02/26/2013 03:00 PM House HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation: Alaska's Citizen Review Panel | |
| HB54 | |
| Adjourn |
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| *+ | HB 54 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
February 26, 2013
3:01 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Pete Higgins, Chair
Representative Lance Pruitt
Representative Lora Reinbold
Representative Paul Seaton
Representative Geran Tarr
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Wes Keller, Vice Chair
Representative Benjamin Nageak
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION: ALASKA'S CITIZEN REVIEW PANEL
- HEARD
HOUSE BILL NO. 54
"An Act relating to the identification, location, and
notification of specified family members of a child who is in
state custody."
- HEARD & HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: HB 54
SHORT TITLE: PLACEMENT OF A CHILD IN NEED OF AID
SPONSOR(s): REPRESENTATIVE(s) GARA, THOMPSON
01/16/13 (H) PREFILE RELEASED 1/11/13
01/16/13 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/16/13 (H) HSS, JUD
01/24/13 (H) SPONSOR SUBSTITUTE INTRODUCED
01/24/13 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/24/13 (H) HSS, JUD
02/07/13 (H) HSS AT 3:00 PM CAPITOL 106
02/07/13 (H) Scheduled But Not Heard
02/26/13 (H) HSS AT 3:00 PM CAPITOL 106
WITNESS REGISTER
DIWAKAR VADAPALLI Member,
Alaska Citizen Review Panel
Assistant Professor, Public Policy,
Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER)
University of Alaska Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified and answered questions during the
presentation by the Citizen Review Panel.
SUSAN HEUER, Chair
Citizen Review Panel
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified and answered questions during the
presentation by the Citizen Review Panel.
CHRISTY LAWTON, Director
Central Office
Office of Children's Services
Department of Health and Social Services
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified and answered questions during
presentations on both the Alaska Citizen Review Panel and SSHB
54.
REPRESENTATIVE LES GARA
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced SSHB 54 as a joint prime sponsor
of the bill.
REPRESENTATIVE STEVE THOMPSON
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced SSHB 54 as a joint prime sponsor
of the bill.
AMANDA METIVIER, Statewide Coordinator
Facing Foster Care in Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of SSHB 54.
NANCY WEBB
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during discussion of SSHB 54.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:01:35 PM
CHAIR PETE HIGGINS called the House Health and Social Services
Standing Committee meeting to order at 3:01 p.m.
Representatives Higgins and Seaton were present at the call to
order. Representatives Pruitt, Reinbold, and Tarr arrived as
the meeting was in progress.
^Presentation: Alaska's Citizen Review Panel
Presentation: Alaska's Citizen Review Panel
3:02:48 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS announced that the first order of business would
be a presentation by Alaska's Citizen Review Panel.
3:03:28 PM
DIWAKAR VADAPALLI, Member, Alaska Citizen Review Panel;
Assistant Professor, Public Policy, Institute of Social and
Economic Research (ISER), University of Alaska Anchorage,
introduced the other members of the Citizen Review Panel.
SUSAN HEUER, Chair, Citizen Review Panel, pointed out that the
panel members were from all parts of Alaska. She explained that
every state was federally mandated to have a Citizen Review
Panel (CRP). She stated that the CRP had formed in 2002 and
consisted of a group of seven volunteers. She directed
attention to a one page handout, titled "Alaska's Citizen Review
Panel," [Included in members' packets] which listed all the
places the CRP had visited. She reported that the CRP mandate
was to work independently of the Office of Children's Services
(OCS) and to collect public input for adequacy of the protective
services by OCS. She shared that annually the panel would visit
two sites as a group of mandated reporters to determine child
protection. The group would interview the local OCS staff and
the child protection community partners. She shared that after
these visits the panel would submit its report to OCS, OCS would
have the opportunity to respond, and this final annual report
would be submitted to the legislature.
3:07:25 PM
MS. HEUER established that there were two topics to focus on:
social worker retention and data compilation. She said that OCS
worker turnover had been about 34 percent over the past eight
years. She declared that this was an unacceptable rate, as it
resulted in a loss of experience and was very cost ineffective
to continually search and train to fill positions. She
expressed recognition of the difficulty of filling positions in
the Bush. She declared this to be a public safety issue, as
children were not safe. She opined that OCS should be
considered a public safety agency, although it was always
functioning on a "bare bones budget" and was the last agency to
receive any supplemental financial support to achieve its
mission.
