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

Members if you will go ahead and find your seats. I just talked to Senator Wallace and he's having surgery today so he's not going to be able to be with us and so let's keep him in our thoughts and prayers. And before we get started I'm going to ask Blake to explain to you the exhibit you see before us because we have a lot of exhibits today and this will make more sense if you know where to look for what information. Blake's having voice trouble so bear with him. Okay so we usually have stickers on your exhibit items to just identify what they are. Since they were taking about four hundred something stickers we opted to go with the C. two stacks in front of you in it list what exhibits are in that stack and has the title of that exhibit so it's just kind of there for you to look in that stack and identify for when it comes up in order. If you get lost just raise your hand and will try to walk you through where we are because it is a lot of information today because it's set up in a while before we've had since we've had some of these reports first thing we want to do is items seek consideration to approve the August thirty first twenty twenty one meeting minutes do I have a motion motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Those minutes are approved item D. department of Human Services division of children and family services Mr Martin S. here four six reports. And members if you would hold your questions for each report just she finishes that section. Hey director Martin. We have the quarterly performance reports for second third and fourth and I'm assuming that will all be included in the annual report for twenty twenty one if you want to just do that together thank you represent five that was my plan and I appreciate that all right and what children members is just hold your questions until she completes each area of report and then we'll take questions at that time. Thank you you're recognized thank you represent hi and thank you Committee I Mr Martin on the Director of the Division of Children and Family Services all right just a little bit closer please okay you've got a soft voice I also have do not have a stuff like that will speak at and I will start with that you know I report card but I want to give you a little context to the other reports that you see because you might wanna reference the other reports and that might also help me get through these at a quicker so the annual report card that I will start with is statewide numbers whereas the I think the third or fourth report that I get to you is the family preservation services report and we break down a lot of the numbers that are in the annual report card by area but also if you look in the appendix by county so as I'm going through the annual report card all note if that data point is in the family and preservation services report and if you're interested in looking at your county you can then go to the appendix and I think by the time I get to the family preservation services or before I can go more quickly it's one of the largest reports so I'll start again with the annual report card and which is a state fiscal year twenty twenty one ended June thirtieth of twenty twenty one and the child abuse hotline received thirty thousand nine hundred and thirty five are accepted thirty thousand nine hundred thirty five reports twenty five thousand of those was were assigned to DCFS and then that number is broken down into investigations indifference response and DCFS investigated twenty one thousand forty nine reports of child abuse and service four thousand and twenty nine families on differential response and you will see in the family preservation services report that that is a decrease in the number of annual reports that annual yes reports of child abuse that DCFS receives moving on to page T. you can see findings of child maltreatment investigation this is also as compared as you'll see throughout the. It's report as to prior years and we were about in line of all and if true findings for all investigations there was a slight increase to twenty nine percent true findings on investigations you can see in the middle characteristics of children involved in child maltreatment investigations and then I'll note on the bottom those type of allegations that are found tree and you will see that like prior years and the glass continue to be the majority of true findings on the top of page three we report on fatalities and near fatalities involving child maltreatment and during state fiscal year twenty twenty one there were fifty three maltreatment investigations involving a child fatality there is an appendix at the back of this report that you can see additional details the law only allows us to report child fatalities in the specifics of those during certain circumstances like the criminal investigation has been completed our law enforcement houses so again these are only appendix she includes more details involving the fatalities but only if we're allowed to release those at the time that this report was created which was a couple of months ago. Reports assigned to different response you can see that we did have a decrease in state fiscal year twenty twenty one to four thousand and twenty nine but still the majority of those coming in are related to educational neglect which is at the bottom of page three. Moving on to page four we show timely initiations of child maltreatment investigations we stayed in line with prior year of all priority one and priority two child maltreatment investigations being initiated with it at about eighty five percent and just as a reminder initiation rates depend on the priority priority ones have to be initiated within twenty four hours and priority T. within seventy two hours and initiation means that we see the victim child. on timeliness of completion of those child maltreatment assessments we were at eighty one percent and that means that we conducted investigation within forty five days moving on to page five this is discussion of differential response and timely initiation we saw an increase to seventy nine percent and last year was that seventy three percent and then the bottom chart as ever timely closures I'm not asking certain about that even though report on that because are different responses where we work with the family or not as priority to make sure that those are close timely. An important factor is on page six preventing reoccurrence of maltreatment as you can see in the italics on the bottom of the chart the national standard for reoccurrence amount treatment within twelve months is at nine point one percent we stayed below that average at seven percent that means for the population who we served two years ago that we then follow that same population data wise and and look at whether they had and an additional allegation of some type of maltreatment am that that data point is also included in the family preservation report that I'll get to later and you can see that number brought down by county but I will say that fifty nine of our counties were below the national standard every occurrence amount treatment and I'll note that later on the counties that were not. I am looking at in home cases on page seven so those are cases where we investigate amount treatment we do not remove the child but we open a case and offer service to the family we had two thousand six hundred and fifty seven in home cases that involve six thousand two hundred and ninety six children as you'll note on the bottom graph on page seven we did see a slight increase was about the same as last year but over the past four years a slight increase in the number of days in which cases are open and working with the family two hundred and sixty one days. Moving on to page eight you'll see the age of children who are an in home cases and then on the bottom of page eight monthly visits that that percentage of monthly visits we made to those in home cases I frequently say that our in home cases are most vulnerable population insisting there's children is super important we did see a slight decrease at seventy three percent I'm also not that as I go through these numbers I'm not talking a lot about reason or what we're doing because on the final report that you'll see today on reducing the number of children in foster care I will go through many of the strategies and services that we have in place of the department to tackle some of these issues so I'll cover that in the very last report just trying to stay focused on the data as I go through this report. M. Page nine looks at victimization rate which is similar to a reoccurrence of maltreatment moving on to Page ten that now we're getting into foster care and we have seen eleven percent increase in the number of children in foster care over the last year you can see on the middle of the page characteristics of children in foster care and then it's important to note on the bottom of page ten admissions and and discharges comparison what you'll see in the blue as you look at the prior four years is that we continue to see a decline and kids discharging from foster care we do not see a substantial increase in fact there was it you know as slight decrease from last year to this year and entries in the foster care I'll talk more about that later but discharges are one of the leading reasons that we continue to see an increase in the number of children in foster care. Reasons for children in foster care at the top of the page eleven continued last year to be neglect and that's been the trend for many years that fifty four percent of our children that enter foster care neglect is the main one of the let reasons listed for entry into foster care you can have multiple reasons and foster at to enter foster care so it could be neglect and substance use you can have multiple reasons for coming in foster care and front and typically neglect is coupled with something else like substance misuse or substance abuse. Reasons for children discharging from foster care on the bottom of page eleven forty three percent of our kids that were in the foster care discharged to reunification or with the file parents but all also note that overall ninety three percent of the children exiting Karen Arkansas achieve permanency either by returning home or be a discharge to relatives and adoptive home or another permanent arrangement. Moving on to page twelve you can see length of time in foster care at the middle of the page is placement of children in foster care I'll talk about this many times as we go through the other reports that our priority has been to place children with relatives if they have a safe and appropriate relatives you can see that thirty seven percent of our children are placed with relatives actually if you look at the data from this month where over forty percent but this was as of the end of the state fiscal year and then you can see a breakdown of what those relative placement types are provisional are open to be foster homes but not fully open then you have relative foster homes if out of state placements caught ICPC pre adoptive placement and then other relatives adding up to that thirty seven percent but again as of last month we were over forty percent placement with relatives you can