Senate Children & Youth and House Aging, Children and Youth & Military Affairs

The chair she's a quorum on a call this meeting to order. Present five do you have any comments before we start. Thank you Mr chair this will be our last meeting of the year some of our members and I will not be on this committee next session so I want to thank them for their work. Asking Kerr of. Your work of. Take a consideration for the adoption of the November thirteenth meeting minutes. Anybody would review those. I need a motion for adoption. I've got a motion. And the second all those in favor say aye. Opposed say no motion carries. Moving on to Adam D. Arkansas department Human Services. If you would just state your name for the record and you are recognized to proceed. Good morning my name is Christian Harper an assistant director with the Division of Children and Family Services. And good morning I Mr Martin on the Director of the Division of Children and Family Services. We have one roll up for review this morning that will allow the division to update this section of our policy regarding adoptions and other considerations following termination of parental rights. The substantive change is collapsing formally separate rules into one regarding the adoption selection preparation and finalization processes prior to this proposed rule they were separate policies for relative non relative current foster parent adoptions would relieve the requirements are the same so we have streamlined them into one role. Disney will also emphasizes the preferential consideration of relatives as well as the importance of maintaining sibling groups and adoptive placements. In this role we've added additional requirements related to adoption recruitment activities in which the child may participate depending on the status of termination of parental rights. And finally we formalized existing practice regarding adoption pre placement activities into rule as well as how to proceed in the legal custodian wishes to adopt the child in the custody at a later date. Specific to adoption subsidies we've removed off obsolete references to the fostering connections phase in schedule we've also clarified the any subsidy agreement and associated payments extending past the age of eighteen due to a mental or physical handicap take the tax the date the new steps the agreement reflecting the extension is signed. We've also updated these rules to remove duplicative information found in other sections of rules made texture make technical corrections improve organization formatting and finally better align requirements and for instance relinquished for adoption with with statute per the safe haven Act. He's revisions were made to a workgroup comprised of field and central office staff it's also been shared with stakeholders such as Arkansas advocates for children and families the attorney ad litem program costs the the court agreement program. We received one public comment from the therapeutic foster care community in per the request added specific language regarding the participation of therapeutic foster parents and TFC staff in these processes which satisfied their concerns expressed in the public comment. You will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Are there any questions from the committee. Saying no without objection this rule has been read the review to section E. department Human Services. I believe that's me. Second the first quarter of our quarterly performance report starting on page one AM which covers the number of calls that we received to the child abuse hotline and seven thousand five hundred and fifty three calls were accepted one thousand five hundred and twenty six were assigned to CACD crimes against children division at state police six thousand and twenty seven were assigned to DCFS and then they were broken down to investigations are different response I'm in comparison to the for the first quarter of twenty nineteen we received eight thousand one hundred and ninety eight so not quite as many as we previously received in another year but pretty close as our teachers have come back in the school are hot on calls and continue to rise M. and be about normal from what we saw prepayment pandemic moving on to page to you you can see on the first quarter the percentage of investigations found tree that is a comparison of this DCFS and read as well as see ACT and believe and then over all total of thirty one percent true findings on child maltreatment investigations which is a little higher than the previous three quarters I will go through each of the charts like I normally do I just hit the highlights but please feel free at the end or when the chair says I'll be happy to take questions on the things that I do not cover as normal on the bottom of page two sixty nine percent of the investigations found tree where due to neglect that's one thousand seven hundred and ten you can see child the tallies on the top of the page three and ten tell the tallies were found tree for child maltreatment you can also reference the appendix in the back for some more specifics related to child finality is in the specific areas that those were in on the middle of page three you can see the number of different response calls and they were down in the fourth quarter and then slightly increasing and that first which is normal because schools back in and as you can see on the bottom of page three education. Unlike like does make up a percentage of the calls that come then for differential response and moving on the page four on that that we did see some increase and timeliness of initiations of our child maltreatment investigations so as you know our priority ones are within twenty four hours and our priorities have to be initiated within seventy two hours initiation meeting we actually see that the victim child and so we did really well on priority ones which are the most of your