Vol. 12, No. 1• November 2007

What you should know about the recent federal review of NC

This spring the federal government assessed our state’s child welfare system using the Child and Family Services Review, a formal assessment process that occurs every five years or so. Because it can influence the focus and direction of a state’s child welfare system for years, this review is a relatively big deal.

North Carolina expended quite a bit of energy in 2007 preparing for the review, participating in the review in March, and waiting for the results. Now they are in.

This article explores the conclusions reached by North Carolina’s latest review and their implications for our system.

The CFSR Process
When it conducts the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR), the federal government assesses a state child welfare system’s ability to achieve positive outcomes for children and families in three broad areas: safety, permanency, and well-being. There are many specific indicators under each of these categories, each of which is given a rating by reviewers based on the extent to which federal benchmarks are met.

To assess a state, reviewers draw on many sources of information, including quantitative statewide data, interviews with child welfare system stakeholders (including families, children, and foster parents), and a review of 65 case files from three counties. Catawba, Mecklenburg, and Nash counties were the three that participated in our 2007 review.

Strengths
Federal reviewers identified many strengths in our state’s child welfare system. Those of special interest to foster parents include:

  • Education. Reviewers said North Carolina does a good job providing services to meet children’s educational needs.
  • Placements close to home. Reviewers celebrated the fact that children are often placed close to parents and possible permanent caregivers.
  • Siblings placed together. The CFSR found NC children were consistently placed with siblings unless there was a valid reason not to.
  • Health. Reviewers found our state to be effective in addressing the physical health needs of children involved in the child welfare system.
  • Meeting foster parent needs. The CFSR concluded NC agencies are “highly effective” with regard to assessing and meeting the service needs of children and foster parents.
  • LINKS. The CFSR stated that although services to help children transition from foster care to independent living are of very high quality, there are not enough of these services.

Needs
Although these findings are good, federal reviewers also identified a great number of areas where the performance of our system needs improvement. Some of the most significant concerns pertain to:

  • Placement instability: it found most foster care placement changes were due to the child’s behavior and the lack of intervention on the part of the agency to support foster families before behavior problems resulted in a disrupted placement
  • Inconsistent efforts to target recruitment of foster homes for special populations
  • Insufficient involvement of children’s fathers and paternal relatives
  • Delays and barriers to filing for or achieving termination of parental rights (TPR)
  • Lack of the substance abuse treatment, mental health, and domestic violence services needed to address the needs of children and families served by child welfare

There are many more. Although these are serious concerns, it is worth noting that the Administration for Children and Families itself states that it has set a very high standard of performance for the review to encourage states to achieve positive outcomes for children and families.

Now What?
In response to the CFSR findings and in consultation with the federal government, our state is developing a Program Improvement Plan (PIP) to enhance its child welfare system. Workgroups of statewide stakeholders convened in May to focus on improvements in five key areas: (1) child, youth, and family involvement, (2) court involvement, (3) accountability, (4) cultural competence, and (5) interagency collaboration. Based on input from these groups, North Carolina is seeking to:

  • Enhance court collaboration to address delays
  • Reduce placement moves for children in foster care
  • Strengthen the child and family team meeting process
  • Improve targeted recruitment of foster parents
  • Redesign NC’s quality assurance system (e.g., the Division’s periodic reviews of county DSS agencies)
  • Engage in strategic planning with county DSS supervisors to address practice and system issues
  • Address the disproportionate representation of African-Americans in the system

As you can tell from looking at this list—which isn’t comprehensive—the impact of the CFSR will be felt by foster parents and everyone else involved with child welfare in North Carolina for some time.

To Learn More
• To read the CFSR, go to <http://www.ncdhhs.gov/dss/stats/docs/NC%20CFSR%202007%20Final%20Report.pdf>

Copyright � 2007 Jordan Institute for Families