3:10:31 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS asked for her recommendation.
MS. HEUER replied that OCS had contracted with an outside agency
for an objective evaluation to determine the necessary ratio of
support staff to case workers, which would be available in the
near future. This report would provide an analysis to support
the financial requests. She lauded OCS for utilizing the Casey
Family Services to work with the Wasilla field office staff and
community partners, and that the improvements had been dramatic.
She shared that the Casey Family Services would next work with
the OCS Bethel area office.
3:12:38 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS asked to define the Casey Family Services program.
MS. HEUER, in response, said that the OCS director could better
answer this. She stated that the program offered expertise,
consultants, and in-house training for resolution of child
welfare and child protection issues.
3:13:12 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS offered his belief that OCS did not know how to
run its offices.
MS. HEUER replied that the Wasilla OCS office had long standing
difficulties, and it had taken an outside agency to make a
positive change. She declared that the director at OCS was
"doing a really good job." She deemed that the 34 percent
vacancy rate was a very complicated problem with many
challenges, and that OCS was taking excellent steps for
resolution of the problems. She advocated for additional
funding to OCS for social service aides, noting that this was
the necessary support for social workers.
3:14:22 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked whether the Human Resources
department was still concentrated in the Department of
Administration (DOA), or whether OCS was now able to hire
internally, as OCS knew the details for the hiring.
MS. HEUER replied that she did not know.
3:15:30 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON, commenting on the time spent with
clerical work, asked if CRP had investigated the use of speech
recognition software for data entry and reports in order to
better utilize staff time.
MS. HEUER offered her belief that it was available, but that the
current software program, ORCA, was working better and more
quickly.
3:17:01 PM
MS. HEUER offered two specific recommendations for OCS
retention: she offered support to any request by OCS for
funding of future social service aides; and she expressed
concern with housing in rural areas and its impact on retention.
She offered an anecdote regarding rural housing. She stated
that adequate, appropriate housing would allow for "an enormous
cost saving over time."
CHAIR HIGGINS asked if the OCS applicants were invited to visit
beforehand.
MS. HEUER said that recruitment videos had been produced which
depicted the experience for living in rural Alaska.
CHAIR HIGGINS offered an anecdote about his experience with
recruiting applicants from outside Alaska.
MS HEUER replied that recruitment was being addressed within the
budgetary constraints. She reiterated the need to lower the
turnover rate.
CHAIR HIGGINS asked about the salary for social workers in rural
Alaska.
MS. HEUER said that she did not know.
CHAIR HIGGINS replied that when he accepted applicants to his
business in Alaska, he required that they pay their own expenses
to come to Alaska for the interview. "When someone asks me to
come up to Alaska, they do that on their own dime. I don't do
that. If you want the job, that tells me a little bit about
them."
MS. HEUER said she would defer that question to OCS. She
declared that staff retention was the biggest issue for OCS, "it
trickles down to everything else they do. When they constantly
have a new, young, inexperienced work force, all their other
practices and policies they want them to do is an uphill fight,
until they get an established workforce."
3:21:48 PM
MR. VADAPALLI said that the CRP reviewed objective data to
support or verify its OCS site visits. He declared that one
thing that stood out upon review of the OCS website was the 85
percent increase to the rate of allegations for neglect across
Alaska. He shared that CRP questioned the regional distribution
for this increase, but that the OCS regions had no common metric
to compare with any other regional data. He directed attention
to slide 12, "Illustration," and pointed out that Anchorage had
996 victims of child maltreatment, but it also had the largest
population. He reported that closer alignment of regional
boundaries revealed that Western Alaska had the highest rate of
children victims, and Anchorage then dropped almost to the
lowest percentage rate.
MR. VADAPALLI moved on to slide 13, "Children as percentage of
total population, by community," and explained that the panel
was focusing its efforts on the communities with more than 40
percent of the total population being children. He added that
this also reflected the potential for child abuse.