see permanency girls of the kids who were in the foster care what are they working towards permanency fifty four percent of our children have a permanency goal of reunification moving on to page thirteen this is a breakdown of how often we're seeing our kids monthly here in foster care we break it down by your case worker also known as a family service worker so eighty two percent of our kids saw a family service worker at least are documented at least one one time amount and then seeing some staff with that's a program assistant or other DC a fat **** staff ninety percent we did see a decline on the bottom of a comprehensive health assessment and most of that is due to because of it but we are back on track M. and should be getting those comprehensive assessments and timely this fiscal year moving on to page fourteen you can see siblings place together and while the last two years we've had a slight decrease we are we are over all doing better and placing siblings together at though seventy six percent of children with siblings in foster care were placed with at least one of their siblings while only fifty five percent replace with all of their siblings emplacement stability on the on the. Bottom of the page fourteen placement stability is measured by the rate of placement moves per thousand days in foster care for children who in our care over a twelve month period you'll see that the national standard is four point one T. why we've seen a decrease at five point five one this is a concerning number and something we continue to work towards. I'm permanency within twelve months this is something as a state that we have done very well with historically meaning that our children get to permanency within twelve months and we have stayed above the national average we are still above that national at national average but as I discussed earlier when discharges issue we we have seen a and decrease in the number of children who have permanency within twelve months and we're at forty two percent the national averages forty but while we're still doing better than the national average this is concerning that we continue to see a decrease in the percentage you are achieving permanency within twelve months. I'm re entries in the foster care we are below at the national and standard eight point three this data is also broke down by county and the family preservation so that you can see also all the way down to county whether your counties are doing well when it comes to re entering meaning we place a child either reunification or other some other type of permanency and then we track as to whether they have to re enter foster care to due to some type of maltreatment or some other circumstance. I am moving on to page sixteen these two pages are focused on adoption we have four hundred and twenty children that are available for adoption though if you follow as closely you know about our every day counts initiative we regularly say that we have about three hundred and forty nine children available for adoption so the difference between those two numbers is that you have to be in your pre adoptive placement for six months before you can finalize so those kids are they have a goal of adoption but they are with the family but we currently have about three hundred and forty nine children who who are in foster care have a goal of adoption and do not have a family identified today adopt them. I'm also note on the bottom of page seventeen the national average for for time from TPR to adoption and is eleven point eight minds we are now exceeding that at twelve point three minds and I will talk later on when I get to the last report about our everyday counts initiative in our focus on M. a reducing the time from termination to adoption. Looking at page eighteen you can see the number of adoptions finalized for state fiscal year in line with mine at conversation about discharge issues we have seen a decrease in the number of adoptions finalized as we finalize seven hundred and thirty two obviously Covin made a substantial impact on the decrease of number of adoptions finalized and again I'll talk about that later you can see on the bottom of the page eighteen subsidize adoption so in Arkansas kids qualified they are either eligible for subsidized federal adoption or a subsidized state adoption and those are just that adoptive parents receive the board rate at which they were receiving while the children are in foster care and if the child is eligible they can receive Medicaid they're not all children receive Medicaid so during state fiscal year twenty twenty one seven hundred and nineteen children began receiving adoption subsidies of those seven hundred T. or federally funded and seventeen or state funded. And then overall during state fiscal year eight thousand and thirty three children received adoption subsidies that number becomes important around budget times because as you will see we actually find more children in adoptions and adoption subsidies than we do in foster care I'm looking at page nineteen you can see a breakdown of all the types of cases you can see about the at the end of state fiscal year and during the state fiscal year so a point in time as the top not reference number and the bottom char is how many children in cases we had during the entire state fiscal year so I will just note I always like to note this on in home cases we serve thirteen thousand three hundred and sixty seven children whereas in foster care we serve seven thousand six hundred and fourteen children so we are serving more children in their home then we are in foster care. Moving on to page twenty M. that that is our average case load I will note that as of last night statewide we saw on and a continued increase in case leads to twenty four AM at the bottom of page twenty O. C. number of foster homes and beds and we are staying steady around foster homes and beds we are able to serve the children that we have in foster care because we are increasing the number of places we are making a safe and appropriate relative. M. and then also on the bottom of page twenty one U. okay you'll see the percentage of foster families with true reports of mount as maltreatment meaning that there is an allegation of child abuse or neglect in the foster parent home the rest of the annual report card Page twenty three on is a Pentax an additional numbers related to the statewide numbers in the beginning of the report and then I also want to point out as I move on to other reports there are you'll want to note that on the beginning at the front page of the annual report card there is an area map that list out the areas in the counties you'll also see that map in the gear it's our report and the family preservation you might want to keep that at the top of your pol because several of the reports as I continue to go through them our charts based on area and so you'll want to have that in front of you say you can reference what counties I'm referring to when I say area tier area nine. Tell me stop for questions or just keep going. Yes thank you Six seed eighty who's who's sitting there. Senator Hammer senator Hammer. Thank you ma'am share on the number of educational neglect cases are you able to distinguish how many of those are attributed to because of the COVID situation versus just a normal day to day. Attendance neglect issues your deal with prior to code. No we are on track and in that way but I will say that for educational neglect it can't just be it's got to be habitual absences that affects the child's ability to learn so even if the school is calling related to COVID absences they do have to link it up with prior educational performance but I'm not able to pull out data that says it's COVID specific or not code specific okay a follow up manager yes on page eleven. Of your report. The comment you made so if you get a child. That there's an investigation and say they have neglect issues but they also have substance abuse issues. Do they count as one and collect and one in substance abuse or is it just placed in one of those categories and how do you make the determination which category they go in right so the worker document the worker can document multiple categories when they're putting entire case management system called crass so this data is based on what that worker or the investigator list as a rate reason I case management system so if it's in a glass full sisters situation and the parent is using drugs and that's you know tied up with the neglectful situation they would click by this and both and then this report would have that child in both categories so what's the true number then if because by added up the column of all those numbers and came to a total that wouldn't necessarily represent the number being investigated right. So I'm not sure I'm phone Senator Hammer apologize but the total number on the right is not a hundred percent it it adds up to more because some kids are counted more than one time and those are kids that in our foster care so I could we could break out the number and it's not here but we could break out like if it was important to you we could pull some data and look at how many of this total injuries in the foster care like we can look and say fifty of them had three reasons listed seventy had for reasons out force probably know much but you know Hendren had to reasons listed if that's the interest. But the total number of Senator Hammer let me move on I've got set the table in the queue I'm a put you back in. Representa Springer. You're right good morning to me thank you madam chair I just want for the record to be clear as to where you're giving your numbers from you are your numbers coming from which report that would used to tell me because some of the number that you're calling off that I'm not able I was not able to follow you with respect to what was status so if you would please. Tell me which report you're reading I'm looking at the annual report card in a report card I believe you know state fiscal year twenty twenty one it should be on that the top I believe I'm going in order okay so that the the split the annual physical year yes eight twenty one okay our all right then and so some of those numbers that you were calling we're not. I was trying to follow along with you so. I understand now but you know they're off a bit like for instance last when you stated about the average case load oh oh yes so the average so that's what I was sent so the average case load in the in a report card said this report was as a Jean as at twenty twenty one and it says in the grass that at the end of Jean that the average case load was twenty two point eight let me get twenty two point eight and you're given to date well as of last month as of last month we hit twenty four I write so I work okay thank you so the record is clear then that your number those slightly different from the ones that are in this report that we have right right well it's the same numbers this is a different point in time yes exactly yes a different point in time Senator Clark. Thank you madam chair of the director on page twenty of on the average case load. The. We're all affected by a not been able to find employees how much is the that here how many open. Search spots do you have not filled yes it definitely is