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

Director Martin. Thanks for. And before that we're going to approve the minutes I need a motion and second I have a motion I have a second all in favor They are approved. Director Martin how are you today. If you will please identify yourself. Good morning I'm Mr Martin the Director of the Division of Children and Family Services at the H. atoms. And would you like me to go in order of the agenda starting with that at overturned report yes ma'am K.. So looking at I believe it's exhibit D. one in detail this is our overturned investigation report. This was legislative require required from session two thousand and seventeen. And as I go through all the data and reports today this is older because I've had lots of reports and I think most of these were submitted like may deem that you know it's just got delayed for different reasons so this is older data but the two reports are the first one is July M. two thousand nineteen through June of twenty twenty and the subsequent one and I'm gonna talk about both to try and help get through these reports quickly is July twenty nineteen through June twenty twenty. So just walking you through so you understand this report it starts with the number of calls received by the hot one and then as you know not all calls are actually accepted for child abuse and neglect so then you go on to the column the second column which is number of reports accepted for investigation of those that were accepted for investigation how many that DCFS found true and then you see the percentage then it once a true finding happens the offender is notified and once they were get receive that notification and they can determine whether they would like to appeal that notification to the DHS office of appeals and hearings so then you'll see the number of true investigations appealed next to that is your percentage and then the number of appealed investigations overturned so of the of the investigations that repealed how many were overturned and then the needs of two more columns over is the percentage of investigations overturned over also that would be your total number of true investigations and of those what is the percentage of overturned. So you can see this by county also by area and throughout my presentation today I'm going to be talking about areas in counties if you look at the back of the next report which is the Garrett saw report you can find a map of the DCFS areas that you might want to pull out to the side and reference because I will be doing lots of talking about areas this report is also listed by county and DCFS area for a total as. If you look at the first report you'll see a total of eight point six percent of investigations are overturned at the office of appeals in hearing and it's less than one percent of the total investigations are overturned and that concludes my presentation on overturned investigation reports. Members are there any questions. You saying then we'll move on I'll be moving on to an. Winery apologize the director. Who's the. Representive love. Go ahead Sir. Thank you thank you Mr chair and just pardon just. Pardon my ignorance is this is this coincide with the the report that the state police ski of I mean how does this report the overturned investigations is that. I don't know if the cases that are reported on on the hotline at of these two separate hotlines of the okay so no the hotline is the child abuse hotline and reported from state police they do have a report later our data I believe our data came from the same place are Chris management system Chris is our case management system and both S. as well as the ACT use that same system or pulling data from the same place our data might not align perfectly because it's all about the exact day that you pull it right so basically similar okay all right thank you thank you Mr. Director Martin you can continue on to the next thank you senator Wallace you bet moving on to the summary of the gear it's low referrals this is for state fiscal year twenty twenty one and this is also exhibit D. for. I would note that in the back of the gear it's low report if you're interested in the counties that you cover there's also in a second attachment titled. I believe it's D. three it D. three exhibit covers every single referral for gear it's law that we received and it's broken out by council with the identified information so if you have questions about specifics in your county referred to exhibit D. three I will be going over the report and D. for am I also note that the area is because I will be talking about area map is in the back M. and then moving forward sorry I just wanna explain Garrett's law there's a great introduction on page one but just to make sure that we're on the same page on what they're it saw it is the law says that neglect is fine it neglect shall include causing a child to be born with an illegal substance at the time of birth or that at the time of the birth the mother is positive for an illegal substance there's a more complicated definition but that gets us all on the same page of what is Garrett's law. I'm looking at the bottom of page one you'll see that on average the number of Garrett's law reports have increased by ten percent per year starting at state fiscal year two and two thousand and six but during state fiscal year twenty twenty one one thousand six hundred and nineteen here it's all reports are received which was twenty percent higher than the number in the previous year and you see it you can see that graph on the top of the page two on the bottom of page you can see what we're required to report and I will be going through that in in the report moving on to page three you can see and age distribution of mothers nothing out of the ordinary there but I will look towards the bottom of page three which is the percentage of your our reports in which drugs were cited marijuana including THC in cannabis was cited in seventy five percent of the keris law reports this was followed by amphetamines and methamphetamines at twenty six percent and opioids at ten percent benzodiazepines are fourth most common follow back cocaine at three percent. Moving on to page four you can see that the decisional age of newborns nearly twenty three percent were born prematurely during state fiscal year twenty twenty one moving on to page five which documents health problems among the among the mother sided insurance law reports those who allegedly use benzodiazepines were most likely to give birth to a child with a documented health problem at