3:25:55 PM
MR. VADAPALLI declared that the CRP recommended that OCS enhance
its data compilation efforts. Although OCS collected good data,
it was necessary to create a common metric with other regional
data.
3:26:38 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR asked what would be the best common
denominator for collecting and reflecting data.
MR. VADAPALLI affirmed that CRP had discussed this with the OCS
Director and the Commissioner of Department of Health and Social
Services. He directed attention to the regional populations on
slide 12, and suggested that OCS match its boundaries with other
known boundaries, such as the census or Department of Labor &
Workforce Development boundaries, in order to better calculate
the common metric.
3:27:55 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR asked what common metric was used at the
federal level.
MR. VADAPALLI offered his belief that each federal agency
calculated its rates by regional population, and that these
often were compared with the U. S. Department of Labor.
3:28:56 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS asked how other states gathered similar data.
MR. VADAPALLI replied that other states gathered data in a
similar way, but that the gap was in the ability to effectively
use that data to inform policy. He opined that most states had
common areas such as counties and that most administrative
boundaries aligned with these. He reported that Alaska
administrative boundaries had been set long ago, and did not
align with current borough boundaries. He observed that a
realignment of boundaries would allow OCS to better track
progress and the effectiveness of the interventions, which would
allow the design for more effective policies. He admitted that,
although this would incur an expense as it would need to be a
statewide effort, it would only get more expensive.
3:30:55 PM
MS. HEUER asked that the committee support the governor's budget
for the incremental additions to OCS. She said that a small
amount of it would be for prevention and early intervention
services. She reported that the OCS budget was "incredibly
lean. There's no fat in the OCS budget." She reminded Chair
Higgins of his statement in an earlier committee meeting: "oil
isn't our most precious resource, it's our children." She
expressed her agreement with this statement, and asked that
future decisions and assistance be supportive of the children.
3:32:36 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS reiterated that children were the most important
resource, and that it was necessary to protect them. He stated
that he would "fight for every dime that you guys need."
3:33:02 PM
CHRISTY LAWTON, Director, Central Office, Office of Children's
Services, Department of Health and Social Services, directed
attention to the "2012 OCS Response to CRP Annual Report."
[Included in members' packets] She said that CRP had visited
the communities and had provided valuable insights for decision
making to OCS. She expressed her agreement with the high
priority recommendation to address worker retention. She
relayed that turnover had been a problem for the 15 years she
had been with OCS.
3:35:14 PM
MS. LAWTON reported on some of the innovative programs for
improvement. She stated that it was a complex issue which
needed to be addressed by a broad, multi-tiered approach.
Responding to the question regarding visitations by prospective
employees, she stated that, as this was very expensive, OCS had
instead created realistic job preview videos about living in
rural Alaska. However, she stated, the reality was, until you
are there and experiencing it, it was very hard to describe.
She declared that a preponderance of staff in Western Alaska
were new to Alaska.
3:36:53 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS asked what was the average rural staff salary.
MS. LAWTON replied that it was about $45,000 for a new worker,
with significant cost of living adjustments for rural Alaska.
CHAIR HIGGINS asked about the educational training requirements
for new staff.
MS. LAWTON replied that OCS was looking to hire people with a
four year degree, with an emphasis on certain fields. She noted
that related experience in other social service fields was also
a qualifier. She stated that the most important aspect was to
find the individual person best suited for the job.
CHAIR HIGGINS asked if $45,000 was a realistic salary for
someone with a four year degree to work in rural Alaska.
MS. LAWTON reminded that there were also significant cost of
living adjustments, but she did not know if that was a
reasonable entry level salary.
CHAIR HIGGINS asked if OCS had in-house promotions, to allow
training to people raised locally.
MS. LAWTON replied that OCS worked closely with University of
Alaska for employment of interns and people with two year Human
Services degrees. She reported that staffing for social service
associate positions, which were paraprofessional positions to
assist social workers, were also promoted to case workers. She
said that, although it was not a formal program, there were many
social workers who worked up through the system.
3:40:06 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked for an explanation about the
combining of job classes.
