Children & Youth Committee- Senate & Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs- House

Second, I did that wrong. This is my first time operating this. Blake, I'll let you do it. There you go. Thank you, Madam Chair. uh. Director. On page 10. Uh, what seems to be like a very good thing, uh, they're at the top chart number of children in foster care in 2021. 4854. In 2022, 45, 24 in 2023, 4023, and then this fiscal year, 3553. But is it my understanding that we still have a crisis maybe it's not crisis of. Uh Finding foster care parents. We still do have, uh, even with the decline of children in foster care, our greatest need is still recruitment of foster, um, foster families to care for children when they can't be with a relative, um, safely with a relative. So that makes me wonder, uh, and just wondering out loud if that's not just going to be the state of that and I'm not blaming anybody that you can't convince people to do it unless it's a crisis. That you need them to because with the 1000 kids less, 1300 kids less you would. You would think we'd be in much better shape. Yes, I think that our, the needs of which we need for recruitment continue to be for our older children and youth, um, children and youth who might be stepping out of qualified residential treatment programs or need to step down from therapeutic foster care to traditional foster homes and so that is a more complex population and, um, you know, they come with all kinds of, uh, different things going on. They're teenagers and then a teenager in foster care at that end. So, um, sometimes it does feel like we're just gonna continue to be in a cycle, but, um, I know that if we can just continue to support foster parents and just keep the message out there about the need, um, I'm I'm, I remain hopeful, but I also feel like we could still continue to do some work around relatives and making relative placements a priority, and, um, my team is working diligently working on that. So I feel like it's kind of both going on in both spaces. When you look at the the last 4 years on everything, almost everything I shouldn't say everything, almost everything, uh, it looks like we've made a lot of progress, uh, do you think we'll continue to be able to make? Progress this year? I'm, I'm very hopeful that we will, um, I know that where you're continuing to work with our, um, with Um, providers all over the state around that prevention work, preventing entering into foster care. Um, also, just as much as it is about entering foster care, it is about discharges, and, um, I have a team, I have a team of now 2 that's doing a lot of work around case mining, looking back at family members for some of, um, what we call our long stairs and just continuing to dive deep into those cases and so while both of those things work simultaneously. I'm hoping that we continue to make progress as a state. I feel like we're, we are making the Progress and we just need to keep going in the direction that we're going. Well, congratulations to you and your department for these very encouraging numbers from, uh, as they've improved from the past and, uh, Madam Chair, thank you. Good questions. Thank you. Representative Wardlaw. Thank you. So I heard you talking about family placement versus, uh, just general Foster placement. Can you tell me what the percentages of the kids that are eligible for family placement ends up being. So right, uh, at the end of the state fiscal year, we had 32% with relatives, um, And then, but I know from our monthly charts we're almost to 40% now, so we get this is, you know, at the end of the year the efforts that number is rising, OK. Thank you. Can you, can you keep us abreast of that going forward, uh, maybe send. Uh, quarterly report to council just so all the members have access to where we're at on that percentage. Yes, and I would like to um also share, um, part of the executive order that the governor had signed was that we would share our, um, uh, data on a public in a public place, um, and so actually on the DHS website under the division of Children and Families, you can find all of our monthly data, um, broken even down to county, so we know we break the state into 10 service areas, you can actually drill down. to the county and see each specific county that you may be interested in each month. So we update that munch, but I can share the link, um, out as well so y'all just can click on that link I think that'd be helpful. Thank you. Great information. Thank you, Representative Springer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. I caught up with you. I was looking at uh exhibit 1 and you were on 3, so let me, I can, well you gonna, you, I have a question with respect to your exhibit. One, no, it's exhibit 2. I'm sorry. OK, I, I started with the annual this one. I started with this one. OK, and I'm going to present this 10, OK, I'll just wait until you present that. Alright, thank you. We'll come back to her in just a second. OK, Representative Jack Fortner. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Uh, thank you for bringing this. I just have a question and, and, uh, uh, forgive my lack of knowledge is 18 when the young people opt out of. the system. Um, they can stay in extended foster care until the age of 21. Um, but as at age 18, they could ask to exit foster care and thank you. And do they, do we continue to. pay for them to be in is not on the foster parents if they choose if the child chooses to stay, we, the state continues to pay. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other questions from any other members? OK, um, then we'll let you present Garrett's Law then, OK. So I'm gonna jump right to the first page, um, page. One's labeled page 1, it's 2 pages in. Um, this is the Garrett's Law report and that we're required to present to you all each year, um, so I'm gonna start at Bullet, um, or number 2 around how many reports, so during state fiscal year 24, you received 1360 Garrett's law reports, which is actually 11% lower than the number received during the previous year, um, And, uh, then if you go to the page 2, there's a chart that shows that and shows that exhibit of the number of Garrett's law reports received? And then, um, Just in case y'all don't have the information in number 3 provides what they, um. the characteristics, excuse me, of the Garrets all reports are and what we are to present and you will have that in an additional attachment you should have had as an exhibit. Um, on page 3 at the top of page 3, you'll see the, um, age distribution of mothers in Garrett's law reports, um, compared to the last 4 state fiscal years. And on the bottom of page 3, you'll see, um. That what the uh most used um drug was cited in the Garrett's Law reports. So, um, for a state fiscal year 2024, 81% of the reports that came in were around, um, THC and cannabis, followed by amphetamines and methamphetamines. On page 4, I want to point out that among newborns reportedly exposed to substances, 76% did not have any reported health problems, which is similar to the previous years. And there's a chart table 4 also provides a chart which shows that information as well compared comparatively to the other years. Um, page 5 of this report, um, chart or table 5, shows, reports that were substantiated after an investigation. And then, um, that resulted in opening of a protective services case or, um, On the next page you will see the removal rates by area in the state. And if you don't, aren't sure about area, if you go back to the front of your annual report card, it has how this how the state is broken down into areas. I forgot to tell you all at the beginning. I'm sorry about that. One page 6. The case opening rates, um, for state fiscal year 24, you'll see, um, in reviewing this, um, I wanted to point out that I had two areas in the state that appeared to be substantially lower than the rest of the state and so we um conducted some case reviews on those cases to really dig in and determine what was going on around decision making and, um, reviewed each of those cases. And we found that, um, there was uh some of those families, um, had prior and were prior involved or currently involved with the agency and we were providing them um services or support, um, some of them, um. It we had um some documented um medical marijuana cards with the mothers using marijuana, um, as well as some follow up with some false positives. Um, so we really dug in and we've met with our staff in those areas to make sure that we're doing good, strong safety assessments related to these newborns. And then on page, sorry. Um, 6, you'll see, um, their removal rate by area in the state for, um, children who were removed, um, for a substantiated Garrett's law report by Ari. I think I'm ready for questions on this report. OK, Representative Springer, you can ask your questions now. Thank you. I'm on page. On page 6 of your report and I notice um in table one area one, the percentage went down from 77% to 37%, and then in area 7 78% to 59%, so can you. Talk to us about how did they, how did that happen? Yes ma'am, so that's what I just spoke about a little bit. So we did case reviews on those cases, um, to really understand what was going on with each of those referrals, um, and so, like I said, some of those 26 of those, I'm sorry, 23 of those had um cases opened or reconnected in the previous cases, so there's a, there's a lot of, uh, specific examples around like, maybe the children, maybe other kids were already in foster care and so we got that additional report. That kind of thing, um, for, for referrals, um, the family had like already moved out of, had moved out of state and so we connected to the other state to provide them the information, um. The same thing, um, with the Area 7, so just, um, basically dug in and found some of those same things or some of, we had, um, 5 that were adopted on a private adoption. So there were some different, um, circumstances related to that decision making, but we then met with the leaders to um talk about safety decisions and just make sure we were all still operating on the same page and what was really going on. And there were some strengths in there too. My staff did education related to those, um, cases and, um, asked a lot of hard questions, um, just to make sure we had safe infants. Follow up, Madam Chair. Uh, so, what about the ones that are still maintaining these high rates then, what, uh, what are you doing differently with respect to addressing those that are maintaining these high rates like for instance in area 2, it, you know, there's not much of a change there and then and um area 9. And area 10, I think, I think for me that shows that there there's consistency in their decision making, um, and so just con I'll con we continue to monitor this and um ask questions, but I think for us we know that infants are our most vulnerable population and so we just have to ensure we're making, um, safe decisions regarding, um, substantiation versus uh not substantiated and what services the family needs and so it could be that in these areas. based on history or what's going on with the family, we substantiated because we had enough evidence to do so, and then work closely with the family to, um, have stabilization around not using drugs, that kind of thing. So are you saying that you do monitor those or you're doing the same type of monitoring with respect