affected by or turnover and I cover that in debt the not last report that we currently have as of last week I should say as of last week we had a hundred and ninety eight vacancies and that does not mean that hundred and ninety eight agencies does not count the new positions at the legislature of pre I believe that was last week or two weeks ago so that does not include the new positions that were pre hundred ninety eight. So the people are approved you just haven't been able to find that's so they're leaving ISIS faxes we can try and fill them actually they're leaving them there leading us faster than we can try to feel them but yes all nine hundred and ninety eight positions are posted are out we don't have any type of hiring freeze we don't have any type of hold on physicians we are actively trying to hire create retain our staff story. Of if I may ask another yes of on page ten. Of. Dressmaking crease and. Of children in foster care or at least I think that's a drug taking as a drastic increase can you rehearse with me again the reason. Yes so M. was Senator Clark do you mind and so the last report of the day is on reducing the number of children in foster care and we and I go through like everything related to the increase but I will say the majority of the increase of children in foster care is related to discharges were not meeting children to permanency as quickly and there are COVID reasons their workforce reasons I do cover them in the last report that may answer that I'll be glad work up manager I have more questions will be glad to get back into I thank you a representative Crawford. Thank you madam chair hi. just on page fourteen On the sampling groups. I mean we're doing well at seventy six percent but we're going down from twenty eighteen can you explain that. Yet what one of the reasons is the increased number of children in foster care adds we increase the number of children who are in foster care placements get tougher that's that's the that's the truth and so that's a good reason for a slight decrease M. we haven't seen a more substantial decrease because we are utilizing relatives and relatives are more likely to take in a sibling grief M. but it placements are struggle right now and with this with an eleven percent increase the number of children in foster care okay in a follow up please yes Page eighteen can you just give me the rundown and maybe I should know this what are those substitute that that that adoptions what do they get substance ice with okay so as subsidy and of course it's complicated but as subsidy is the same as the Board if the child qualifies which you I'll read that qualifications here on the left the seventies are given to children with special needs and special needs is defined as Caucasian over nine AfricanAmerican at least two at least two members of a sibling great children who have severe medical or psychological needs that require ongoing treatment children at high risk for development of serious physical mental or emotional conditions documented by medical professional and what that subsidy is is that if the child is determined to be special needs and meet the qualifications as being for each eligible for E. as the federal law under the Social Security Administration act and a child is determined for E. at the time of removal so at the time of removal they have to be determined contrary to the welfare to remaining care and they have to you me that eligibility income appearance eligibility income requirements if they come in the foster care and are determined to be for it for the eligible if at the time of adoption they also. So meet the special needs criteria then they're eligible for a federal adoption subsidy which will be the same as the Board rate that the pre adoptive here is getting so bored great you know if it's a standard board rate we have a whole chart for that been around four hundred to five hundred dollars of mine unless they meet additional criteria to get increase for great and is there for each eligible they are also eligible for foster care Medicaid until they're eighteen if they were not determined to be for each eligible at the beginning of the case but their special needs eligible then there they could be eligible for a state subsidy which means the state pays with St John revenue that monthly subsidy equal to their board payment they would not be automatically eligible for Medicaid but the family could apply for Medicaid based on other criteria the local DHS office okay thank you. I'm seeing a couple of other questions I'm wondering if we should go ahead to the next report and then pick those up if that's okay with everybody that's in the queue because I'm thinking the next report may answer some of those questions maybe not though the next report but I think at the very last report goes over a lot of things do you want me to skipping of the last report if you would and then let them back at that victory thank you okay so I'm gonna skip and go to the very last report let me just say the page they're very. Reducing the number of children in foster care this okay thank you thank you for calling that. Everybody finding that. Very bottom. Is there is to be the very last thing in your pile. I'm at the top it says every day counts. Ours is not blue irises others aren't all right if you look at electronically okay. Okay this is going to have the answer to all of our questions I don't know about that but. Hopefully it will get us going in the right direction said this report was submitted as a response to ACT five seventy four of the last M. session has senator hinderance act which required us to submit a report about what strategies and practices we are doing to reduce the number of children in foster care so I will walk through this report and in the spring of twenty sixteen Arkansas foster care was experiencing crisis we actually saw a decrease a substantial decrease in the number of children in foster care and you can see that on page one if you look at the bottom chart so we didn't we implemented lots of strategies we had a plan we saw a decrease in the number of children in foster care really related to discharges and then COVID it S. and I still see on page two from the time that COVID really started we started seeing an increase in the number of children in foster care and as I've already stated on comparison at the bottom of page two we started seeing declines in the number of children who are discharging from foster care so the factors that really led to those declines in discharges or around turn over workforce all talk about that a little bit on page three you can see our turnover grass I'm in the middle of the page our two main positions that serve children if it we all serve children and family but the two main positions you what we call front line in the home transporting kids working cases our family service workers known as M. M. or we call them case workers but they're titled family service workers and our program assistance as you can see in the graph in the middle of the page while we have always had high turnover in the last fiscal year both where over sixty percent turnover and in Klasky county for a family service workers. Experienced over a hundred percent turnover and if you ask me how over a hundred percent turnover it means that we had a position turn over more than once in a fiscal year. As I mentioned the Senator Clark we currently have a hundred and ninety eight vacant positions at DCFS and so we are struggling to hire and retain our staff and COVID has had a substantial impact on our work force we have quarantine over at thirteen hundred staff on any given day we only have all of DCFS is just over one thousand and our field staff is right at nine hundred and so and that's not something that's all fields I'm sorry that's all field staff about nine hundred so since COVID started we have had more workers quarantine then we actually have workers and so and that includes the number of children and the number of workers who were also positive for covid and that's important because as you're not only trying to hire retain train and you what we are also our staff is dealing with the impact of workers being out of the office so if they're out of the office for two weeks or ten days then the rest of the staff has to pick up and what we can do you a lot of remote work there's a lot of work that can't happen it remotely when it seeing children are visiting foster homes initiating investigation so that's also led to you know a lot of burnout and turnover among the other staff in the counties and historically when we have had a county in crisis we send count we send people from other areas to help and that crisis. We've had trouble doing that even though we have done that right now there's I have and eighty nine staff at central office thirty eight of them are serving cases what we're doing case work in Pulaski County to help with the crisis in plastic County and most of my central office staff are child maltreatment registry staff finance staff and release of information and many of which don't even have field work but we have sent them to transport to supervised visits to try and help out with the crisis in Pulaski County. I'm as I've already mentioned we've seen increases in caseloads deeded the turnover in the increased number of children in foster care but all you can see that they're on page for the case load and this was as of the end of September the caseload had gone up to twenty four point nine. And moving into kind of the things that we are doing to prevent children from coming into foster care and better serve so if this is pre pandemic things talking about family first prevention services act and the federal government passed the family first prevention services act and it went into effect in October one and two thousand nineteen Arkansas was the third state to gain approval for its four year it's five year title for a prevention plan and we were the first state in the nation to receive federal funding for our prevention programs which I will talk about intensive in home services we have been and are very committed to offering evidence based prevention services and much so that we led the nation and received independent systematic review on three programs and again receipt was the first in the nation to receive federal funding for those programs which also was a huge benefit when COVID happen as part of the the code legislation the federal government at a hundred percent federal funding on evidence based prevention services so we were the only state in the nation that received a hundred percent federal funding for a period of time for this prevention services you'll see those listed out on page five which it we call intensive in home services that are provided by three providers and their evidence based models are intercept and are a youth advocacy program and I wanna make sure I get this data right seminary ET we implemented initially in thirty seven counties based on finding any year to year comparison completed for both the thirty seven counties that offered intensive in home as well as the thirty eight counties or services are unavailable the thirty seven counties offering intensive in home services saw over all entries into the foster care declined by twenty four percent