MS. LAWTON replied that all of the staff had previously been
referred to as social workers, ranked 1 through 4, with 4
designated as the supervisors. She reported that a few years
previously, the State of Alaska had required that social workers
be licensed, so the OCS had made a decision to create a dual job
class, separating licensed social workers with degrees, and
children services specialists for people with other degrees. At
that time, there was a discrepancy in pay at the first and
second level for these dual job classes, even though there was
the same amount of work and responsibility. At the request of
the union, there was a job class study and an increment of the
governor's budget had addressed this. She offered her belief
that this would promote retention. She stated that this created
a third job class, protective services specialist, with three
tiers leading to a supervisor position.
3:42:35 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked if OCS had its own Human Resources
staff.
MS. LAWTON replied that OCS did, and was able to make its own
hiring decisions.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON repeated his earlier question about the
use of speech recognition software by OCS. He asked if OCS was
researching any means for simplifying data entry and decreasing
the necessary clerical time.
MS. LAWTON expressed her agreement that this was "a hot topic of
conversation right now." She relayed that there had been
transcription service available to staff, and that OCS was
currently reviewing a speech recognition software which would
interface directly with the worker's computer. She expressed
her hope that this would be available to the staff in the near
future.
3:44:58 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked if technological tools were
available to all OCS staff.
MS. LAWTON stated that OCS did provide cell phones and did
attempt to have laptops available for field work. She discussed
a pilot program for mini computers, small scale laptops for use
by staff when travelling, but acknowledged that the usage had
not been as successful as planned. She expressed the desire for
all staff to have a light, easy to use laptop that was connected
to the OCS data management system. She said that both cost and
technology were still obstacles.
REPRESENTATIVE TARR asked to preview the job video.
3:47:46 PM
The committee took a brief at-ease.
HB 54-PLACEMENT OF A CHILD IN NEED OF AID
3:49:55 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS announced that the final order of business would
be SPONSOR SUBSTITUTE FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 54, "An Act relating to
the identification, location, and notification of specified
family members and family friends of a child who is in state
custody."
3:50:00 PM
REPRESENTATIVE PRUITT moved to adopt the proposed committee
substitute (CS) for sponsor substitute for HB 54, labeled 28-
LS0202\R, Mischel, 2/7/13, as the working document. There being
no objection, Version R was before the committee.
3:50:39 PM
REPRESENTATIVE LES GARA, Alaska State Legislature, speaking as a
joint prime sponsor, said that the proposed bill was intended to
be very simple. He stated that the standard in foster care was
to do what was in the best interest for the child, and that it
was necessary to look for the best placement for a child, often
with another family member. He reported that the OCS policy was
broader than federal law, and required the search for placement,
within 30 days, with family members or adult family friends of
the family. He offered an anecdotal account that foster youth
sometimes recounted regarding preferred family members who had
not been contacted for placement.
REPRESENTATIVE GARA directed attention to page 1, line 12, of
Version R, which took the existing OCS policy to search for
family members and family friends, and required that a
supervisor sign off that this had been done with due diligence.
He said that this would ensure that the search for family
members as foster parents had been conducted. He noted that, as
childhood trauma could put a bad imprint on a child, it was
often easier to repair this damage with a family member. He
opined that OCS was open to this change, but he requested that
this provision be placed in statute, so that it could not be
culled by any future revisions in OCS. He declared that there
was not any cost and he pointed out that this emphasized the
importance of this contact.
3:55:47 PM
REPRESENTATIVE STEVE THOMPSON, Alaska State Legislature,
declared that the proposed bill was important, as it ensured
that the supervisor had talked with the placement personnel
regarding the search for placement with a family member or a
family member friend, in the best interest of the child.
3:56:48 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked to clarify the changes to the
proposed CS.
3:57:16 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GARA replied that the changes had been suggested
by OCS. He explained the proposed two-step process by OCS:
first, a notification letter would be sent to every adult family
member, and then second, adult family friends would be
considered as the next priority after adult family members.
3:58:05 PM
REPRESENTATIVE PRUITT asked about the removal of the court
requirement.