forty percent followed closely that by those who use amphetamines and methamphetamines at thirty nine percent. Moving to page six this is the discussion of how do you DCFS response to Garrett's law reports ninety three percent of their US law report statewide were substantiated that the high seas substantiate rate is because simply a test of either the mother or the baby at a time time of birth for an illegal substance would cause a report to be substantiated most of these reports are called in by the hospital where the child was born moving on the page seven statewide the rate at which DCFS case workers open a case in response to substantiated five finding was ninety four percent which is similar rates in previous years. Statewide nearly fifteen percent of substantiated your what your it's law reports resulted in removing the newborn from the mother's Cassidy just let that September second so of all the gear it's all reports that we go out in response to only about fifteen or not about only fifteen percent of the babies are placed in DCFS custody but the others have an open case with offered services. Which we'll talk more about as we get to page eight you can see the removal rate by area at the top of page eight but again you can also refer the three which tells whether the child was removed or not specific to your county that you cover an analysis of the substantiated your or your it's all reports received during state fiscal year twenty twenty receipt revealed that twenty nine percent of children who were removed from their homes return home or was we're discharge within twelve months of those kids who can't babies who came in the foster care twenty nine percent went to relatives or back home. At within twelve months of removal among children involved in substantiated year as low cases who were removed from the home immediately six percent or I made within twelve minus four percent were cited in a subsequent as substantiated maltreatment report over the same period and that that is the conclusion of my report of the year it's law again there's more information county specific and and therefore if you have questions. Members do you have any questions. Seeing none directory may continue thank you I move on to exhibit D. eight which is the family preservation services report I'm this is a really great report and and because I have so many reports today I'm gonna try moved quickly but this is actually one of my favorite reports to look three many of the same indicators that are in the family preservation report that I'm gonna go through quickly are also noted that the data is in the quarterly performance reports that I give to you as well as the annual but the great thing about this report is it's broken down by area and broken down by county so there's a lot of great information and the back of the family preservation report that is county specific that you might want to take a look at as I go through the the report is broken at their report is required by law just by the legislature and it's broken down into three topics safety permanency and well being which are the three topics that the feds requires a look at and report on so I'm gonna move quickly through safety because this is for calendar year twenty twenty and so this really does look at the first year of COVID but is a little out of date and I cover a lot of this information updated information in the quarterly performance report that I will go over next I mean a skit and just get go to page ten which discusses the strengths and weaknesses are areas for improvement in the safety component so Arkansas accepted twenty five thousand five hundred and fifty four child maltreatment reports for investigation and another three thousand seven hundred and thirty eight for different response these were well below the typical number of investing cations and different response director Martin I'm rookie for safety we've got a question okay representative Springer you're recognized. Did you I was just trying to get clarification you say your report number is D. like dog eight the number eight. That's what I have noted Blake is that correct okay. Okay I may have gotten my label from the last committee hours the five thank you thank you sorry about that. The five yes that's okay go ahead record okay as I was stating into thank you in calendar year twenty twenty we had less reports of accepted calls for investigation indifference response and as you remember that was the first year of covid that spring summer we had less mandated reporter seeing children so not surprising that we saw that decrease my good. I'm sorry that you're looking at me for another question okay the rate at which DCFS initiated and completed its investigations improved in twenty twenty have the agency about the initiated and completed eighty six percent of investigations on time during that year M. DCFS excessively limited maltreatment reoccurrence within twelve twelve months better than the national set standard at nine point one percent and just I'll nobody I reference you back to page six that's a really significant finding their on page six you can see that fifty nine counties were below the national ACT every area was below the national average of fifty nine of the seventy five counties was below the national average on reoccurrence of about maltreatment and reoccurrence amount treatment is measured by examining all I'm child victims of maltreatment during a twelve month period and identifying how many were victimized within the next twelve months so that's a pretty significant that we were able to be below the national standard and fifty nine of seventy five counties I'm are areas for improvement we need to continue to make progress report regarding timely initiation of difference our response and as you will see throughout this reporter are areas that struggle are throughout area six which is Pulaski County. Additional additionally timely differential response completion regressed from eighty six percent to seventy seven percent and while that is an area needed for a pre and improvement it's not something I'm significantly concerned about because working longer with families and this different response cases is not necessarily a bad thing. Moving on to permit COS begins on page eleven as you can see there was an increase in the number of children in foster care there were four thousand six hundred and fifty one children at the end of twenty twenty we continue to see an increase in a twenty twenty one but I'm happy to report that we are back down to four thousand six hundred and at