Interim Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, Foster Care, and Adoption

Directors, NCSSA, NCACBSS,

Most of you are aware of the child welfare articles that ran in the Charlotte and Greensboro papers that focused on fatalities of children who in some way had been or were currently involved with DSS. The NCACDSS Advocacy committee came up with a list of recommendations to address the issues of concern raised by the articles. Secretary Hooker-Odom sent a letter to the Governor in response to the articles that included most of our recommendations (see attached hookerodomltrtogov). Members of the Advocacy and Executive committee held a phone conference with State DSS to rank the recommendations so that they could be prioritized for legislators. A long discussion was held to review the pros and cons of each ranking including likelihood of support, costs involved, impact the recommendation would have and the cascade effect one recommendation would have on another that could reduce the need for the second recommendation. Together with the state, we decided to combine some recommendations and make a few other changes. Attached you will find the amended version of the recommendations that have been ranked (see NCACDSS Response to Child Welfare Articles2).

The Speakers of the House (yes, there still are two of them!) were both cited in the newspaper articles stating that something must be done to improve the child welfare system. Speaker Black has put together a Child Abuse Study Committee that is responsible for reviewing the system to make recommendations for improvement. I have attached the charge of the committee as well as its membership (Child Abuse House Interim Committee).

Originally, we had been told that there would only be Legislators on the committee. However, we later came to learn that they had decided to add to non-legislators to the committee. Speaker Black's office had written Paula Wolf with Covenant for NC's Children to ask her recommendation for 2 non-legislators for the committee. She noted first her concern about the expansion of the committee from the child abuse and neglect issues to the additional complex issues of foster care and adoption. She stated, and our advocacy committee agrees, that this is more than the committee should try to take on if they hope to effectively target and address the challenges to reduce child fatalities. She recommended Jennifer Tolle-Whiteside (ED of Prevent Child Abuse) and I for the two non-legislator positions. You will see from the list of committee members that Jennifer and Tamara Barringer were chosen as the non-legislative members. I have contacted both Speakers to encourage them to consider adding a third non-legislative member to allow a DSS Director to sit on the committee. It does not look hopeful at this time that another position will be added for various reasons. We will, however, be at every meeting that is held by the committee and through Paula, have already scheduled a meeting next week with Rep. Jennifer Weiss, a co-chair of the committee. I'll be working closely along with Directors to educate the co-chairs and committee members on our recommendations.

I will provide you notice of any meetings that will be held and give you updates of the work of the committee. If you have any questions, please give me a call at 919-786-4015.

Thanks,
Karen