from two thousand eighteen to two thousand twenty fewer injuries were observed for the twenty nine of thirty seven counties are seventy eight percent. In comparison the thirty eight counties were intensive in home services are unavailable or not offered saw overall injuries in the care at by nearly twenty one percent a lower number of entries were is there for just sixteen of the thirty eight counties that forty two percent so that's why this is only one data point we're already seeing and the additional data says that collectively the cap the thirty seven counties that have intensive in home also saw at collectively decline and number of children in foster care where as the thirty eight counties that do not have intensive in home make up the bulk of increase in number of children in foster care well not conclusive evidence we are showing that intensive in home services is working and it has been embraced by our staff and so we did expand to a couple of counties including Pulaski in Jefferson at the beginning of this state fiscal year and we will be asking in our state fiscal year twenty three budget for additional funding and support to expand to a greater portion of the state. we also implemented triple paid the University of Arkansas had been offering a program called nurturing families and why we like to nurturing families nurturing families was not eligible for the fifty fifty match under forty so we work closely with them and they implemented triple P. M. which has been hugely successful each of these different programs that talk about is required by the feds to have an evaluation and so we have a contract with UAMS to do an evaluation on each of these programs. As part of family first we also we're focused on well let me step back we believe in doing what's right for children we agree with the logic of family first by asking only first we also focus on reducing the number of children in foster care I mean I'm sorry reducing the number in congregate care and part of that main focus was that we had to focus on doing what's right for kid and kids and increase our placement of children with relatives both as a first placement and throughout foster care so you'll see on page six we have increased the number of children with relatives and to forty seven percent and that number is as of the last number of false at as of the last day in September I'm getting tongue tied I apologize that's also important when looking at the number of reducing the number of children in foster care because as you'll move on to page eight and before I get to page eight also note that we are thirty seven point five percent of our children he it enter foster care their first placement is with a relative and that is on page seven but why is it important to note relatives when talking about reducing the number of children in foster care because our own data shows that kids who are placed with relatives have better out pounds since starting at page eight this is Arkansas data of children in foster care places relatives you can see and believe when first placement with relatives and gray is first placement with non relatives they are substantially they have substantially lower rate of placements so they are more stable and their placement substantially two point five two U. versus six point seven percentage of children entering foster care who achieve permanency within twelve minds our kids who are places relatives they they receive permit see more timely than our our children who are not and I'll also note while not in this report our children placed with relatives have a lower rate of maltreatment than any other type of play. A cement they are less likely to be maltreated in that than any other type of placement including foster care and we have that is the part that will not included in this report. And continuing to move online talking about family first in our reduction of Children and concrete Care and while we did redo our contracts related to a qualified residential treatment programs we all have also contracted with providers for private lessons placement agency to increase increase placement in foster homes where there is a relative so that those private lesson placement agencies can support those foster homes and taken siblings and kids that are discharging from Q. RT. Okay moving on to Page ten AM other initiatives that we have put in place to try and safely reduce the number of children in foster care one of our biggest initiatives M. well let me just say this and even on the bottom of page ten and we implemented initiative called every day counts in March of twenty twenty one who losing track of years twenty twenty one and are every day counts initiative is an initiative to not only put out the message related to workers we did sets specific goals to really work with the sense of urgency to do what is right for kids and there's T. and focus within crisis it's easy to focus on the crisis of the day but with our everyday counts initiative it was our way of saying aye we have to focus on on to big things and that safety and permanency so far safety back it on the on page ten we have safety organize practice which is an evidence based practice model to give our staff the tools to properly assess safety and not just properly assess safety at the beginning of the case when we're investigating but to properly assess safety throughout the duration of the case whether the child in foster care and it's a set of tools we did a ten week wrote training session we had to be creative during because of it we can bring everybody together and frankly it's hard to set through long training so for ten weeks we did videos and everybody including me watch thirty to forty five minute training videos on safety organize practice in those tools we're now in the phase of doing deep dive so ten weeks probably not a good take completely change a culture a complete change of model so we're now in the middle of what we call deep dives and then every every office gets a deep dive with the coach into how are they implementing the safety tools into their individual cases and I can go on for two hours about safe. The organized practices structure decision making but I would just leave it there the other part of every day counts it's permanency so moving on to page eleven we set to specific goals focusing on children that have been in care at least ten months with the goal every reunification and children that had the least three documented visits with their parents to try and focus in on targeted cases to see if we could coach and mentor our local workers and move those kids to reunification if appropriate but if not appropriate then move those kids to a different type of permanency you'll see on the grass in the middle of page eleven we have continued to see an increase in the number of children whose goal is reunification but is more than twelve months of the Green Line is fifteen to twenty four months whereas the Orange Line is they have been in care more than twenty four months that chart and graph is apart we have why brought pieces but I didn't ring how the every month we have a set of charts and data that we put out related to our every day counts initiative so it's not just about messaging but we're looking at the numbers indeterminate are we moving the needle related to reunification and adoption and then on the page twelve which ties back into what we're talking about in the annual report card we're focused on reducing the time from termination to adoption so what you see on the middle of the page twelve is a graph we break out adoptions and is it a foster parent adoption where the child was placed at the foster parent throughout the case and now the foster community is adopting is that a relative adoption same thing so they're with their relative and now termination is happen are they adopted or is it other adoptions and why that's important is we should be much faster. To finalize an adoption related to a foster parent or relative where the child has been there throughout the duration of the case verses where the child it does have a goal of adoption but no family is identified and so we wanted to track the time it's taking from termination to adoption we set some lofty goals of three months and so you can see there in September for our foster parent adoptions we were at four months meaning termination happened so from termination to finalizing the adoption statewide average was four mines for relatives is six point format sets the Green Line and then other adoptions where there may or may not have been identified adoptive family we were at six point three months this chart gets brought down by areas so that every area can see we do have some areas excelling and meeting that three month goal area to you is one of them right now they are really excelling an area for I believe are excelling at meeting those girls so that's part of our everyday accounts and then you may have saw that we have a partnership with project zero for every day so hopefully you've seen or billboards are Yard signs on our every day counts initiative but we did a relaunch of our every day counts for September October November because this month this national adoption mine and our amazing partners project zero am came to us and wanted to partner with us for every line and so they're doing targeting messages they have also set a goal to do a short film for every child that doesn't have an identified family which is which is amazing they also do our heart gallery and they receive no funding for mass there solely funded on nonprofit if you would like to see our children who are available for adoption you can go to the project zero dot org click on the heart gallery they have professional photos of our children who are available for adoption and they have set a goal to have a short found so that our children have a voice And you can see those at the projects zeroed out word heart gallery and we are working closely with them and to have to try and support their mission of getting a short found and for every youth by that by the end which is a lot of coordination logistics and time and effort to get kids to short films and organize that you can also see on page thirteen and so we tracked not only the time from TV our state option but the total number of adoptions finalized and we break that down as well we did see a decrease in September of telephone number of adoptions finalized. I'm hoping that in October November you're going to see an increase I met with adoption workers and staff across the state last week and basically they told me September was a lower amount because November is national adoption month so we're trying to I suspect we'll see a large volume this month and also and we have great partnerships with the judiciary and the court they're on fire for our everyday accounts and they have lots I know when area one county has a over twenty set to finalize in January so there's great work happening related to our everyday counts initiative and then lastly the last thing that I want to talk about we started at the beginning with work for it but what are we doing to actually strength that our work force during this crisis so over the last few months with the support of you on the legislature we have implemented several strategies