Legislature(2009 - 2010)BUTROVICH 205
03/20/2009 01:15 PM Senate HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Foster Care Legislative Summit | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
March 20, 2009
1:22 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Bettye Davis, Chair
Senator Joe Paskvan, Vice Chair
Senator Joe Thomas
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Johnny Ellis
Senator Fred Dyson
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Representative Les Gara
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Foster Care Legislative Summit
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record.
WITNESS REGISTER
REPRESENTATIVE GARA
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on Foster Care issues.
AMANDA METIVIER, Statewide Coordinator
Facing Foster Care in Alaska (FFCA)
POSITION STATEMENT: Helped present FFCA issues.
PETER PECORA
Casey Family Programs and the University of Washington
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on foster care issues.
KAYLEE DAY, Statewide Coordinator
Facing Foster Care in Alaska (FFCA)
POSITION STATEMENT: Related her experience in foster care.
SHILO VALLE
Facing Foster Care in Alaska (FFCA)
POSITION STATEMENT: Related his experience in foster care.
ANTHONY BARRIL
Facing Foster Care in Alaska (FFCA)
POSITION STATEMENT: Related his experience in foster care.
BARB DEXTER
Anchorage School District
POSITION STATEMENT: Explained Anchorage School District's Child
in Transition Homeless Project.
BETH SNYDER
Anchorage School District
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided information on Anchorage School
District's Child in Transition Homeless Project.
TAMMY SANDOVAL, Director
Alaska Office of Children's Services
Department of Health and Social Services
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in the discussion on foster
care.
JOHN HENDERSON
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Children's Bureau in Region 10
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in the discussion on foster
care.
BILL HOGAN, Commissioner
Department of Health and Social Services
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in the discussion on foster
care.
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:22:39 PM
CHAIR BETTYE DAVIS called the Senate Health and Social Services
Standing Committee meeting to order at 1:22 p.m. Present at the
call to order were Senators Paskvan and Davis.
^Foster Care Legislative Summit
Foster Care Legislative Summit
CHAIR DAVIS announced the Foster Care Legislative Summit to be
the first and only order of business.
REPRESENTATIVE GARA said this summit is largely sponsored by
Facing Foster Care Alaska (FFCA), a group of foster youth and
alumni of foster care who are trying to bring some foster care
system issues to the public's attention and suggesting how they
can be fixed. He said the Casey Family Foundation is also
involved.
1:27:47 PM
CHAIR DAVIS said she would like to start with a presentation by
Facing Foster Care.
AMANDA METIVIER, Statewide Coordinator, Facing Foster Care in
Alaska, and Kaylee Day, a statewide FFCA coordinator, Telora
Thompson, Shilo Valle, FFCA member, Anthony Barril, FFCA member,
Peter Pecora, Casey Family Programs and the University of
Washington, introduced themselves.
MS. METIVIER said the FFCA is a statewide organization made up
of youths in and from the foster care system ages 15 and up.
Last year they brought in foster youth from all over Alaska to
talk about what could better the lives of kids in foster care.
"These were not just wants; I think these were needs, too."
The first issue she wanted to discuss was tuition waivers for
all foster youth who age out of foster care. Currently the state
provides 10 tuition waivers, but that is not enough. Another
issue was more support for youth pursuing post secondary
education including vocational and technical schools, job
training, and transitional living.
MS. METIVIER related that it is so hard to find placements for
teenagers that one dubbed it as "foster homeless" and so the
last issue she wanted to highlight was extending Medicaid to 21
years old so they won't be just cut off at 20 years when they
age from the system. At this time they only have coverage to the
age of 19.
SENATOR THOMAS joined the committee.
1:32:31 PM
PETER PECORA, representing the Casey Family Programs and the
University of Washington, highlighted some of the findings of
studies related to foster care with special emphasis on a recent
foster care study of alumni in Alaska. He said that while there
are many challenges in child welfare today, practical strategies
to improve outcomes are being established; it is a hopeful time
to be in the field.
MS. METIVIER said the Alaska alumni study showed that 79 percent
of the alumni interviewed finished high school through either a
diploma or GED; about 15 percent completed a GED with 63 percent
receiving a diploma and 4.5 percent completing college. She said
that many kids in foster care opt out of high school because
they move so much they can't keep up as they lose credits,
friends, teachers, each time they change schools. She asked the
kids on the panel to relate how they thought being in foster
care affected their education.