REPRESENTATIVE GARA, in response, stated that this was also a
suggestion from OCS. He explained that the discovery process
ensured that information had to be shared between both sides,
and that this eliminated the necessity for the court to provide
the information.
3:58:55 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS opened public testimony.
3:59:18 PM
AMANDA METIVIER, Statewide Coordinator, Facing Foster Care in
Alaska, stated that she supported the proposed bill. She shared
that she had worked statewide with hundreds of young people in
and from foster care, had been a foster parent and had been in
foster care, and that the proposed bill ensured compliance in
the early search for placement with family and adult family
friends.
4:00:46 PM
NANCY WEBB said that the search process for family members
needed to be strengthened. She offered her belief that the
discovery process depended on a lawyer asking for information,
as it was not provided automatically and, therefore, it was
important to retain the provision. She offered her observation
that "judges are woefully uninformed about these cases." She
suggested that it would be a great improvement if judges were
better informed regarding the search for family members, and the
reason why a family member was not selected. She offered a
personal anecdote regarding her youngest grandson. She declared
that any additional information for judges would allow for
better decisions. She said that the confidentiality rules made
it difficult for family members to gain information, and that it
was necessary for explanations to family members when they were
not accepted as foster parents. She declared that, as the
children specialist position was initially paid at a very low
level, this was a part of the problem.
4:05:02 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS left public testimony open and stated that SSHB 54
would be held over.
4:05:45 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked if OCS was in agreement with the
proposed removal of notification to the court.
MS. LAWTON said that Department of Health and Social Services
was not taking a position on the proposed bill. She said that
all discovery produced by OCS was provided to all the legal
parties through the discovery process. She opined that judges
were not reviewing the material but instead, relied on the
parties to identify the issues.
4:07:11 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked to clarify that an attorney did not
have to solicit information, but that the parties were required
to supply the information on a regular basis. He asked if the
information was transferred in an expedited time frame.
4:08:24 PM
MS. LAWTON said that the discovery material was provided weekly
and monthly in the first six months of a case, and then
subsequently, it was provided prior to each scheduled hearing.
She said that relatives were given notification related to
hearings, and in the initial 30 day search for relatives and
other adult family members, notice was provided. She reported
that any denial of placement and reason for denial was also
provided.
4:09:34 PM
REPRESENTATIVE PRUITT, referring to a comment by Ms. Webb, asked
if the proposed CS was already standard practice.
MS. LAWTON explained that the practice related to diligent
search for relatives "was more clearly defined by the federal
government several years ago." She stated that the new element
in the proposed bill was the specific requirement for a
supervisor to inquire and document the actions of the case
worker during the first 30 days.
4:10:54 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR asked if the requirement for review by a
supervisor would eliminate any oversight, especially during a
time of staff transition.
4:11:19 PM
MS. LAWTON replied that, although it could emphasize that area,
supervisors were required to monitor compliance for a lot of
issues.
4:11:43 PM
REPRESENTATIVE PRUITT asked if there would be any additional
cost and duties for supervisors.
MS. LAWTON replied that she did not anticipate any additional
cost or work for the supervisors.
4:12:11 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS reiterated that Department of Health and Social
Services had not taken a position on the proposed bill.
4:12:26 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS said that SSHB 54 would be held over.
4:12:41 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Health and Social Services Standing Committee meeting was
adjourned at 4:12 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB054 Sponsor Statement.pdf |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
HB 54 |
| HB054 SSHB 54 Version P.pdf |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
HB 54 |
| HB054 Blank CS Version R.pdf |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
HB 54 |
| HB054 Summary of Changes - SSHB 54 to CSHB 54 version R.pdf |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
HB 54 |
| HB054 Sectional Analysis.pdf |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
HB 54 |
| HB054 Fiscal Note - HB054SS-DHSS-FLSW-2-4-13.pdf |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
HB 54 |
| HB054 Supporting Documents - OCS Frontline Turnover Rate.pdf |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
HB 54 |
| HB054 Supporting Documents - Letter Presbyterian Hospitality House 2.2.13.pdf |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
HB 54 |
| Presentation 2013 HSS Committee Feb.pptx |
HHSS 2/26/2013 3:00:00 PM |
Alaska Citizen's Review Panel |