maltreatment and had a ninety one percent initiation rate but we had a combined total of eighty eight percent. And then you can see on the bottom chart that's DC FS only which were all in the ninety percent the top tier includes the ACT as well moving on the page five this is specific to different response we continue to see an increase in timeliness seven and the C. Asians in increase in timeliness of closures on our differential response moving on to page for you can see reoccurrence of maltreatment where we stayed about steady so I'll move on the page seven which is our in home services so we go out we investigate child maltreatment and it was our offering the family services but if there is a true finding and the child is not placed in foster care we open what we call an in home services case are protective services case I might call it at the end of the quarter we had two thousand five hundred and fifty I'm sorry two thousand five hundred and sixty nine in home cases but that involves six thousand one hundred and seven kids which is a reminder DCFS serves more children in the home than we do in foster care. Moving on to page eight House get downtown are required monthly visits because it's so important that we're seeing children when there is the in home case and you can see that we've remained about steady a little bit of a decrease from the fourth quarter but at seventy three percent there's definitely still room for improvement but we're holding pretty steady even during the pandemic I'm going to move on to page ten which is foster care we are seeing an increase in the number of children in foster care and while the fourth quarter reports at the end that there were four thousand five hundred and sixty seven sadly our report that we're at almost forty seven hundred children as of today what's really important to note is on the bottom of page ten I looked at the numbers in comparison to the last year and the same three quarters looking at third fourth and first quarter which are pretty much the same pain pandemic period we discharged five hundred and ninety four more children than we did if you total the numbers of the last three quarters which are they do and the payment period so clearly we have a discharge problem and so we're really digging in and trying to look at what those barriers barriers are in issues are related to discharge and it's it's very complicated everything from not being able for families get services in that phase one for a couple months to not being able to match kids that for adoptive families which I'll talk in a minute but right now we're really focused on how do we get our children to permanency since we have seen a five hundred and ninety four decrease of Children discharging to some type of permanency compared to the same three quarters in the last fiscal year. I am moving on to page eleven AM those these numbers are very similar to how they always are neglect and substance abuse continue to be the top reasons for children coming into foster care again a reminder you can have multiple reasons for coming into foster care and we've reunification continues to be the main type of discharge permanency for children in foster care and in fact this number is exactly the same as last year in the first quarter as well but we had last kids reunify but the same percentage of kids reunify with their families. Moving on to page twelve you can see our length of stays in foster care and I'll just note that I'm very concerned about the twelve to twenty four month period so we have twenty six percent of our children in foster care twenty six percent of the children in foster care have been in foster care twelve to twenty four months those kids are really the focus and how can we find some type of permanency for them whether it's reunification I maybe close to going back with their family or whether it's finding an adoptive home or going with the relative and you can see down on the bottom of page will it let me do the middle of page twelve are are relative placement thirty three percent of our children are in relative placement and I will tell you that as our number of children in foster care of gone up placements are task but we have really maximize the use of safe and appropriate relatives and having the same day placements with relatives so that really has helped us to do right by children but also make sure that children have placements while in foster care appropriate placements on foster care moving on the page thirteen you can see our case worker visits as well as and we do two charts both the percentage of kids in foster care who had a monthly visit from a case worker which is the top chart eighty four percent as well as any contact with the DCFS worker I've probably mentioned this to you before but a lot of our kids see our program as a program assistant PA's who are some of the best in our work force and so we like to show you that they're seeing someone at DCFS ninety one percent of our children in foster care so awesome DCFS worker last month. Moving on to page fourteen we continue to focus on placing siblings together and we're having at around we are having at seventy five percent but you can see that's pretty in line with the last three quarters we still struggle with placement stability which you'll see on the bottom of page fourteen and even that were holding steady where well above the national average and really have to you and figure out how to decrease the number of needs of our children in foster care. Thankfully this quarter we went back down to the national standard of forty percent from permanency within twelve months and we also saw saw improvements every entry in the foster care on the bottom of page sixteen with the significant drop back to four point six percent. Moving on to adoption I'm just kind of skip over to the bottom of page seventeen and we did really start working on and length of