1:35:43 PM
KAYLEE DAY, FFCA, Juneau, Alaska, said foster care affected her
in a positive way. Before she went to foster care she was about
to drop out as a freshman in high school. She was placed with
her aunt who insisted that she graduate from high school. She
went from being two years behind to graduating only two credits
late.
SHILO VALLE, FFCA, Juneau, Alaska, said foster care made school
difficult for him, because it stressed him out. He never knew
where he was going to stay or what he would eat and what would
happen next.
ANTHONY BARRIL, FFCA, Juneau, Alaska, said foster care was very
hard, because he moved from home to home. He is doing well now
and is only three credits away from graduation.
MR. VALLE clarified that he is a senior in high school; he has
his own apartment and lives on his own. He works 40 hours a week
to support himself, but he can never get all of his homework
done. He has been accepted to a school down south, but has to
come up with $27,000 to pay for it. The thought that a lack of
money will keep him from going to school worries him a lot.
MS. METIVIER said the unemployment rate among foster care kids
was 29.6 percent for alumni compared to 7.1 percent in the
general population at the time of the alumni study. She remarked
that young people in foster care don't get a lot of job
experience because it's hard to keep a job when you are moving
around or when you have to go through a lot of red tape like
getting your social worker to sign off on a work permit, which
could take weeks.
1:39:17 PM
MR. PECORA said when kids are placed in foster care, the trauma
can interfere with their educational development. A foster
parent's first priorities are food, safety and shelter and then
getting that child to school. This is a challenge because they
are already behind in many cases. Many kids need to learn
ordinary life skills as well.
He said if a child doesn't have educational skills or family
members who can provide opportunities for employment, 1 out of 5
alumni experience one or more days of homelessness within a year
of leaving foster care. In Alaska, that rate is 30 percent or 3
out of 10. Alumni are in a fragile economic situation in other
ways; 39 percent of the alumni in the Alaska study lack health
insurance coverage, double the national average (18 percent).
1:42:44 PM
MR. PECORA said the study indicated the rate of teen pregnancy
is very high - 57 percent of young women in foster care had been
pregnant before age 19, and it's a little hard to start your
career if you have an unplanned pregnancy or fathered a child.
This is a major issue.
MS. METIVIER touched on the housing piece a little more, because
she said youth who "bounce around in foster care" have no
stability; for many of them Covenant House is their family. If
they have a stable place in foster care, they are likely to
extend foster care with that family and have someone to call
when they need help.
MR. VALLE said that three months before he was going to age out
of foster care he was living in a tent on Thane. He tore his ACL
and luckily he still had health insurance. He knew he couldn't
stay in a tent all summer; so two weeks after his knee surgery
he went back to hard labor for Trail Mix, Inc. He said it was
very hard; he couldn't wash his clothes, he was constantly in
work clothes and got up to cold mornings. He would go to work,
ice his knee, come back to the tent go to sleep, and repeat that
routine every day. Now he lives on his own and works full time.
CHAIR DAVIS asked why he was living in a tent when he was still
in foster care.
MR. VALLE replied that there was nowhere to put him and he
refused to go back to Cornerstone, the emergency housing
facility, where he was treated like a convict.
CHAIR DAVIS asked if he shared his feelings with the division.
MR. VALLEY replied yes.
1:47:05 PM
MS. DAY related that she was living with her grandmother when
she aged out of foster care; her grandmother didn't want her to
live with her anymore, and so she had to find somewhere else to
stay. Fortunately, she had an aunt who allowed her to stay for a
year before she found her own place. She had some support from
OCS, but not as much as she wished she had.
MS. METIVIER related that she was lucky because her foster
family let her continue to live with them while she finished
college.
1:48:30 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GARA asked what benefits are available for a
person aging out of foster care to pay for housing.
MS. METIVIER answered that OCS through the Independent Living
Program has funds for the first 2 months rent and half of the
next two months' rent up to age 18.
She said that predictors of success are stable placements, one
healthy adult relationship with someone who can be a mentor,
increased access to extracurricular activities because after
leaving foster care (that has many appointments), suddenly there
is nothing to engage them, and life skills development. She said
that OCS has an independent living program that does great, but
it doesn't have enough resources.
In closing, she asked the panel to each tell them one thing that
helped them succeed as an adult.
MR. VALLE said one thing that helped him succeed as an adult is
that he had one person who helped him no matter what. Stephanie
Day was and is always there for him - "She helped me with
everything."
MS. DAY said she was fortunate enough to have family, but not
all foster youth that age out have that. More support is the one
thing that helped her succeed.