to try and status stabilizer work work work force both from recruitment to retention and those include previously our staff and had to date two hundred and forty hours of comp time before they were paid overtime we have done away with that requirement we have so many new staff they are now eligible to get paid for overtime as they accrue it. We have implemented with your support approval implemented at what we call an on call standby pay as you may know we had a comprehensive organizational health assessment in two thousand and nineteen we had over ninety percent of our workers respond to that organizational health assessment one of the number one reason that they listed that they are leading us is because of on call responsibility we must have someone on call and twenty four seven we respond to law enforcement responded foster parents we respond to anything related to our children in foster care anything related to community needs so we must have staff across the stay on call twenty four seven and so previously workers got paid overtime if they responded but now with on cost and by they will be paid twenty percent of their I really rate for every hour they're on call if they respond to an incident they get paid overtime if their eligible for overtime but if they work forty hours a week their eligible for overtime and if not they get paid straight time and there's a two hour minimum that state policy so if He's been required to work on call but they're what you call exempt employees are not eligible for overtime they will now get paid twenty percent of their hourly rate for on call duties and they get paid straight time if they respond to an incident and have to go to the office to help with the placement crisis have to you know help with whatever is happening on call so um call and it is fully implemented workers have seen it on their paycheck now and and so that is a huge huge effort to support our staff and we also implemented the girl read for our program assistance and which are GSF three days there are front line as I mentioned earlier so they received a one time pay increase based on where they fell on the grid that was put into place by the office of personnel management based on career service M. years at the state and then we up to the entry rate for program assistance from twenty six thousand to twenty eight five and hopes to be able to recruit more program assistant. For our family service occurs again with your approval we implemented a career service ladder so um family service workers will continue to start entry because they're in training from anywhere from nine to twelve months and they're not carrying a full caseload so they'll continue to injury which is thirty six one fifty five but then once they complete classroom training and they will get a seven percent increase so as of September nineteenth every family service worker hit completed classroom training that the seven percent increase in a month to month basis as family as more family service workers complete training they will get a seven percent increase beginning next year. Any family service worker who has worked for us for three years and demonstrates excellence in practice and practice and has at least one person in the community whether that's a legal stakeholder or placement provider give them support that they have demonstrated excellence in practice they will be eligible for a ten percent increase and become a family service worker specialist so it's a career ladder to incentivize them to stay with that post training and then stay with us three years for another ten percent raise so hopefully that will help us retain some additional staff we also have asked for a hundred and seventy four new positions over three years the legislature approved the first round part of the first round as I mentioned a couple weeks ago tomorrow here will be asking for approval for another forty two positions that we're getting from our sister division the eighty S. and then we'll be asking for a second round of positions and are and R. at twenty three budget request M. as you can probably tell from the numbers that you haven't fully seen yet but you will see more in the family services preservation report we have a crisis in Pulaski County you'll fully see that as I go through that report so we have implemented some specific strategies in Pulaski County because they are in from they are impacting the entire state much like we saw with Sebastian County five years ago which by the way they are doing amazing but five years ago or almost six M. plus Sebastian was suffering a crisis in the crisis as Sebastian was impacting the rest of this state Sebastian is doing well they have turned a corner we are now seeing a crisis probably worse than what was even Sebastian in Pulaski we have to focus on our attention on Pulaski to try and get them stable but also reduce the impact that they're having on other counties and lasting impact on other counties every child is placed out of state as a secondary worker we have workers from other counties helping with transport we have kids place in other County so again. In Pulaski is having a substantial impact on the entire state specific strategies we are implementing a teaming approach was the new positions as well as you guys approved at the last LC a contract with public knowledge one of the leading consultants across that nation it's the former children's beer commissioner Dr Miller as well as David Kelly to work in Pulaski specifically focus on systems transformation to reduce the number of children in foster care that contract has again and they are meeting with stakeholders to gather information currently. I think I think that's for that report I mean there's other seven that's actually the high level of of that report represent five would you like me to take questions yes we have several Senator Hendren. Thank you madam chair thank you director Martin for your work on this reported it did address two things in the in the act that we ask the agency to report but I have a couple questions you know the whole purpose of this is so that not to criticize the great work that you all are doing but to ask what resources you need to be able to take it back the other direction and a significant amount and I know this is the beginning reported we're gonna get to those specific recommendations and request later and I think I got some of the information from your testimony there you said you started paying out between thirty six and thirty nine K. for for the workers case workers is that correct starting pay continues to be injury at thirty six one fifty five right and then they get the seven person right and then after three years ten percent correct yes if they if they demonstrate excellent practice. Right right and I guess the is there is our discussions going on about increasing that more with inflation like it is ten percent going to beaten up in about sixteen months I'm sure we need to have that conversation at at some point so between the greeted on call and and program assistance that's going to cost the Division about fourteen in overtime about fourteen million is our projection so our thoughts right now are that we need to see what works and see if it if our first steps before we make an additional request but I do think that that needs to be a part of the conversation in the future what is the approximately the total budget for DCFS for the foster care program an appropriation is I believe two hundred fifty million. Okay and has that how is that increased or decreased over the last the six years at so I won't be able to give you the specific number off the top of my head but we from you guys to support the governor's support we have had significant increases from when I became director and till now but I don't want to give you the wrong number but it's somewhere between I believe the actual budget not appropriation was about a hundred and seventy four million on I started and I don't give you the wrong number but it's over two hundred million now actual funding I appropriation okay and and chairman this this might be for you or for the staff because I think this is again if you look at the act one of the things the committee is required to do is to look at how we compare to other states and I know that what the tasking of your report there are some bass lines to national averages but one of the purposes of it is to say what is our rate just like we do with code what is our rate per hundred thousand people a foster kids and what state has the lowest rate and what are they doing differently and I guess what I would ask the chair of the staff is do we have some sort of plan to get that kind of information we can ask the agency did or B. L. R. to do order contract with a consultant and we had those type of discussions we do wait this was our initial step is to get the information from a director Martin and then we're going to look at what else we need to do and what BLR can do and what we need may need to use some of our budget to bring in an outside consultant to help us get that information that this was what we want to do first all right from here the I. thank you and that's that's what I thought again as I look at it the two items that lives we're supposed to be in your report you covered which is basically what are you doing today and then I guess what I would ask the agency to begin to think about is as we get this information the the purpose stated purpose of this is how do we drive that number down significantly or dizzy wrote I know zero may be unrealistic with the with the turn but what I would ask you to be due. Thing is the agency is. Particularly as we start talking about special sessions for tax cuts and everything else and we have a budget surplus like we've not seen in a long time what would it take I noticed you said you're not spending anything with project zero I think all of us are familiar no the great work they do with their videos in the films and I I mean if you have seen that on Facebook you have miss one most powerful things for foster care that there are so what is it what do we do with the resources that we gave them to you to take it from five thousand kids down to thousand I mean that's what I would ask you to be thinking about give us those type it save you want to do it here's what's going to cost so we can make some informed decisions thank you manager thank you a representative Mayberry. Thank you madam chair I'm just curious if it and if you can just give a little bit more detail I think you said forty two positions would possibly be moving over from DDS and. I I want to make sure we're not taking away services from the department of developmental disabilities what positions are those are what what are those positions that would go away because I know that people with disabilities need services as well so this kind of give me a little bit of angst help me feel better about it yes so I'm I'm absent yeah I came from that for sourcing at that a division of developmental disabilities services I'm very passionate about making sure our kids have services I would not want to take away from them they have some positions that they have been unable to get feel and they can't see that they're gonna be able to they've been trying to fill them they