about six hundred and eighty children in foster care but also note that prior to the pandemic the number of children in foster care had steadily declined reaching five thousand it had to sadly the Kleins but had been at all time high five thousand two hundred and thirty four so we're still below are all time high but we are still at an increase of where we were at the beginning of that the pandemic but also not that much of the foster care increase during the year was attributed to area six which is again Pulaski County who went from three hundred and eighty six children in foster care to six hundred and twenty one children in foster care with area for also having a significant increase area for a Southwest Arkansas two hundred and eighty to three hundred and seven. I don't think I said that number right two hundred eighty two three hundred eighty seven college eyes and moving on to you Page thirteen looking at substantiation substantiation rates DCFS staff removed twenty percent twenty one percent of victim children in response to a tree tree report and the children were either removed from their home during the investigation are within ten days of its closure and twenty twenty that is a similar removal rate as prior years again you can look at county bycounty specifics in the back permanency measures NO R. placement with relatives moving on a page fourteen this is something that we're really proud of in the work that we have done over the last two years I know that you can see on the figure twenty three at the top of page fourteen that we have seen a steady increase of placement with relatives at thirty seven percent and you'll note on the ribbon on the left that five years ago and twenty fifteen five years ago as of twenty twenty the relative placement rate was under twenty percent so from twenty fifteen to twenty twenty we saw a seventeen percent increase in the number of children in foster care that a place with a friend or appropriate relative you can see down on the bottom of the page fourteen by area at you can also see in the back of breakdown by county. Also known I'm placement fifteen an issue that we have historically struggled with this placement stability so how many may placement stability is measured by the rate of placement mais ever thousand days and care for children in our care over a twelve month period of time this is something we struggled with as the national average is four point one two but you can see and twenty twenty the placement stability rate was five point six four so we have seen a a decrease and that that the an increase in placement stability and decrease in the number of needs and twenty fifteen placement stability rate was seven point five four. Moving through you I'm this report because again I have my quarterly report to go over which will go to give you more specifics on a lot of these numbers but time to adoption on page eighteen we did see a significant decline in the number of adoptions finalized but again that was the first year of covid and we initiated as I mentioned the last committee hearing at a huge campaign with had which had specific targets Qatar every day counts campaign hopefully you've seen it and as part of the we didn't not only did not complete as many adoptions we also saw an increase from the time from TPR to adoption so that has been a huge focus for us in twenty twenty one you can see a full list of strengths and weaknesses on page nineteen and I'll move on to what the what the last topic of this report which is well being and the first couple of pages go over and visitation Martin I do have a question yes Sir So the average time to adopt. In the State of Arkansas is thirteen point nine months well that was active calendar year and twenty twenty M. and that is time from termination to adoption and now I can tell you as a at September and statewide average that month in September for total it options from TPR the finalization was five point seven nine so now that's not going to be our year average because the month before it was much greater but we have been working we have been working diligently and we tracked on a monthly basis how long from termination to adoptions and we are making improvements okay thank you. Then I have two other questions okay Senator Hammer Europe. Thank you Mr on the adoption process just refresh my memory if if a family expresses interest in adopting someone. And they begin the process of moving into that is there a period of time words for lack of better term kind of a trial and error to see if both are going to be compatible with each other at child has to be in a home for six months before an adoption can be finalized so that that's where they're at now if the child was in the foster home and the foster parent or we call it resource now but if the child was in the foster home and we agree that the foster parent is going to adopt that six months can like it counts before the termination but if we place a child in a home the six month time has to start a child has to be in home six months before we can finalize an adoption okay and where in your statistics do you show the percentage or the number of those that begin that six month period but before the end of the six month period they're moving to you know they're moving toward adoption and it doesn't work out and the child is removed from the home either because of the parish or for other reasons where is that number in your statistics so that's that number is not in this report but you make a very valid point so last year when we started in March last March we started our every day counts campaign and that's part of that we wanted some specific measures so that we can track how we were doing and one of those this time from CPR to adoption but what we do on and I can share this with you I have just one from six to September in front of me what we do an apologist Cantley CA but what we do is we break out foster parent adoptions relative it options and then other adoptions because we have kids that have been in care five six years and then they might get adopted so time from termination to adoption for them might be you know six years or seven years and so we track and we've monthly report I can share this with you so foster parent adoptions we set a goal and if a foster parent is is adopting. We want to see that adoption happen in three months post termination because once the termination happens if the foster parent is gonna dot you have to give time for the order to be completed which can happen in thirty days you then have to give the parents time to appeal