time from TPR to finalization of adoption and so we have seen a decrease to fourteen point seven months but that still unacceptable we've had workgroups with adoptions we process mapped out processes and we're currently working on with technology to figure out some solutions to try and streamline that adoption process so I'm hoping that will continue to see it a decrease in length of time from termination to adoption but also very much varies across the state so over in the delta and which we call our area ten they're finalizing adoptions in nine months from termination where is the north we Northwest Arkansas it's taking almost nineteen months from TPR to adoption so a lot of variety across the state in length of time from TPR to adoption and so a lot to learn from our workers across the state on their on page eighteen the number of adoptions finalized during the quarter if you can I did the same thing as I did the discharges and comparing our numbers in those three quarters of the pandemic third quarter for fourth quarter in first quarter and we did finalize a hundred and ninety one less adoptions and we did in the same period last year and so we're working but there are some challenges related to code of it on matching families getting court hearings doing the paperwork and finalizing this option so really a focus for our division is on permanency over the next few months and then you'll see on nineteen you'll see all types of our cases the top chart is the number of cases that we had on that point in time on the day of the last quarter whereas the bottom chart is the number of cases that we had during the quarter said investigation six thousand nine hundred and twenty eight different response nine hundred and eighty foster care five thousand two hundred forty seven in how cases two thousand eight hundred and forty seven and supportive services cases two hundred ninety eight moving on to page twenty and twenty one so as you. Would suspect as the number of children in foster care grow we've seen a slight increase in our caseloads but I'll also say that are cases in tell more than just foster care they and tell all the different types of cases that I just mentioned and we do typically see an increase in cases this time of year and it's really a lot if you compare last year's numbers at this year's numbers it's in line and then come January we should start seeing a decrease back down to twenty which is our target goal we're at twenty one point three at the end of September. You can also see our foster bed to child ratio which is at point seven three so we're always in need of foster care more foster homes in foster care so we have great we have great partners to help us recreate but we really are able to find placements because we're maximizing the safe and appropriate really. And after page twenty two is an appendix which are all referenced in the Blue Ribbon throughout the report if you need more details about any of that previous start Senate mention and I'm happy to take questions. Pocher fight you're recognized for a question. Thank you Mr chair it's not directly related to the report that we were also said that we had to cancel Christmas at the capital this year and I was wondering if through the other A organization that we used projects zero if you were able to get everything that we need for our children for sure at that Christmas I have learned is super stressful at DCFS I think this is my fifth Christmas that DCFS and so making sure that and working with that whole team of community and stakeholders that forty seven hundred children have Christmas is quite the task for my staff even at the local level so I just ate M. project zero is an amazing partner task force that always and supporting their mass but they sponsored four hundred and eighty children Anne is eighteen Wheeler sponsored by the Arkansas trucking association T. then instead of having one massive matching M. in Hey we coordinated with them locations across the state two Saturdays ago or last Saturday I'm terrible time and to the then deliver and the kids who could come showed up and got their bag of gifts course we asked them to save them for Christmas so they have something to open and and I represent by I will share it parties zero put together a great video of this whole effort and emailing Christmas and I would love to share that link with you are with Blake Mr Gillam and he maybe he can share with the members just to see what happened on that but then every can't what we found is county offices do best when they coordinate with their local community partners for Christmas so like area one which is Northwest Arkansas casa sponsored all of their kids in Northwest Arkansas so the efforts by our county supervisors and staff have been incredible to partner with local communities whether it's churches are nonprofit and we don't just say we ask our staff to get a Christmas list for every single child and have somebody in their community actually sponsor that child so we really try and stay with just generic toy drive so if you're doing one in your area we appreciate we'll get that to the kids but we feel like we should treat our children like they are first and best and they should get a Christmas jealous just like my kids do you and your kids see and so we. We try really hard to make sure that every child puts together Christmas lists and sponsored by an organization or somebody in the community and it is tracked all the way down to the kid all the way up to my level or my assistant director engineer come who is in charge of that and we're doing really well and we have a Christmas find am that last kids who come in last minute we then use that Christmas fund to make sure that they have presence on the day of Christmas so hopefully that one too long but Christmas is a lot around our place thank you so much I was able to visit my local casa office and they have actually