do not predict that they're gonna be able to get them filled and before the next state fiscal year so we're actually just borrowing them until the beginning of fiscal year twenty thirty and then we're asking for the positions for us in our next budget year but because they can't seem to get them that they had asked and I want to speak out here but they had asked for a significant number and so just with hiring and turnover they're not gonna be able to fill those between now and United twenty twenty two so it's basically will bar them until we can get them in the next fiscal year twenty three. Can I follow yes can you give me an idea of what those positions are what are I believe that people do I don't speak for DDS and tell you that for us they're all GSO threes program assistance I don't know off the top of my head what they're title that but we will be at pier tomorrow talking about it I was trying to prepare for all these reports today I apologize okay thank you. Representative Clark at cheesy Senator Clark. Thank you madam chair of. Trump zero in here on a couple questions the. Your search currently have a hundred ninety eight open positions yes Sir not counting the new positions then that's as a and that's of a as of last week. Well that will that's from a report questions okay you have a hundred ninety eight open positions and you know my support and you need a hundred seventy eight new ones I'm I'm having a hard time. I guess it over. Okay over three years and and I said the same thing six months ago as far as I'm not gonna ask for new positions if I can't feel the ones that I have but I've changed my team because you know obviously obviously and because you while we have a hundred and ninety eight across the state we need so we need we're asking specifically for the seventy two this year to focus on Pulaski said the first seventy two you are going to Pulaski I can't pull the other vacant positions we are hiring as fast as we can put them out rights it's not the same hundred and ninety eight Sitting so I can't pull those hundred and ninety eight two do have focused on Pulaski I need new positions to be able to focus and higher at a keep hiring as fast as I can have. Do you have in place can help them attain. So as of last week last Wednesday. Twenty six. Twenty six. And you said you need seventy two. That's right okay so you need almost fifty more. Then the twenty five you don't have right now of those twenty six I did not bring we so we're closely monitoring Pulaski and every single hiring has we track it all the way through the hiring process what I did not bring in cannot tell you off the top of my head I can get you later is like where are we on all twenty six of those positions like half of them could have higher packet some of them could have start dates you know so we are trying to hire as fast as we can put them out and we have struggled to to hire program assistants and plaster county was starting pay of twenty six we did like we talked to people that we were as we are planning to ask for more program assistant positions really if the entry whereas RES could we find people the book of the seventy two positions are program assistance his or wanting implemented teaming approach it's not just more case workers said there are some more case workers checking give you that number. But so with an increase entry rate of twenty eight five we believe that we'll be able to hire I am. It's going to be tough to hire all these positions but I need the positions to be able to increase the number of staff in Pulaski County to implement a teaming up presents so the Bill. Got a handle on what the problem is in plastic. Yes and no yes the problem is like a snowball effect right so I mean it's definitely as things get worse as more caseworker leave you have a higher case load as you have a higher case load more workers leave As You don't have new evidence you don't have trained not just workers with glossy providers and Lasky as you don't have trained workers and supervisors cases don't get work which means we which also implies the county you'll see this number later on in the family preservation report I'll just give it to you now which is we have seen an eighty eight percent increase in foster care population since November of twenty nineteen so and November of twenty nineteen there were three hundred and sixty four children as of the end of last as of last week apple the number there were seven hundred and eight children in foster care in Pulaski County so you have this snowball effect happening and we have to get enough people to stabilize we've also you know this is an ongoing for two years and just gotten worse but we have brought people in from other counties we have brought people in from central I have lost more people as I brought people into trying work so if we can't get people hired and onboarded Pulaski which I need more positions to be able to hire and get people on board I'm not gonna be able to stabilize the county let me ask this question for you and also for the legislature to hear. Of because we're resistant to this an education for chemistry teachers and but. They are there times when one location of specific pay of is needed. So what maybe and we we have talked about that I will say that the crisis in Pulaski County. It money is not the solution though we have been doing what we call exceptionally well qualified for experienced staff who are willing to come and take some of the hardest positions so like I'll just share one of the positions that I'm hiring for a county supervisor we have a lady was working at center office prior case where military experience if she was going to take that county office she won an exceptionally well qualified which you deserve so that's an additional fifteen percent so we're doing some things in Pulaski County when we recognize that we have experienced people who are up for the task of paying them extra when they take the position. Okay I'll get back in the queue manager thank you okay members I want everyone to get their questions answered but we do have several more things that we're going to be doing today and remember that director Martin is always available I have found her to be readily accessible to not only myself but to all committee members when you need specific questions answered so we may not have time to get everybody today but that doesn't mean that this is the only time we can ask questions right Number eighty is that senator Hammer. Thank you measure just two quick questions somewhere in the material did we I was looking for those that age out and tracking can you just is that going to come later can you just point it to me and I believe that it's included in the number you just one second. I'm page eleven of the annual report card that's the first winner presented if you look at page eleven okay number of discharges we had a a hundred and seventy eight eight children that age out of care as and six percent of our kids okay new law was passed that we would track or that we would allow them to get back in each year is that data that you're tracking or is that something you could add to the list M. S.. It's not in any of these reports that I believe that we can track. Kids that come back and take care okay I don't have it on in front of me but I think we can pull that followed manager yes thank you on I noticed there were like four hundred and sixteen a loss the page number now but a notice where there's like four hundred sixty that have gotten out of foster care and three hundred something was left up to the you know it's not like this adopted kid they got out it was that just got out are you are you finding it. What what are the reasons why people are getting out of fostering because it seems like a high number that I saw one of the pages foster parent sorry one following the first taking foster you're asking me why our foster parents leaving us yes okay M. I think that we have an appendix. We we have an appendix and one of the report that listed in numerical reason it's appendix K. on page forty we track this is a generic reason but you can see here by county foster home closure reasons and the reason that we track and this would be as reported by the foster home to that resource worker and then the resource worker documents that recent increase increase our case management system so so change of speed in the circumstances thirty six four hundred and seven foster families decision no longer meets requirements which means that they weren't they didn't want to keep up their licensing requirements seventy five they adopted custody or guardianship relative only a hundred and eighty there was an abuse of found it I found it that we close them there was one of those And provider services no longer needed one twenty seven okay I guess was waters are is is there anything we need to be doing we're doing all this to get additional workers and so we don't have to put the kids in foster care but what we do and to retain the foster families and and not lose them out of the system thank you manager. Representatives of it skews me senator garner. Thank you madam chair earlier you said that the last two years both legislators and the governor has given you extensive increase in funding is that correct I don't have as an extensive but we have received an increase in funding okay in a scene from you discussion earlier when you discuss class council said that is not a fun issue that's driving these complications seems be other issues is that correct for salary of employees okay because I seem to be thinking from reading your report in the future about ways to solve this problem we always go this kinda lazy thinking appeared if we throw more money at the problem that's what's going to solve it and I think that's kind of a backward way to think about this I think that we always talk about giving more money or funding as a way to solve all these problems whenever we see over and over again that not being the touch all or a silver bill a golden boy what we think it is so I'm interested to see if you can give more concrete details on either changing laws make things more acceptable for parents to encourage more people and not just go that is kind of tired and true method up here we hear throw more money at the problem that's going to solve it thank you respond. I completely agree with your logic I will say historically we have funded foster care and even from the Federal standpoint the forty funding before the family services prevention act funded yet we receive funding for children in foster care portion if they were eligible that's complicated I'm gonna make it simple but as a state and in the last few years we have invested more significantly in prevention but as a state I think that we have to invest in getting more Blake head of the crisis and head of the child coming in the foster care which we we have done with the button the money in the budget that you have given us is fine intensive in home services and evidence based at some point we have to get fit to families before they're in crisis before the abuse or neglect happens to try and prevent children from coming in foster care because foster care is very expensive to the state. Thank you and director Martin we're going to hold over the biannual overturned