which is twenty one days and then M. yes and then you can get a hearing set for an adoption so we set a goal of three months on foster care and adoptions and then we're tracking across the statements is also break down by area how long it's taking for a foster parent adoptions relative it options and then other adoptions which would be kids in care that don't have an adoptive placement for a lot at termination okay I'd like you to copy the fuel my business days return please thank you Mr. Thank you and senator Clark you're recognized. Director we could go back to Page fourteen of the placement with relatives. Or call my compliments for the. Of improvement but do we drilled L. I mean all of area nine being the worst bring it down and then what county of within. Area nine being at sixteen percent do we look at the. The calls absolutely and then not only so you know relative placement have been a huge issue like some of them were very passionate about so every month as part of this thing tried them soon Senator Hammer this is just an example not only do we track how many kids in a county we track it all the way down the county not how many kids are placed with the relative but we also track children entering here his first placement is a relative and apologize for the graph in front of me is just a September but in September we had thirty seven point five but we track that all the way down to the county and you know I know the causes behind White County and I'd be happy to share this with you offline or now by would be interested in of what's going on and what county if that's just. Next interprets no is it due to policy or. But remember this is calendar year twenty twenty one on what County at well the prior judge did not allow for placement of kids in foster care to be placed with the relative as a provisional foster home if you allowed relative placement heated custody so then that child exited Care but didn't didn't get the benefits of being incapacity and so the new judge is very committed and working with us on relative placement but you also have a longstanding culture so the numbers and White County have increased both in first placement as well as number of kids place and foster care and I can get you that I don't have it in front of me but I can pull it up and get you the White County relative placement chart okay so let me back up to make sure I understood what you said in two thousand twenty the judge at the time did not allow. Roll the placement when now hold on so he allowed relative placement but there's two types of relative placement and what this is tracking is kids in foster care place that the relative and so kids are in foster care place at the relative when the home opens is a provisional foster home and we really encourage that because kids stay on Medicaid we can cover other services and then if something happens we can also move them to a more appropriate placement so but it's really for me about the services those kids as relatives can be eligible for subsidized guardianship or subsidize adoption long term so we believe that the better relative placement option the judge there would only allow relative placement after home study and then giving them custody which exits them from foster care but also cuts off benefits from DCFS do we have that problem anywhere else no we don't have a White County now there's a different judge and he's working with that. The question what what county has to do we have that problem anywhere else I am not aware of any and the data the data shows that we we know we do not have that problem anywhere else but in this case it was a judicial problem. Two thousand one depends on whether you think that placing in a provisional foster care giving a relative custody or issue we're you know what things god well passed the law to to make it. To make it clear. What we thought. Yes I mean we across the state including White County are seeing increases in placements of children in foster care with relatives we are no where where we were in twenty fifteen in the end we know we know what the science as we know what the results are yes it was rolled and now that we've been doing this since twenty fifteen our own data says that children places throughout our own data shows that children places relative are less likely to have maltreatment while in foster care are more timely to permanency within twelve minds and there is another indicator that I'm forgetting off the top of my head that be happy to share that data with you but our own data is showing that children in foster care do better when place that the relative and behavioral health sciences show that they're much better off long term having been placed with people that they know of if they've got to be removed from the home that's right thank you for. See in all the questions correctly may continue okay I pick pick back up on page twenty one with the well being section both twenty and twenty one go over at visits on our in home cases I frequently tell our staff that are in home cases those are cases where there's a tree finding of maltreatment but we continue to offer services are some of our most vulnerable children and we did see a slight increase in those visits in twenty twenty as well as we stuck with our goal of eighty five percent of visits in foster care again all this data is brought down by county and I wish I could go over and more detail but you can reference that at the back beginning and then pendants of a one. And that concludes our presentation for the family preservation services report in we've got one question representive Bentley you're recognized. The chairman address Martin thank you not sure where to put the sense I want to ask you up and visit with some folks they're doing foster care. And this is regarding the one month visit we know that kids on their first taken out that first month this crucial when I first removed from their parents and it is sometimes it's a month before they're approved for Medicaid so they can get some treatment that would really help them is there anyway and this is just thrown out here in the middle of committee meetings that have been made to talk about this is a way to make that automatic for the first six months of these kids could get some counseling and some treatment because if I look at some of the percent of some of the counties are good this summer you know are not getting an in home visit right away so if it takes a month for them to get approval for Medicaid that first month where they could really get some treatment and and deal with these being removed