rented the office next door so they can do all the sorting and they had it down to the exact age sex and desire list of each of the children so it was it was pretty amazing and it's great to hear this is all over the state thank you and I'm sausage Arkansas alliance is supporting all the kids and and Sebastian and so they they are doing something very similar and I mean the organizations and communities that have stepped up to support and by specific is for kids is just is just really awesome. Representative Richardson. You are recognized as I push the button. Everio. Thank you. Thank you Mr chair I had a question back on page twelve. We use the the length of stay from twelve to twenty four months do you have a age range of those. Kids in that that that are. It in that so we I mean I can get that for you I don't have it off the top of my head now we do have the age of the kids are in foster care but I can also break it down by the aids I don't have it on me that I can get it for you that is yours to know that that one two years and what's the I soon but if you could that be absolutely. And you know when I say older I should clarify as to what I call older now that is really ten at not even necessarily to the teenage years but our kids were ten and I have experience longer stays in foster care than the younger kids. Are you finished yes okay Next is represented Garner you're recognized thank you Mr chair and thank you measure for the report I've got a couple of questions to simple really I felt able to use technology for your face to face I'm way up here yeah I was like I can't find you that sorry about that yeah are you able to use technology for face to face or would you say base to base your meeting that someone is actually hands on scene in person saying that the child okay so we M. the federal government has a a children's bureau has allowed us to count virtual visit ask face to face but we said going back to Jean a two thousand you know this past in two thousand twenty that we expected and less there were specific reasons that were documented otherwise that that our workers would be seeing our kids face to face literally face to face now if a child has coded or maybe the family is under quarantine we have given our workers that technology to be able to do virtual but as of June of twenty twenty unless there is a safety are documented reason we expected to be face to face but we are able to count virtual visits to me are federal requirements and is that is certainly the time or it is not like a certain amount of minutes right now you know not a certain amount of minutes but is there a deadline or end date for analogical meetings. They just said as long as there's a declared pandemic a public health emergency that we can assist you need to do that okay and then I have one more question Mr yes please thank you very much the length of time for that the termination of parental rights you talk about such a difference in a variety of this state and and Friday areas of the state what is the reason for that is that court sets back up or is there a reason or do we know what it yes and no so each area has really dead again in fact we process mapped out each process for each area and there's a variety of reasons I mean it is a whole host of reasons I will fully admit the adoption process is lengthy in and of itself everything from the laws that drive the adoption process we have to do a full disclosure packets so areas that are doing a better job on the front end of getting all the medical records throughout the foster case are able to move more quickly where is areas with higher volumes of kids it's a it's a slower process they have to get our workers have to get every single medical record on a child to be able to do disclosure from every provider they've seen that's pretty lengthy process so that's one of the things that we have identified but also just sometimes you have an area he's doing really well and finding kids from kids who have been at finding families for kids who have been lingering in care like I'll call out my area five who is central central north Arkansas I don't know what to call that but you know right up the middle here send Baxter being all these counties means they have gotten on it and have found families and and gone back and looked at relatives on some of our kids have been lingered so I will see a spike and their length of time from termination to adoption because they made a huge effort to really focus on recruitment and adoptions on some of these kids so I mean the list goes on and on and I'm just giving you a tip of the iceberg on this issue okay but there's not anything specifically that we can do in those a. Yes to help I mean that we're doing some things absolutely so right now and I have put together a work group to digitize the disclosure packet process so it's probably gonna take four to six months ago lab that we are looking at simple beer years and do our workers needed option adobe pro said that they're not redacting using markers you know so yes we are looking at things to speed up the process and all of our areas and it's a lot of little things in my opinion great thank you very much. Represent a wooden you're gonna be epicenters action there you go represent written you're recognized. Thank you Mr chairman miss Martin I'm always impressed with your report is to. Very detailed concise and exact and really appreciate that my question deals with the Christmas presents for the children of do do you all coordinated any of that with the angel trees and various communities or is that a that's a separate operation it reaches out to all children. Angel tree is a separate operation but we do like I don't mean to minimize our community partners take care Christmas for at the whether it I mentioned a couple Arkansas alliance cost the Christian for kids and we fully rely on our committee charges the call I'm sorry