MS. METIVIER said that more financial support to the OCS
Independent Living Program is the primary thing kids need after
aging out.
CHAIR DAVIS said she wants the public to know that the
legislature is not just listening, but planning how it can take
action. She said the House and Senate have introduced SB 105 and
HB 126 to address some of these issues.
1:55:35 PM
MR. PECORA underscored the importance of very focused
independent living skills as children leave foster care. They
also need to recognize that when kids are placed more
permanently with families they are more stable, and those
connections set them up for success.
1:59:08 PM
BARB DEXTER, Anchorage School District, said they worked with
the McKinney Vento Liaison since 1993 on the Anchorage School
District's Child in Transition Homeless Project. She explained
that the McKinney Vento Public Assistance Act is the primary
piece of federal legislation dealing with education of children
and youth experiencing homelessness in U.S. public schools. It
was reauthorized as Title 10, Part (c) of No Child Left Behind
in January 2002. The McKinney Vento Act deals with a group of
about 100 homeless children and youth like Mr. Valle was talking
about, as well as kids awaiting foster care - where a placement
wasn't available. Youth who age out of the program at 18
sometimes move into shelters because another foster care
placement isn't available even though they aren't out of high
school yet.
So, they started a dialogue in 2000 with the local OCS office to
talk about areas of overlap and, with the help of Casey Family
Program, they have developed a committee called The Education
and Foster Care Committee that works with the court services,
OCS, the school district, and a number of other agencies dealing
with foster care in Alaska to talk about these upcoming issues.
2:01:15 PM
BETH SNYDER, Anchorage School District, added that today's panel
had spoken eloquently about how frequent moving affects youths'
success or lack of it. The educational impact of each school
change is significant and disruptive; they may lose days or
weeks of school in the process. She said positive gains have
been seen by helping kids stay in their school of origin.
2:03:26 PM
MS. DEXTER added that tailoring programs to meet the specific
needs of older youth so they obtain a diploma is important,
things like making sure records follow.
2:04:29 PM
MS. SNYDER said that transportation is a key component of
insuring school stability and that is a cost their district has
taken that on related to McKinney Vento, but that isn't true
everywhere.
MS. DEXTER said that McKinney Vento mandates her district to
provide transportation to schools of origin, but no McKinney
Vento funds are provided to do that. In addition, there is
specific need for [indisc.] to recognize the special population
such as children in foster care. She emphasized that school
stability helps them achieve placement stability.
2:06:23 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GARA said he appreciated Ms. Snyder's and Ms.
Dexter's efforts in this area.
CHAIR DAVIS appreciated their concern and advised them that
legislation is under way, but she recognized, as well, that the
funding just isn't there. She said she hopes there will be money
in the stimulus package for transportation.
2:08:00 PM
MS. SNYDER commented that they have seen students who fall under
the McKinney Vento have a higher incidence of staying in their
foster placement when they can be kept in their school of
origin.
2:08:53 PM
JOHN HENDERSON, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Children's Bureau in Region 10, introduced himself.
TAMMY SANDOVAL, Director, Alaska Office of Children's Services
(OCS), Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS),
introduced herself.
MR. HENDERSON encouraged the committee to read the Children and
Family Service's final report that came out last week for which
he would provide the highlights.
He said the review was done in Alaska on 9/8/08, and says the
state has 90 days to develop a program improvement plan (PIP) to
correct the areas that aren't in conformity with national
standards. The plan through regulation has to provide PIPs for
each non-conforming element for each of the case review outcomes
as well as the systemic factors. In addition, certain areas have
to be prioritized in the plan, and the first one has to be child
safety.
He said they recently came out with a new technical bulletin
that is more specific about the amount of improvement that must
be made as well as which items need a quantifiable performance
goal that can be measured over the course of the PIP.
The state did well in case review item 5: foster care re-entry
at a 91-percent strength. That means that 91 percent of the kids
who come into the foster care system and then returned home
didn't go back to foster care. This is good, but it has been
found that reunification takes longer in Alaska than the
national standard would expect. He cautioned that to sustain the
good reentry rate, kids can't be returned home too soon.
Another area the state did well in (90 percent or better) were
item 11 - proximity of foster care placements, and item 12 -
placing siblings together. This has to do with Alaska's practice
of using relatives for placements. Often these placements turn
into permanent placements where Alaska also has a good showing.
Alaska was also found in substantial conformity with its data
system, known as ORCA. This is a very important data collection
tool for management and supervisors to get feedback on their
performance.