from the parents would be more helpful so anyway just a thought I could make it automatic for the first six months until we get a chance to review it if they need Medicaid tiers two so I really like to follow up with you on this specific case because it doesn't take as a month to get kids on Medicaid there's a some issue and fax it we have an eligibility team for DCFS for Medicaid that's at central office and they even so before for EMS a Kate is separate we put them on Medicaid immediately so like within days of removal now it might be a different category of Medicaid then for to and then for each until we determine whether there for each eligible for ESR federal law that allows for some federal funding related to Medicaid but I'd really like to work with you at that specific foster here and figure out what's going on because it may be that the worker is not giving them the Medicaid number but we also did a foster parent portal and we're like you can log into your bank account foster parents can log into their portal that portal directly pulls information from our case management system and their Medicaid number is on that portal so that we the foster parent doesn't even have to wait to get it from the worker if they're signed up for the portal to get it but I'd really like to talk about that case specific to see what's going on because we have we track and have the data on Medicaid enrollment you should not it does not take a minute so there some disk. Connect here so just to clarify their automatically into tier to where they can get counseling hello so that's a different issue yeah yes I'm sorry represent it like so that's a different issue so they're on Medicaid right but they may not be S. S. get an independent assessment and assesses tier two or tier three and be assigned to the past so that might take a month but they would be eligible under tier one services to go ahead and get counseling services so they don't have to be assigned to a pass and and have an independent assessment as tier two or tier three to get counseling services okay thank you just for that clarification appreciate thank you chairman. In return you may continue okay so picking up the quarterly performance report and this is for that first quarter which was July one twenty twenty one three September twenty twenty one. Moving on the page one you can see that there were seven thousand eight hundred and seventy nine calls accepted during that quarter you can see on the right side revision and what the definition of differential responses cause I know sometimes it's questions about that and of the six thousand three hundred and sixty six reports that were assigned to DCFS one thousand and nine were assigned to a different response five thousand three hundred fifty seven were assigned as an investigation you also know that since I got a question about CACD that one thousand five hundred and thirteen of those accepted calls were assigned to see ACT that's that left believe signal. Moving on the page two and page three you can see our findings of a child maltreatment reports which DCFS had a substantiation rate or we found tree on the investigations that we investigated twenty six percent of the time you can see CACD is ray and then a combined total of twenty eight percent which is in line with the first three quarters you'll also note on the bottom of the page to that neglect continue to be the most commonly reported allegation for two thousand four hundred and fifty seven of the victims children. You can see our finality near fatality information on the top of page three there's also an index in the back with more specific details if you're interested in that and inadequate supervision and continue to be the highest and now the highest amount of allegations for different response followed closely by environmental neglect and moving on to page four you can see our initiation rate which means that we have an accepted call the hot line for an investigation and then worker my see the victim child so for priority one which requires a twenty four hour response rate we had at an eighty two percent and nishiki ation rate and for priority T. which is seventy two hour response rate we had it skews me seventy five percent response rate and then you can see DCFS only on that bottom tar on page four there's information on page five about differential response you can see on page six which I talked about the last report reoccurrence amount treatment we continue to be under the national and standard I at the top there at eight percent. Twelve minutes moving on to page seven this is in home reports and just M. and home cases are in home services member that's where there is an investigation it's refining for some type of maltreatment and DCFS and offer services but the children are not placed in foster care and as a reminder we serve more children in home than we do in foster care so at the end of the quarter we had we had in home cases involving six thousand one hundred and forty four children. Moving on to page eight and page nine you can see that characteristics of the children that we serve in how in in home cases their ages and then you can also see required a monthly visits which we did see a drop to sixty five percent Pulaski County being that the the county that is drawing is down the wires but as you know we are having significant workforce challenges across the state due to covid. Moving on to page nine and you can see the victim victimization rate among children who received a protective service it protective service or support of service case we stayed in line with prior minds as supportive service cases where a family comes that comes to us and ask for services. Meeting on the page ten you can see our foster care numbers again the at the end of the quarter which is in September we had four thousand eight hundred and sixty eight kids in foster care but as I mentioned we currently have four thousand six hundred and about eighty children in foster care so we are starting to see a decline in the number of children in foster care you can see on the bottom of page ten which I think is a very important and and I data that we look at frequently is the comparison of injuries verses discharges you can see in the first quarter we had seven hundred and twenty one and missions while only six hundred and eighty five discharges that's important because we have continued to see debt declines and discharges but pretty stagnant steady levels and removals with the exception of Pulaski County moving on to page eleven you can see the reason for which