how could I forget the call call we fully rely on our community partners to provide Christmas for kids that we not the angel treat separate okay so so if the if. Individuals or companies contribute to projects zero or if they contributed to the angel tree some of those children that we're talking about in your report will be reached by an angel tree all that money I have not angel tree but project zero so any money that was given a project zero at one not make any but like in the last few months project zero has been huge fundraiser set to sponsor kids and buy presents for kids okay. Mr Miller got one more question of the do you have in the humana mentioned it I heard you referred to the state police how many of the cases that you all handle a year or developed through the hotline to the state police okay so percentage right well I'll use this quarterly report so if you look on page one so I am so the page one is cost of the child abuse hotline seven not because I'm sorry accepted cost so many more than seven thousand five hundred and fifty three were called into the Arkansas state police child abuse hotline but of the calls that they received seven thousand five hundred and fifty three were accepted for investigation and that number is the Arkansas state police child abuse hotline because we have an interview with them the funding comes through as things as the state police and then of that seven thousand five hundred and fifty three one thousand five hundred and twenty six were assigned to crimes against children for an investigation and even those cases so if they find tree DCFS works alongside those families to offer services they just do the investigation okay follow who may have. To the the the investigators of are they member or they for the state police are they part of your organization that they are employees of Arkansas state police they are not law enforcement but they are employees of Arkansas State Police okay is this is this is this hello all I want to put you on the spot but. Was been curious as to why I understand. The. I understand having a law enforcement involved in it but I've never really understood why the that welled up out there and state police so I can give you that the short version even though I wasn't around when it happened my former mentor ways and which are the child welfare system was seat in the nineties it's called the Angela are lossy an out of the Intel into our law see the decree was that there had to be a focus on the severe maltreatment cases and out of that decree became the creation of the crimes against children division over at State Police and the idea was that if it was put over there there would be a focus and that that it would be their priority to make sure that the severe maltreatment investigations would be initiated timely there that would be better coordination with law enforcement then what had previously happened prior to the lofty. Do you do you view that is a quick to effort known. Not not saying thing is state police but do you think that you all are able to address the needs of the children of is quick. Is you can go into them and then then having to come back to you and then ultimately if it is proven that there's criminal intent involved you have to when I lived with the prosecuting attorney do you not yes act which is similar if not if DCF any DCFS does investigate some priority one so I will say that you can look at in the and and our report and see that they have they have pretty good initiation mastication so they're seeing they're seeing victim children and I will say that we have a great relationship with major jury who runs the state police but it does call the asked you really have to communicate well on the local level within to make sure that that there is a transition so we protect children at DCFS they investigate and we have had communication barriers but we try and work through that and we really try to build a relationship to make sure that we don't miss protecting children and with having two different agencies looking at the child maltreatment investigations it is a unique relationship. Thank you thank you Mr chairman. Senator Clark you're recognized. Thank you Mr chair I'm going to fall I have another question but I will follow up on representa would. Those questions of. The director. The. Having CACD with the state police and DCFS of we you pursue explain a little bit about the history you and you said it was unique it is so unique that Arkansas is the only one. Of the fifty states it has. Such an arrangement correct at to my knowledge I I haven't done that research in a few years but you know a few years ago and I was looking at more closely yes we were the only one that divided out talking to treatment investigations to law enforcement. Without saying anything negative about CACD or DCFS. Are there problems that occur with that. Up to two different agencies. investigating cases I mean with any time not treatment investigation there's problems I got my own problems that DCFS with communication with among my own workers to yes there's challenges but there's there's challenges over all in switching from investigations to services. How much. Experience did you have in child welfare before you took over the agency. Ten years. How much experience. Of keep in mind that. Of. I walked the current. The head of CACD quite a bit but how much experience as the head of CACD usually have in child welfare before they take over. I just. Do you you know the last two or three how much experience do they have before in child welfare before they took over. That's just a. Straight math question at the I don't think I don't I don't know I can't speak to that typically the commander of CACD is a state trooper whose experiences law enforcement not so well for. Thank you okay back if I may Mister to of my question. Of a came to my attention thirty not as you know director and we