MR. HENDERSON said other areas need improvement like safety,
terms of content and the timing of the PIP. Timeliness of
investigation, at 56-percent strength, is another area that
needs improvement. The state does pretty well with emergent
response investigation and less well with those responses that
don't require that emergent response time. Repeat maltreatment,
at 81 percent, needs to be addressed significantly as well.
Safety 2 has a couple of areas; item 3 - Services to prevent
removal from home is at 51 percent strength. Item 4 - Risk of
harm at 39 percent - speaks to the state's ability to ameliorate
the risk to a child in being placed out of the home.
2:19:07 PM
MR. HENDERSON said another outcome area, permanency 1, has the
most challenges even though some areas have some strengths like
(item 5) reentry and stability of placement (72.5 percent). He
pointed out that the state needs to find out what the
contributing factors are so that strategies can be designed
through the PIP process to focus on those areas.
The rest of the items in permanency 1 have to do with
establishing the permanency goal in a timely way (at 45
percent). He explained that the state was usually pretty good
about establishing a permanency goal at the beginning of a case,
but as it goes along, the goals often weren't re-evaluated. When
they are talking about performance indicators, the Child Welfare
Agency must work in partnership with the Court Improvement
Project and the courts at large to see any improvement.
2:21:36 PM
Timeliness of reunification was at 33 percent and they looked
for that to be achieved within one year; adoption was at 18
percent and they looked for that to be achieved within two
years. Other planned living arrangements associated with older
youth scored 60 percent, much higher than any of the other goals
in the review process. Proximity in placement with siblings had
a good showing at 90 percent. Children having an opportunity to
visit with parents was at 62 percent, preserving connections
with parents was at 83 percent, relationship of a child who is
in care with the parent is at 47 percent.
One other outcome that is very concerning is wellbeing 1. A
couple of areas were 19 and 20 - case worker visits with
children and case workers visits with parents. Those outcomes
are at 23 percent. The state has started working on that
already, which is good.
2:24:12 PM
Education scored at 76 percent (as opposed to 95 percent
standard). Physical health was at 71 percent; mental health was
at 55 percent. Again, he said, resolving these issues will take
collaborative relationships between the community and the child
welfare system.
2:25:11 PM
In addition to the outcomes, seven systemic areas were addressed
in the report. The ORCA system is one; all of the others
including case review, quality assurance, staff training,
services array, agency responsiveness to the community, foster
parent licensing and recruitment need improvement. The case
review is one area that they really want to work on with the
state. This has to do with court proceedings and hearings
including administrative hearings. Quality assurance has a very
good case review process in place, but he has observed a greater
need for a circular QA system feeding from ORCA to management
and back to the field.
MR. HENDERSON said the area of training has some geographical
challenges as well as staff turnover and capacity challenges. In
the area of services array the state relies substantially on
capacity and resources in the community.
Agency responsiveness to community was good at the local level,
but the state had no formalized process that incorporated the
work that was being done at the local levels to feed into the
state planning process.
He said that foster parent licensing and recruitment had a
number of practice applications for licenses with variances and
some issues around timeliness of completing criminal history
checks will be addressed more emphatically; the PIP to address
th
these issues is due on May 4.
2:29:21 PM
MR. HENDERSON said they are encouraging attention to the areas
of implementation of the safety model, the process to go along
with the quality assurance and monitoring, assessment and case
planning practices and policy, worker contact, system capacity
around workforce, supervision and staff training and QA.
He summarized that Alaska is looking at a tremendous number of
things on their federal plate - its PIP which is due May 4th, a
children and family services plan due June 30th with a one-year
report as well as a five-year prospective plan, and secondary
federal Title 4E (social services statute about funding for
foster care maintenance and administration) review in July. This
will be tough to get done. Again he encouraged everyone to look
at the report online.
2:31:23 PM
MS. SANDOVAL thanked the youth who spoke to their situations
here today. This kind of feedback is necessary to improve the
process, she said.
2:34:43 PM
With regard to the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR), she
said, while they aren't meeting the standard of 95 percent,
progress has been made with placement stability. Now the gaps
need to be identified. Thankfully ORCA can help provide that
kind of data.
MS. SANDOVAL noted that the practice model and safety decision
making model have improved some, though not enough, particularly
on repeat maltreatment rates. It's true that implementation of
the practice model has been slow. The federal government asked
states and tribes to meet last week because implementation
centers were put in place around the country to help with
systems reform; and that has been one of the missing pieces.