kids came into care during the quarter you can have more than one reason so these numbers don't add up to a hundred but substance abuse and neglect continue to top the reason for kids entering foster care as they pretty much always D. you can also see on the bottom of page eleven the reasons that kids leave foster care reunification is at forty five percent for the quarter adoption was twenty four percent relative custody with sixteen percent now do you remember that that that adoption can include relatives and then you have noncustodial parent has to a guardianship at three percent non relative custody. Moving on to page twelve and Pitsch thirteen you can see length of time in foster care and we've seen some increases in the length of time in foster care as discharges have declined you can see placement of children in foster care which again right thirty eight percent as of this quarter we continue to see increases in relative placement and you can see the different types of relative placement broke out and that thirty eight percent. Moving on to page thirteen you can see that we have had a continual slight decline in face to face visits I've our kids in foster care and moving on to page fourteen you can see a number of kids place with siblings we stayed steady on that and doing pretty well M. a placement stability is on the bottom of page fourteen which I reference we've held steady at five point five for it but still above the national average and so a lot of work to the. And we have seen a decline in placement within twenty twelve months which is not a good thing at which also relates to discussion that I'm talking about we need to see more children successfully and safely and appropriately discharging from foster care we did fall back down under the national average which is a good thing every injuries in the foster care at six point three on page fifteen. Moving on to sixteen and seventeen which is an options these are the number of children available for adoption three ninety five in the first quarter so I'm excited to see that number decreased from the fourth quarter you can see the characteristics of children available for adoption with them both of the children fourteen to seventeen at thirty seven percent. I am moving on to page seventeen you can see we we were doing really great with our everyday accounts initiative and we actually started drop in for all of the options in the third and fourth quarter to ten point four and ten point eight but then we saw a slight uptick in the first quarter but you will see a decrease I believe in the second quarter because November is national adoption month and we had a very targeted campaign so we had a lot in fact there are over a hundred adoptions finalized in December alone solved be happy to share that when we do the next quarter report maybe next time F. finalize it options we finalized a hundred and sixty nine adoptions in in that quarter and then pays nineteen this outlines all the different types of cases the top one is the number of cases that we have in each category at that point in time and M. a point in time at the end of the quarter but what you can see on the bottom of page nineteen is the total number of cases that we serve so we had eight thousand one hundred fifty six investigations we had five thousand five hundred and fifty three children served in foster care and three thousand and sixty three cases in and how the case. Are moving on to page twenty we have had increases in our case load and as again I'm we we have had significant workforce challenges over the last year. And those arrested twenty four point nine those are not twenty four point nine is not everywhere in this state if you there's a second appendix in the back you can see it back County we have some counties like Pulaski Washington that are struggling other than other counties where we have lower case let's like in the delta and some other County. You can see foster home and to foster home in bed ratios on the bottom of twenty and so we have one thousand six hundred and twenty five open homes and and that that equates to three thousand four hundred and twenty three beds available but continue to rate recreate and support and maintain foster parents does continue to be at challenge for us and that is the conclusion of my report that there are a lot of great attendance at the back of this to get more detail on information in the report. Indirectly we've got some questions for you senator Hammer you're recognized. Thank you Mr on page eleven I'm not sure that's where it is but where do you where do track the number of kids that age out of foster care workers at the report. That is not in the report but that is data that we have. Can I get that I'd like to know how mayor aging out and is there a reason why we wouldn't add that to the reasons for children reason for children's discharged from foster here chair care sorry in your I'm sorry Senator Hammer on the page of page eleven AM second grass at discharge reasons the fourth reason child age out we are okay the nine percent or six percent okay I believe that is defined and I have to confirm this for you but I'm pretty sure this that is defined as either at the child turns twenty one or the child is between eighteen to twenty one and she's is to leave foster care okay and they're represented Fuhrman passed a law this past session that made it easier for kids that age staff to get back in do you know of any cases where that has happened since the law went into. Pass that law for sure I don't know that that number I think we I think we can pull the data on that but I'm I'm pretty aware when that happens and yes we have had cases okay the degree of like to get that number Mr. I'm an issue I will move to the back of the queue and get through the questions come back to sure thank you. Represented in it you're recognized. Thank you Mr chair I have a question I'm over here thanks with the Speaker is exceptional again do y'all of track how many of these foster care children are with special needs or have special needs. So M.. It's hard that that is a hard definition but what I can tell you is we can tell you the number of kids in care that are that receives the waiver we can tell you the number of kids who are who have ADD waiver request pending and we can tell you the number of kids who we have done applicant like we're putting together an application for DD for the DD waiver now special me if you're looking at the adoption page you can see that special needs for adoption is defined very very differently than developmentally