investigations report and the garance low referrals our next meeting hi yes ma'am thank you okay thank you so much thank you for your report today. and not that also would be the family preservation services report for twenty twenty one. The whole those over for our December meeting thank you thank you next we have Arkansas state police crimes against children division quarterly oversight reports with major drew. Major drew we have your annual report and also your quarterly reports if you want to put those all into one because the quarterly reports with the sharing the same information that's in the annual report. Yes well that work. Yes yes ma'am I'll be fine thank you and you're recognized. The morning chair committee major Jeff through. Amanda CCD crimes against children division going to the annual report I'll apologize for the oversight in the page number but what we had a few key points in and it. Behind that section one hotline your notice in. Two thousand twenty the hotline received fifty seven thousand five hundred sixty six calls which was nine thousand eight hundred fifty four less than twenty nineteen. N. twenty twenty number of except reports were for investigations increased by five thousand three hundred and eighty. The. But from those numbers at where we are now with with two months remaining. The for total calls received we're. We're under the fifty seven five sixty six by four thousand seven hundred ninety and the investigations Six hundred thirty six below where we were for the entire year of twenty twenty. And everything that follows after that the graph page were basically break down the calls that that was or was received I apologize. And we'll move into the. Investigative section which a section to. Which has a quality breakdown of the investigations and then beneath that will show the property one allegations every received in that those those referrals. Them to the next phase you see out of the. Probably one allegations three thousand eight hundred and nine of those were the sexually related offenses which is seventy four percent of those. And the Investigation close was five thousand seven hundred nineteen two thousand one hundred fifty six of those were found true which was a thirty eight percent substantiation rate. Mentos allegations the property when allegations are listed in annex next page in in a couple pages after that will be the property to allegations. Any questions from the annual report. I'm not seeing any questions at this time I think we had a couple of months that were not included in the annual report if you would go over those that would be January through March twenty twenty one and April through June twenty twenty one because the annual report was for twenty twenty. Right down to twenty twenty one haven't been completed yet of the one I can attest L.. Okay were there any questions representative Springer did you have a question. Thank you madam chair not for this report I had questions for the previous Reports but I'll I'll take care of that at the all right I'll just thank you. Thank you very much our next I'll go into the April through June quarterly. Those on page three. M.. We've got the colder season received and accepted with sixteen thousand three hundred sixty six within this period nine thousand two hundred fifty those were accepted S. the CD hello one thousand seven hundred seven of the except the coals DCFS handle six thousand and ninety five and one thousand four hundred fifty six. As for differential responses. And on page four for the those three months of April may and June you'll see the break down of those allegations. Page five which show the numbers for the that we receive reporting from mandated reporters. Which was a ten thousand two hundred fifty eight. In on page six U. S. C. a monthly breakdown of the case is open in case close within a three month period there were one thousand six hundred nineteen cases open one thousand five hundred thirteen closing out of that five hundred thirty five of those were found true this is substantiation rate of thirty five percent we presently have two thousand two hundred and from that period we have two thousand two hundred ninety cases that active and ninety six there were over forty five days. Okay just seven and eight you know it's a breakdown by county of those referrals. So you bill to see what what's in your area and and see what what we've got going there. Okay just ten and eleven. For freight that reflect the allegation takes and the victim age group. And out of those there were one thousand forty fifty six alleged victims of all then the one thousand five eighty one referrals assign the CCD. Ages twelve through twenty two shows the relationships of the alleged offender the victims and age groups of the alleged offender is. And beginning on page twenty four will be a break down of the judicial judicial districts prosecuting attorneys the cases submitted. Rescues. Broken down by the client file then pending if you look at the bottom of page thirty one. Are you still there were five hundred and eighty three try to submit it two hundred and forty of those a file forty one percent the two hundred seventeen with ending thirty seven percent and total decline was a hundred twenty six which was twenty two percent. Hello concludes the report any questions. I'm not seeing any questions thank you for that report. Members recently I met at nass Die who's who is with us today from a a RP she had some very interesting information to share about elderly care in the state of Arkansas so I ask her to share that with our committee today miss now his thank you for joining us and you're recognized. Thank you madam chair members of the committee I have to pull this close because I do talk so you pull the Mike toward your little bit families okay. I am this nays and I'm associate state director for advocacy and a a RP Arkansas A. R. P. is a nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization for people who are fifty years and older. Right now we have over a quarter of a million members across the state of Arkansas there in every county in every corner of the State. And the kinds of things we do besides advocating for policies that can beneficially impact people who are fifty and older we also do a lot of information resources around fraud prevention. Financial security in retirement veterans programs finding jobs driver safety and free tax preparation. We only have five staff members our offices here in Little Rock and so a lot of that work is done by volunteers we have a great army of volunteers across the state. But today I wanted to focus on care giving I've provided a handout the one here that is a one pager that describes some of the situation for Sir earning our retirement income we have six hundred ninety six thousand nine hundred thirty six people in Arkansas who are on social security. Of those over thirty five percent count on social security for ninety percent or more of their income that is very troubling because the average social security payment is only thirteen hundred dollars a month and that is before part a or part B. premiums come out of that payment and so a lot of people are retiring into poverty. And and that's a big problem I'm so as far as care givers go there are over four hundred and sixty thousand caregivers in Arkansas and if you try to put a number of price tag on the care that they are providing for their family members and friends that's four point seven billion dollars and so we're concerned about what's happening with those care givers if you see and compare that with the people who are retiring into poverty there are a lot of reasons to be concerned about it one being that they're going to knock on the Medicaid door when it comes time for receiving their long term services and supports. Now. Who is providing care in Arkansas what types of care they providing how does that affect their lives what type of support that they need in finally really water some policy options that can help them to continue to provide that care because ultimately that's what we need to do. Now in the survey that I want to share with you some information that we gather from A. R. P. research office we surveyed over a thousand registered voters over the age of forty to ask them questions about care giving and I thought some of this information might be helpful to you guys and this issue is let me see if I can figure out of. This. It isn't there we go it's just slow. this issue for may as personal as well as professional because I was born and raised over Logan County in Paris Arkansas and I have eighty two year old parents who are still there my father is a chicken farmer he still managing the farm of course you can't do the work because he has severe physical issues with this fine and then I have a mother there who has advancing vascular dementia and so I myself am experiencing what it is like to be trying to provide care to parents or two hours away from me while I work in it is overwhelming so first of all let's talk about who they are Right now it shows that nearly half of voters who are over forty are doing family care giving right now and the most like the average profile for who that family care giver is incentive woman sixty eight percent are women who are married there sixty two years of age that she owns her own home she's in good health and she lives in a household with an income of under sixty thousand dollars a year. When I get the. What's that. Blake I'll ask you to help me with that thank you I'm let's talk about who they are providing care for. So right now most people are providing care for their parents fifty six percent of family caregivers are providing care for their parents. I'm in it's most likely to be their mother because the typical scenario that happens is. Okay. Okay. I'm. They provide the spouse provides care for husband the husband usually die before the wife does. And consequently the mother is there left in the home alone and that's who people are typically providing care for their mother. twenty three percent who who are family care for caregivers are providing care for the spouse. And then we also have other relatives grandparents aunts and uncles I children siblings and non relatives make out a smaller percentage but the bulk of care giving is happening for our parents out there across the state. Now the types of care that they are providing you can see on this chart here I actually have the right to slide up right here they're providing companionship they're taking doing shopping or shopping for them they're providing transportation to appointments they're helping with household chores preparing meals maintaining or up keeping the property overseeing their medication management helping them to manage finances some of a man have nursing or medical task that they're completing in their system with basing or dressing. So some pretty basic care. And as this relates to the work force which were having so many issues with across the country and in the state sixty percent of care givers have been working while they provided that care. And that is incredibly stressful and it's changed how they need to work sixty six percent of those reported that they have to go into work early or leave work early in order to provide care. They have to