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Minutes Children Services Committee Meeting June 9 , 2004 |
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1. Review Agenda, Approve Minutes and Set New Agenda Items |
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Present: Donn Gunderson, Brenda Jackson, Debra Jones, Karen Hoyle, Connie Oxendine, Wanda Bullard, Vickie Moore, Belinda Sims, Mary O'Neal-Mauney, Wanda Neidig, LaVaughn Nesmith, Velvet Perdue, Joyce Gardner, Denise Shaffer, Rita Bland, Pam Grantham, Karen Ellis, Mike Herzing, Lee Roberts, John Carroll, Margaret Johnson, Kristy Preston, Cyndy Benson, Bertram Wilson, Joyce Edwards, Lisa Roberson, Keith Davis, Lynn Wilson, Kaye Radford, Chris Sinha, Heather Skeens, Donna Beck, Tracy Turner, Ruth Harrison, Esther High, Tony Troop, Helen Lipman, Sue Kerns, David Atkinson, Lorie Horne, Karen Ellis, Kevin Kelly, Carlotta Dixon and Judi Akers |
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Conclusion: The Committee considered the Agenda for the meeting and the Minutes from the April 7, 2004 meeting. There were no additions, deletions or corrections to the Minutes from the April meeting. Karen Hoyle moved that the April Minutes be approved as transmitted. Pam Grantham seconded the motion, which carried unanimously. Discussion about the IV-E Waiver Project was added under agenda item #4 and discussion about the Domestic Violence Policy was added under agenda item #3. |
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Action Items: • None |
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2. Hopkins Appeal Case |
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Discussion: Chris Sinha, AG's Office continued to provide interpretation of Hopkins. See April 9, 2004 minutes. Chris stated the Supreme Court should be deciding if they want to review the Hopkins case. Probably want hear about this case for two years and it may be similar to Stumbo and the court may decide to stay away from the due process issue. Chris recommended that counties abide by Stumbo and ignore Hopkins, but be aware that two years from now this issue will come up again. Chris is waiting for things to settle down at the General Assembly before getting a letter out. The Division plans to put forth legislation in the upcoming long session of the General Assembly that they hope will help resolve some of the controversy around this issue. |
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Conclusion: Division will send Dear Director letter to counties regarding this issue.
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Action Items: • None |
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3. Domestic Violence Policy Work Group Update |
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Discussion: The Work Group met once immediately after the April committee meeting. JoAnn Lamm, Division of Social Services, addressed the committee as it related to the review process and charge of the DV Work Group. Refinement of the policy meant the ability to make changes. Tony Troop, Div. of Social Services and Tracy Turner, Director's Association staff, will coordinate the meetings to review and recommend changes to the policy. Two guiding principles will lead the work group: 1) Protection of children is what DSS is about and 2) Taking care of social workers while we protect children. Cyndy Benson, Catawba Co. DSS, presented an unscientific time study completed by her agency, which estimated approximately four additional hours to investigate reports involving domestic violence. |
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Conclusion: Committee will be kept abreast of the DV policy review and revision process. |
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4. Multiple Response System |
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Discussion: Tony Troop, Division of Social Services, provided an update on the 10 pilot counties. An overall assessment identifies the following issues: difficult for reporters to identify family strengths at intake, 60% to 90% of cases are assigned to Family Assessment which brings to question consistency at a time when we want to be consistent throughout the state, in-home re-design is time consuming, collaboration with law enforcement and district attorneys needed, Shared Parenting difficult to implement, child welfare/work first collaboration is not strong, and difficult for one worker to keep the case due to high caseloads. Despite the challenges, family centered practice is the way to go. Tony provided the following report on the 42 new MRS counties: some counties are not attending the monthly meetings, scheduling problems with training, working on community building and reorganization, Divison not seeing a large volumne of technical calls from the counties, and financial resources to implement the program is a challenge. A partnership has been formed for the new counties with the 10 initial pilot counties. The Division is paying close attention to the training issues and is committed to continue putting forth efforts to get financial resources, evaluate caseload standards and strengthen training. MRS pilot counties are strongly encouraged to participate in the IV-E Waiver Project. JoAnn Lamm, Division of Social Services, stated that the Division is researching the problem of the IV-E revenue reduction but they are not seeing this problem in all the 10 MRS pilot counties. Part of the problem could stem from less cases moving into case management/planning due to the ability to provide services in the family assessment phase. JoAnn reminded everyone that regardless if you are a MRS county or not, you cannot use IV-E funds for low risk cases. JoAnn requested input from counties regarding this matter and encourage evaluation of the use of TANF funds and participation in the IV-E Waiver Project. JoAnn Lamm presented on the IV-E Waiver Project. The Division has received a 5-year extension and 75 county expansion of the project. No new money as part of the expansion; however, the project allows flexibility of the use of existing IV-E funds to be used for non-IV-E children. The 19 demonstration counties will be participating in the evaluation process. Strongly encouraged counties to participate in the IV-E Bidders Conference on June 17th. The 19 pilot counties are required to attend this Conferernce. JoAnn Lamm stated that statewide implementation of MRS is dependent on the budget, resource availabilty and the legislative session. |
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Conclusion: The Division will continue to research the IV-E revenue matter and keep the committee abreast of their findings. |
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Action Items: • None |
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• Child Fatality Protocol |
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Discussion: Kevin Kelly, Division of Social Services , presented on the Child Fatality Protocol. The policy has not changed but streamlined. The Division of Social Services will continue to partner to provide leadership and guidance to the local Child Fatality Teams. What has changed is what can be legally release in the report. Reviews involving multiple counties, the Division will not name the other county involved to reduce the tendency to blame. The Division has requested a Child Fatality Reviewer position in their expansion budget request to assist with the backlog. The committee determined no need for a fiscal note. |
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Conclusion: Karen Hoyle made a motion that we support the changes to the Child Fatality protocol. Mike Herzing seconded the motion. The motion passed. |
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6. Pre-Service Training Issues |
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Discussion: Brenda Jackson informed the committee of concerns related to the notification to counties that a social worker had not successfully completed their pre-service training and concerns about the pre and post testing. Ruth Harrison, Division of Social Services, explained the pre-service process which included the knowledge assessment and transfer of learning activities. The pre and post tools are to be used for training evaluation and identification of training needs that counties may want to address with the worker as part of their in-house training activities and should not be used for discliplinary actions. These tools were requested by supervisors across the state. On the last day of pre-service training (Friday), the worker is required to submit their completed packet. If they do not complete and turn in their packet, the Training Center staff calls the county supervisor on the next business day (Monday). The employee/county has three days to fax the information to the training center. A Dear Director was sent out on February 9, 2004 explaining this process. |
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Conclusion: The Committee recommended that the Training Center notify the DSS Director rather than the supervisor in the county to inform them that the social worker did not successfully complete pre-service training. |
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Action Items: • None |
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• Interpreters for CPS Investigations involving the Hearing Impaired |
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Discussion: JoAnn Lamm, Division of Social Services, reminded the Committee about the State's contractual agreement for interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing and encouraged counties to utilize this service. |
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Conclusion: The Division will be sending a Dear Director letter out reminding counties of this service. |
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