disabled and that definition of what special needs is for adoption is there on the red been on the side they're on page eighteen and we can tell you the number of kids that receive an adoption subsidy with that special needs criteria which actually it's right there because if you're if you get it a federal subsidy Jennifer scored a hundred and sixty eight kids began receiving an adoption seventy so hundred and sixty eight kids were defined as special needs for an a federal adoption subsidy which is on the left but that's not traditionally what we think of as special needs which special needs is much broader than developmental disability so I'm I'm sorry did not answer your question is just very broad sorry is it any at finish up my question Mister chair. Okay. Continue okay is there anyway to get some numbers can you send me some numbers that you might have I need your help telling you what you mean by special needs okay I get you would you got that a meeting of the great thank you so I make sure I give you the numbers that you're looking for. A representative Mayberry you're recognized. Thank you thank you Mister chair at the last meeting you had shared with us that there were some positions that were in the department of developmental disability that were being moved over to help with a staff crunch and I'm just looking for some type of follow up did we get those positions moved over did you find people to work those positions give us a an idea of how employment is going in the department okay so as far as those positions we got forty two position. At it's either forty or thirty eight but and those came over about the early November and so we had a hiring event in December and we had another hiring event in January I did not have the update of the number that we hired in January was January twenty eighth but from the December hiring event we were able to feel seven of those positions and then as you may recall from the budget hearings we asked for those the ones that came from the eighty S. we ask for those positions in our twenty twenty three budget request so that we can give back as of July first those DDS positions back to them. Go ahead. At the one more question to follow up Mister chair thank you what what is the if you could just tell us and I'm sure we probably know the answer but just as a matter of record what's the biggest obstacle to finding people to work these positions if you could share with us the feedback that you're getting why people don't want to. Take these positions well so it's it's really different it's different depending on what county area here in in our workforce challenges are different depending on what county you're in the pilot that reading related to teaming is targeted towards Pulaski and because that is our area that is most in crisis and we had over a hundred percent turnover last year so to be very honest with you part of the challenge has been we have gone through a lot of people interested in working in child welfare in Pulaski County so that limits the pool and then the pay was an obstacle that we implemented the grad for program assistance and we have and we increased entry for program assistant so I think that's all we were able to hire any program assistance before that December hiring event which is when we first really implemented the grid an increase that entry Sally from twenty six five to twenty eight to five and we had had rolling program assistant positions that nobody we couldn't get anybody unless we could hire anybody so the fact that we got seven in December was really promising so I think that increase in injury and implementation of the grid has been helpful. And then you know another big factor for us in other areas across the state have previously been the lack of pay for on call and overtime which we both implemented in the fall with your support and so we're hoping that with both of those we're gonna start seeing some stabilization in our workforce I am happy to report in December and classy county we had no resignations of family service worker so that was a huge huge turning point and we only had one and November. And I want to follow up on that so the entry pay is twenty thousand. And is it is there ever any overtime. Right there is so that's for program assistance those are the people who help support the family service workers and support the work they do a lot of transportation and they can help with referrals they do a lot of supervised visits but that the family service yes in some areas one many areas program assistance get overtime in addition for transport supervised visits having support in a crisis our family service worker pay is still at injury but they get a seven percent increase once they complete training. Thank you. In Senator Hammer you're recognized. Thank you Mr I noticed in one of the report's gonna go along with maybe this ties in together the percentage of investigations within timely. Initiation. That some of the areas are doing better than others one of them area three has a county that I represent and from eighteen to twenty it's actually going the wrong direction it's going up a little bit since last time I'm wondering what are the what are you identifying as the challenges. Where there are where is not going in the right direction as far as the timeliness of of investigation M. I'm I'm not exactly sure which report you're looking at how many gas you're talking about Garland. Actually Selena's one of them and garland is one of them also in area three yet both and I just knew based on you know the work not the specific number that you're looking at both have had staffing challenges and workforce challenges COVID has had a huge impact number of workers out due to quarantine number of workers positive loss of workers and so Garland is doing pretty well over all that had has had more significant challenges with investigations and I can get back to you we did put a specific plan in place related to garland not sure about Salim that I share that specific plan with you okay we'll get together afterwards for sure can I have one more question. Go ahead Sir thank you we're in the we're in the report which doesn't show the reason for why foster homes are closing or is it in and of this paperwork we got it is M. so it might be in our annual report card hold on one second we know it's right here it's Pitsch. It's page twenty five and twenty six of the quarterly performance report now that would just be for the quarter but our annual report card shows the full year of reasons for closure. And you can see on the bottom twenty six