Staff turnover has made that hard.
She said this review can build on the last one and real progress
can be made especially with ORCA data. Front-line workers have
improved worker visits up to 55 percent in January and 60
percent in February.
2:39:11 PM
MS. SANDOVAL said there is no work you can do without first
visiting the child and family; so it all starts with worker
visits. She was glad Mr. Henderson mentioned "service array"
because it isn't all just OCS; it's all of the agencies and the
legislature that make a difference. She said the commissioner
has brought together the divisions and encouraged collaboration,
and later today a workgroup on youth transitioning out of care
will meet.
2:41:36 PM
In closing, she said, the PIP has started with over 50
participants coming to the PIP kickoff in January. Providers
with strategies and ideas about how to improve the system formed
work groups around the three themes established by the federal
government to standardize practices for enhanced safety, for
enhanced permanency planning, and for enhanced capacity of
families to provide for their children's needs. What has been
presented today are all things they must continue to be aware of
going forward.
2:44:29 PM
CHAIR DAVIS agreed that child safety and home visits are areas
the legislature will want to hear more about and noted
improvements in the turnover rate.
MS. SANDOVAL said the extended training has just started and she
hopes that will continue to help improve the turnover rate.
2:45:42 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GARA vented that one reason for the turnover and
the fact that the OCS can't meet with families every month is
because it doesn't have enough stable staff and the positions
don't pay enough! He asked what the of the administration's
salary review is and if that is on track for this fall.
MS. SANDOVAL replied that whenever she asks the administration
about the review, she is told that it is on track.
REPRESENTATIVE GARA said Senator Davis had long pushed for
extending foster care until age 21, and now there is federal
money to do that. That could be part of the solution, and they
have talked about extending housing assistance payments for one
year after coming out of foster care. He knows OCS is cash-
strapped, but he wanted to know what they are doing about the
mentorship idea.
MS. SANDOVAL replied that she knows that type of partnership is
needed, and there isn't one answer to his question. She believes
that expanding the pool of foster homes and making good matches
is a good start, like with relative placements and fostering
success in those placements.
2:49:57 PM
Additionally, she said, it's the involvement of other people -
clubs, school employees, social workers; there isn't just one
solution. Think about "forever families" as communities and that
it is all about building relationships.
2:51:48 PM
CHAIR DAVIS said she is sorry she didn't invite any case workers
or social workers to join them. She feels they need to have
conversations with them too. She invited Commissioner Hogan to
speak.
2:52:55 PM
COMMISSIONER HOGAN, Department of Health and Social Services
(DHSS), thanked all for their presentations. He related that the
bottom line for them is making sure kids stay in their own
families unless they really need to be removed, and if they go
into foster care that they go to quality foster care homes that
create a real family, and that when they leave they have
opportunities to become productive citizens. The department
needs to use what they know works based on evidence-based or
best practices.
COMMISSIONER HOGAN said his background is in behavioral health
and what youth with serious emotional disturbance and adults
with chronic mental illness need is a connection to somebody -
family and community. Extracurricular activities and sports are
also important, especially for kids in foster care when their
lives are very structured. He also appreciated Representative
Gara's emphasis on independent living and school stability and
hoped the Anchorage program could be expanded statewide. He
expressed his thanks to people in OCS who talked about their
experiences saying, "It's a tough job." But it is incumbent upon
the state to ensure the OCS people can do their jobs.
2:56:33 PM
SENATOR PASKVAN said this is a new area for him and what he
learned today is that the system is trying to improve. He heard
that children need first to have a human connection; they need
to remain in a school or have their records follow them; and
they need a chance to succeed as they age out.
2:58:17 PM
CHAIR DAVIS thanked the youth who came forward today and
reminded them that they have other avenues than the social
workers they have worked with over the years. "We're here to
help you. There are 60 members of the Legislature and every one
of them would be willing to hear some of the concerns and issues
that you want to address."
2:58:58 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GARA thanked the people from Facing Foster Care
and Senator Davis who has taken up the mantle of children's
issues for way longer than he has. "This wouldn't have happened
without her." He said it is not a coincidence that there has
been more discussion about the need for reform in the state. The
new organization that has been created by Alaska's youth is the
new catalyst that has made it all happen.
3:00:14 PM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Chair Davis adjourned the meeting at 3:00 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| March 20 2009 foster care legislative summit.ppt |
SHSS 3/20/2009 1:15:00 PM |