talked Friday and we'll talk again this coming Friday of but it's only fair to this committee and its members to bring this up. That we were having. Zoom visitation not only with. Our children who had been removed from homes in general but with infants. Of have you had time yet and I realize you may not have had time to look into the numbers. No because that was yes much news to you as it was me so. Yes and we do late Friday afternoon M. so I don't have the numbers yeah and just to be full disclosure related to this virtual visit we did in phase one we being DCFS did in phase one of the pandemic allow and permit that visitation between parents and children should be virtually and then very quickly I don't have the day. I might be able to get some assistance on the date but it was either right before Jean or right right the beginning of gene with face to you we then permitted among our staff and said we're going back to in person visits for parents and children but we did give our staff that have you got that like something I mentioned earlier if there was code issues the child's positive that the bio parents positive there somebody's quarantine that they could use virtual visits as long as they were always this has this is more than just what I'm talking about now the always we have to follow court orders so as long as they were following pool orders they had the discretion to determine when a virtual visit would be appropriate with the understanding that we expected in person visits and we put out protocol related to wearing mask and we even insure that we had P. P. E. personal protective equipment that we can pass out to parents if the parents had up to the office without a mask. And I think it's understandable a lot of things that all of us did from March through June. Of the of nobody's questioning you know I've got information and that's what we will reasons you're looking into how widespread and hopefully not widespread that we've got cases that we've had in front visitation up the termination of and I cannot imagine trying to visit with an infant V. as of and there certainly after all the discussions all the agencies and all of us had about important to visitation especially for reunification to expect somebody from a visit with an infant by zoom and try to bond and try to have reunification is absurd and I'd with of I think we were headed into the session which makes our job much more difficult and looking into this but the. but the. current chair and the Senate is here The New chair is here and I think this is a huge issue if it is at all wide spread or happen at all actually but I'll look forward to answer some fraud in the Judiciary Committee. Thank you Director. Represent Kelly you're recognized. No no. I can hear you but not at the moment about that I think it's better the better okay a great report and director Martin just one quick question do you know the number of of children that are in foster care there also judicata in our treatment facilities across the state as in the west yes I don't know it off the top of my head but we track it daily and it's in our system and I can happily get it for you quickly it's it's a phone number I would say less than twenty. Could you have steps in that to all of us please absolutely thank you. And we work closely with the US we have a in my you between the CFS and the U. S. and that is our systems talk to each other and we do have a daily tracking number of those kids. Senator Stubblefield you're recognized. Thank you Mr chairman. Measure of. Could you give me a little more information on the fictive kin cases that we have in regard to the Home study this done at the end of the whole process. Which makes it a little bit of burdensome from these individuals and I think you know what I'm talking about yesterday could you explain that a little more detail Sir and I apologize I haven't followed up with yet but I actually had a great conversation with Senator Stubblefield constituent and so I let me just walk quickly through the process of when we identify fictive kin say child comes in the foster care and let's use a teacher for example because the teachers are happening a lot I am a teacher steps up and says I would be lying I know this kid he's in my class I move willing to take him home we have an emergency process where we do in home concert somebody goes out to the home and you know evaluate them quickly for safety goes or checklist runs background checks and then we can place the child with them very quickly same day sometimes sometimes within days but then that individual that fictive kin person has up to six months to get opened as a foster home if they want to continue the process of getting a board payment now we do offer since we do offer support outside of the board payment to those individuals while they are getting open and the standard process is for them is similar to it to a stranger who wants to be open as a foster parent they have to go to training and and so what happened we learn something pretty awesome from Senator Stubblefield constituent is we typically we don't refer the home study and tell after training because we lose focus in training what Wheatley stranger foster parents and training and so home study is not referred into after and after the training process in talking with Senator Stubblefield constituent he made a great point at the home study is the the most detailed piece of information that we get on these families shouldn't it be referred right after the home that opened we had worked with some of our partners to already be doing that but we had not been doing it across the board and so I had a great conversation with your constituents. And have already talked to my team about doing it differently for our fictive kin and relative placement to move that home study up sooner and the process but it is quite a lengthy process that typically takes between five and