Seeing none major thank you Sir thank you thank you you all. You. It members have one announcmenet we will not be meeting in July. We don't have a date for August yet but we will get that out to you. And with that we are adjourned.