to these reports that that have the high rates don't necessarily know that high is, I think, I don't necessarily know that high is bad. Um, I think, so this means substantiated, so that means we found true. On the, on the family based on the maltreatment report. And so I think that when we see, like when you saw areas one dip way down, what were they doing versus what's going on with the county that's remained stable, and that takes reviewing each individual case. OK, so I guess, I guess I'm not maybe answer asking the question properly so if it's, if it's maintaining substantiated, then there's something going on within the county that possibly needs to be addressed then I guess I guess that's my question. then Um, I don't I on. That's fine. I think I'm, I'm not, I get maybe we're having a communication on on what this means, but I think for me this is that we sort of substantiating, which means that there's drug use happening within the home. So I get then so there's drug use taking place, so what is being done to address the continued use of drug use in those homes and those for for you substantiating or providing services. Yeah, so we're uh making referrals for substance abuse treatment, um, identifying what needs the family has, what, what was the drug, that kind of thing. So, maybe some of these are repeat offenders, so are you finding that that's the case with respect to these that are still being substantiated, and if so, what is taking place to address those. I wouldn't necessarily know if these are repeat offenders. I think that, um, this is for every report that came in for the year, so of this 15, I think I said 1500. This is how we substantiate it and comparing that back to other years. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's the same family over and over and over again. Maybe we can connect after. OK, OK. Are there questions from other members. I've, I've got a few, if you don't mind then. So I'm, I'm just curious the back on page 3, where we talk about the, um, Percentage of reports in which a drug was cited. And the marijuana, help me, help me understand, does that mean that someone does have a medical card or does not, or does it not reflect that. Um, this does not reflect that. This is that the infant infant and parent were positive for marijuana. Whether or not they have a card or not, whether it was for medical. OK. And for some perspective, I, I'm just curious, do we have numbers, I don't expect you to remember off the top of your head, but from, say, 10 years ago when, um, it was not legal. Were those numbers? still that high? Were they lower? I don't know the answer to that, but we could pull an old Garrett's law report and compare it back because we've been producing this report since 2007, I think. So we could pull back 10 years and compare, OK? And, and you do know that, um, let's see, on page. 7 Um, set the page I was looking at. Um Uh That it was the most commonly mentioned illegal substance, but Um It could be used in combination with other drugs. Well, maybe that's not the part, I don't know. Um, but that it, it's usually not what causes the health problems. Where did I read that? Oh, that's back on page. Sorry, too many pages. I don't know page. 4. There we go. Mothers who allegedly use marijuana were by far the least likely to give birth to children with a reported health problem. Um, but I'm just curious if there's any relation to those babies. Eventually being in DCFS care or reported later on. Is there ever a connection to see what happens to these babies after, not, not through this report, um, and I don't know if we would be able to pull that. It would be based on additional reports coming in in the history, just looking at the history, if, if we are re-involved. So I think the answer to that is I don't have that data. I, I guess maybe how, how does this report linked to our normal quarterly, yearly reports, are we seeing that these babies. are more likely to come into Foster care later on. So, um, on table 7, it talks about removal rate, um, but it doesn't explicitly say down the road, it does not, um, highlight that. And I would say in what we, what I normally, uh, present to you like these 1000 reports are part of what came in off the hotline, but they're not pulled out in like multiple, um, it could, you could potentially say, is it in the reoccurrence, but we would have to dig in and I'm not sure if we can do that or not. OK, just, you know, if we know that they're coming into a home that there might be some problems in the beginning, you know, what can we do to make sure that they don't. Enter the system later. Beautiful music. OK. Any other, any other questions from any members? Now, anything else, just remind us, December 12th at the Capitol, um, because there's a few members who just walked in now, um, and the, what's brought in there goes to just foster children, um, it can go to just foster kids. We can also use it to supplement, um, for kids in community, the kids in the communities too. OK. Thank you. Thank you so much for your work and, and what your staff does and everything. Thank you. Um, I just want to say one last thing in case anybody wants to meet her, my new assistant director, Amber Sarag is here with me today. Um, and then last, I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank you for your, um, support to DCFS. We appreciate it a lot. Thank you. Thank you very much. OK. Any members have any other thing? Anyone want to churn? Motion to adjourn. OK, then we are done here. Everyone have a very merry Christmas. Again, thank you to our staff, Destiny, I don't think I actually mentioned your name. Thank you very much for all your help. OK. Everyone have a great day.