take a leave of absence from their job. Many of them go from working full time to part time or give up working entirely to provide that care. They spend their own money sixty four percent spend their own money to provide that care I sixty four percent use their own money third thirty one percent actually move their loved one into their home and seventeen percent moved into another home to provide that care. So that is really important because when we look at what the social security program is doing. Then all these folks have had to make adjustments to their work. Are losing income. And they're not saving for retirement and that is a big deal. What they spend their money on is transportation buying prescription drugs assistive technology home medications skilled care services some of them hire a home health aide or personal care attendant they use homemaker may services they make modifications to their vehicles they pay for adult day care or other types of respite and I use companion services. So sixty four percent are spending their money on their loved ones care and they reported it it affects them financially and I referenced that earlier but forty four percent of those said that they have been able to save less for their own retirement. Six fifty one percent said I just forgo vacations. Now we also see they say forty one percent they don't have enough money to enjoy their life twenty six percent struggle to buy everyday necessities and twenty four percent or struggling to pay bills as a result of what they're putting out to pay for their family care giving. So naturally that leads to stress eighty eight percent so that they are extremely stressed out of trying to manage all of that those competing priorities and manage their finances and so the question is what kind of support do we need to have available in the community to help those care givers. And they report and this looks like a complicated graph but if you look at it the ones that are in blue the numbers and flew are what they endorsed the most. And then and read was somewhat and then yellow was not very or not at all. And so the options were eight in ten voters say it's extremely or very important to have services that help older adults live independently in their communities and I need information about the available resources that are out there because the and they go in search in the dark a lot of times they do not know where to start to fund help. And they need respite care. When it comes to the services that they need in the community you'll see this just looks like a steady bar graph for they recognize the need for all of the services in trying to provide care for their loved one at home well trained home health care providers end of life hospice services visiting nurse services special transportation home delivered meals an easy way for care givers to find the information about the resources breaks for family caregivers congregate meals senior community centers and chore or homemaker services. When they were asked where would you prefer to receive care where do you hope that your loved one will be able to get care as they get older seventy nine percent said they would like for to receive that care in their home with the assistance of care givers. Nine percent say an assisted living facility three percent saying nursing home and seven percent are not sure at this time. So this is important because if you look on the front page here on on health care on the first document it shows that only thirty four percent of Medicaid long term care spending goes to home and community based services. Sixty six percent of that spending goes towards institutional care that's not where people want to receive that care. So options on policies one that has gotten a lot of traction is the idea of a caregiver tax credit ninety percent of Arkansas voters said they would like to see a state income tax credit for family caregivers who incurring expenses while providing care to a family member living in Arkansas. And then you know we talked about some of the workplace issues because so many care givers are also working they need the flexibility to get out there into their loved ones home to provide that care and so workplace flexibility policies can also be very helpful ninety percent of the voters said that allowing employees to use sick leave for caregiving would be very helpful in trying to continue to provide that family care eighty four percent thought it would be a good idea to ensure employers cannot fire employees for taking time off to do that care and seventy nine percent said requiring employers to provide some short term unpaid leave for caregiving would be very helpful unpaid caregiving. And then of course because people get burned out and they're tired they also find that respite care needs to be more widely available eighty eight percent said they would support short term help so that family can't care givers can take a break from their care giving duties. And then finally we really wanted to know a lot about telehealth because you guys deal with a lot of telehealth policy so we put some telehealth questions in here for myself a lot of my time is spent driving to and from Paris and to and from doctors and so in a typical day when I take my dad to the oncologist it's a six hour drive plus whatever time it takes at the doctor's office. So it would be very helpful if some of that health care could happen through telehealth sixty two percent of those surveyed said that they had heard of the term telehealth or telemedicine the majority said most of the voters said they have access to a device for telehealth and have internet at home but one in ten or thirteen percent say they do not have access to the internet at home. Now this. Is a little complicated by the fact that the older that you get people who are eighty five and older who are the ones that are needing the most intensive health care and long term services and supports are also the least likely to be technologically savvy they're the least likely to have a smart device at home where they could connect to telehealth and they're the least likely to have an internet connection at home and so it it would have to still there's a lot of outreach to do in that community to expand the scope of the use of that broadband service to access healthcare but they're interested in trying and that's what this survey shows it gives you different options for how they would use telehealth they do like the idea of those little devices that you just press the button and somebody comes to respond if someone is following in their home that's pretty simple. but they also want a phone or video conversation to discuss symptoms or their progress on treatment with their doctor they would love to have the ability to video conference with the specialist because so many communities across Arkansas are in. Zones that are far from where the specialists provide services. There is overwhelming support for telehealth policies but they also want protection of patient data they're concerned about what will happen when that patient data gets transferred. Now self managed care is a particular C.. When asked okay if you end up knocking on the Medicaid's door you've exhausted your resources so financially you're you're eligible your need help because your qualify for need for assisted assistance with daily living then how would you prefer to do it do you want to get that care through an agency or service or at an institution or would you rather have a budget for which you then find someone to hire in your home someone that you choose and manage that budget yourself an overwhelming majority said seventy five percent said they would prefer self managed care. And so with all of these family caregivers anything that we can do that would provide support to continue people being able to live in their home continue to Really have that unpaid family support we need some of these policies that will help support that to happen so a tax credit for family caregivers would be really good workplace flexibility more available respite care and more support for the self managed care program in Medicaid or what the respondents replied to. Are there any questions. Senator Hammer. Thank you ma'am sure good morning. How would you see it played out or in other states where maybe they've offered the tax credit and they already have the system stood up would you verify that the services that they were that the tax break is being requested for has actually been provided. yes and it's like everything and tax filings it has to be a trail of receipts and documentation. Would that involve family members time as far as just know these would be actual expenses I'm like if I had to hire someone in to help for the day or if they had to it could cover transportation costs because the price of gasoline these days. to make that trip over to Paris I think was fifty dollars when I did the visit with my parents that's not a problem for me to absorb some of these people who are typically less than fifty thousand dollars a year you do many of those trips in a month and you really incur a lot of expenses okay thank you. I'm not seeing any additional questions thank you so much for being with us do we have your contact information if members want to contact you. They can call them that the state office and it's herbs Sanderson is our state director and that number is on the front of the one page sheet and I would love to talk with you if you're interested in this issue. Thank you so much thank you for your time as. Members we have a couple of announcements representative Mayberry had to leave for a doctor's appointment she asked me to invite all members to the next meeting and future meetings of the Alzheimer's disease and dementia Advisory Council and she said the next meeting will be in January if you will watcher legislative calendar for that. And then also on December six is my favorite day at the capitol. That's when we will be having Christmas at the capital how many of you have come before Christmas at the capital. Raise your hands okay pretty much everybody for any of you who are new that's when we bring gifts our our children in foster care and in DYS custody this year there especially asking for gifts for teens so bring unwrapped yes on December the sixth it will be at noon and the Supreme Court we will have cookies and milk and some of our children will be joining us we will have music and it will be a very happy day there is the health committee meeting in the morning education meeting in the afternoon so we won't have a long time in between but will have about an hour we can gather it man so looking forward to seeing all of you that day. All represented spring I'm sorry edges now so you pop up. Did you have a question for. Okay. Am I on thank you madam chair I think in our August meeting we had the assisted care persons here to make a presentation and store marketwired of the Department of Human Services was asked to do a report I would just like to see if we can have that added to our agenda of of and have him provide that report to us. Yes that would be in our December meeting he will be reporting to us he'll be it at the December meeting all right thank you. All right with no further business the for us we are adjourned.