six months and with his constituent we didn't do a great job of a really communicating what all the steps that we take and how long it would take. The A. list I appreciate what you did and follow up I just wanna make it on their families out there that want to do this and they had they had to go to a lot of bad expense especially in regard to the ages of the children and bind the vehicle and then wait another four five months for the home state to be done and I think there cases where you can move this home study up to the front end of the process I agree I agree Senator Stubblefield I've already asked my team to really get together and brainstorm if we can completely look at the process differently and find a way for these relatives in the fictive kin to open them much sooner than six months and so we're looking at other states we're looking at the entire process from start to finish to see if there's and it and it may take coming to you guys for a long changes but we're still exploring that thank you mission thank you Mr chairman. Represent Crawford you're recognized for a question. Thank you how are you today. I had a constituent call me with them he was mentoring a young man excuse me my voice is allergies He was mentoring young man at the Maggie House. The young man had been there year was very happy there one of his sisters was there. And without a consultation he was moved he did not want to move he was very upset he's now lost his mentor and his mentor doesn't even know where yes I just wondered and not. constituent wondered is there a easier way rather than just pulling a child out where he's been for a year. Even if the program says he can only stay there year. So there's a lot I don't even know that story but I can tell you there's a lot more than I would need to know to give you an answer so there's we we don't do black and white rolls at DCFS so there's no rule that says absolutely at a year a child has to move from from a program and and it shouldn't happen like that and I'm not telling you that it didn't happen like that but that's not how our organization our policies are set at that just randomly a year you move a child our focus is always what's best for the job there should be discharge planning there should be consideration of what's happening with the sibling there should be a transition plan and so if you would like me to get that case specific and see did we handle it wrong or were there other factors that were considered when making that may I would be happy to look at it now don't get me wrong we don't do great with moving children around and I placement instability at at admitted that in the report so if there's poor practice it needs to be addressed back in just tell you from our level of the organization and creating policies there's not a black and white rule that says you're in I. Q. R. T. P. which is what Maggie's houses you have to move by year that is not our message and that is not our policy and so if that's what's happening at the local level we really need to engage with them and talk about what's happening but I would really like to maybe look at that specific case okay just because the kid moved out of Maggie's house we could have facilitated the mentorship program like even if you move to another area of the state we can facilitate three calls three C. you know that's the connection for that child and we should be figuring out a way to keep that connection correct let's talk thank you. Arching over the questions we're gonna move on to item F. director Martin you're recognized. Okay. Hopefully this will be short. So this is our overturned investigations again this came out they came out of legislation from twenty seventeen so it's still fairly new report that put together but what you can see is the number and I'm just going to walk you column by column on this report M. starting with the first column which is the number of calls received by the hotline so that everybody who actually called the hotline related to a case in that particular county the next column is the number of reports accepted so they met the minimum the information provided that the minimum criteria to be an accepted for an investigation which was then assigned to DCFS or CACD respectively and then that third column is number of investigations boundaries so of the ones investigated there was a true finding from maltreatment you see the actual number and I guess I should go starting one two three four I will action the fifth column sorry Sir so from the fifth column to the six colony see the actual number and then the six column is the percentage of that number and then moving on to the seventh call an easy the number of true investigations appealed so that means of the investigations that we found tree gave notice to the offender that many of the offenders then sent notice or called R. I. D. H. S. office of appeals and hearings and said I would like to appeal the tree finding and then you go from the actual number to the percentage on the next call them and then you see the number of appealed investigations over time so the number Senate take the number at in the seventh call a number of tree of that I have that number these are the number of investigations that were overturned and then you can see the next called which is a percentage. And then you follow that column of the over all percentage of investigations found treat so of the total number of investigations that were found tree this is the call of the actual overturned number I'm sorry that's actually the actual not percentage of the ones that were appealed and then the last column is the percentage of the overall number of investigations that were actually overturned on appeal. And again you can see it all the way through county by county. Are there any questions from members. Seeing none we have no other business and. All this. Thank you director Martin. We are adjourned.