we break it into more detail. Okay all right I'll get with health line thank you. Members or any other questions. Go ahead record thank you. Read more no it's a good briefing thank you. Okay next we have DHS. Good to see a. Welcome back from the world of quarantine I thank Mr in appreciate that glad glad to be here with you seven hello. Our mark what chief staff and legalistic Affairs for DHS. I also want to bring you all an update on assisted living facilities or if we had some extensive discussions and wonder last meetings back in the fall around to clear on the rate for assisted living facilities that we paid through Medicaid so three things I wanted to bring back to you in terms of an update one of the association that presented to you was our all of which is the Arkansas residential an assisted living association we met with representatives from Rall three times since that last meeting to talk through the rate and we're continuing to look at that to see if their cost of their incurring in those facilities that aren't reflected in that rate that we pay so it to possibly Ross Martinez FOR some increases we've had some good discussions real been digging into it where things stand right now is that our role is collecting some additional updated cost information from their members either hoping to have that back to us here in the coming weeks once we get that cost information back from them will be digging into it looking to see what opportunities there may be they make some decisions around if there's anything that we've done to enhance that rate that's being paid now also good discussions were having right now I think that is moving and Sir will continue to report back to you all as we make progress on those discussions. The a second item cares funding of course recognizing the difficulties that healthcare facilities have had during the pandemic or serve in several efforts to get additional funding through cares Act then also through the American rescue Act I we worked with DFA to obtain six point four million dollars in Kerr's funding for assisted living facilities and proposal that the governor proved facilities road request seventy seven hundred dollars for each licensed occupied Medicaid bed that they have so it was designed so that more funding would go to those facilities that have a greater number of Medicaid clients in the as opposed to private pay clients the payments were distributed by December twenty ninth total forty one facilities requested and received funding the average payment to the facility was one hundred fifty five thousand three hundred fourteen dollars and sixty three cents. The largest payment to facility was approximately four hundred eighteen thousand the smallest was approximately thirty five thousand and that's funding that is going to those facilities to help them with their continued extraordinary staffing needs during the pandemic. And then finally the other opportunity for assisted living we've been working up a plan it's based on opportunity in the American rescue plan act to provide additional funding for home and community based services are provided for a temporary enhanced federal match for projects to help expand a CBS services and so we have been working since the fall with a pretty good large group of providers to develop a plan and work to get that ready to implement and assisted living facilities they are one of the product types are eligible is not limited to them but they are part of this group all together the plan that we've come to come up with working providers it should distribute approximately a hundred and fifty million dollars to a CBS providers around the state so that will be good shot in the arsenal help them with their staffing needs and helping them with expanding the availability of services are right now what we're waiting on is for CMS to give us final approval to move forward they've given us a preliminary approval on the general approach and just and like most other states we're just waiting for them to the final sign off but in the meantime we'll continue to work providers to get everything up and running we sent a survey out to those providers to get some additional information so we start doing the specific calculations of payments are they said that data into us and so our folks are working through those numbers now. And so Mister Rosa three things one to bring back to you as an update on be happy to answer any questions. In center Hammer you're recognized. Thank you Mr chair on the assisted living facilities I've got a report that twelve of them closed last year of that affected Medicaid patients do you know where those Medicaid patients were of re located to or can you get that if you don't have it I will go things number one they were not twelve facilities that closed last year there are the list that I've seen is it's twelve facilities includes both assisted living facilities and residential residential care facilities and RCS diesel rabbit trail here they are they're somewhat similar to assisted living in the types of services they provide but it's a different provider top different funding model so is that's not related to the rate issue we've been discussing okay and some of those will the police Marsyas includes assisted living it also includes a number that some of them closed others that have continue operating they just bill or accept Medicaid clients and finally as the twelve the stone in the last year those going back as far as I'm sorry let me just double check my notes. NO one on that list was closed back in two thousand ten and so that's just for a long term look with that said the patients that we tract as police have closed they've gone so moved on to other assisted living facilities some have gone to nursing home depending on their needs but a significant number have either gone back home we're going to family that we see so you're aware of the information is being circulated then that you just responded to about the twelve that there were closed in that and that's that's the other side stories they say I yes I believe so now I it may be that the list I have is not accurate but just on what I've seen I've identified. Five of those facilities that have definitively closed based on records of the health service purpose a purpose usually Health Services permit agency and as I said those closures there's one in twenty sixteen one twenty seventeen two thousand ten okay twenty nineteen and twenty nineteen let me get let me get to comparison second career list what I've got if you don't mind Sir and and follow up Mr one.