CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 151(FIN) "An Act relating to the duties of the Department of Health and Social Services; relating to training and workload standards for employees of the Department of Health and Social Services and providing immunity from damages related to those standards; relating to foster care home licensing; relating to civil and criminal history background checks for foster care licensing and payments; relating to placement of a child in need of aid; relating to the rights and responsibilities of foster parents; requiring the Department of Health and Social Services to provide information to a child or person released from the department's custody; and providing for an effective date." 1:36:46 PM REPRESENTATIVE LES GARA, SPONSOR, introduced himself. He explained that the bill would result in fewer children in foster care and for shorter periods of time. He said that the bill provided average caseload standards, training standards, and was a model that had worked well in other states. MICHELLE SYDEMAN, STAFF, REPRESENTATIVE LES GARA, introduced herself. 1:37:05 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon thanked Vice-Chair Gara for his work on behalf of children in the foster care system. 1:39:30 PM Representative Gara explained the Sectional Analysis (copy on file): Section 1 provides that the short title of the bill is the Children Deserve a Loving Home Act. Section 2 amends legislative findings related to children to add a finding that the department should enable a child's contact with previous out-of-home caregivers if it is appropriate and in the best interests of the child. Sections 3 - 5 amend AS 47.05.310(c), (i), and (k) to conform to a new subsection added in section 6 of this Act. 1:40:38 PM AT EASE 1:40:40 PM RECONVENED Representative Gara continued with the Sectional Analysis: Section 6 allows the Department of Health and Social Services (the department) to issue or renew a foster home license or provide foster care payments to an entity, individual service provider, or person if the applicant or a person who resides in the home is barred from licensure or payments because of a barrier condition under AS 47.05.3 IO(c), (i)(2), or (i)(3) if (I) a person in the home is an adult family member or family friend of a child in the custody or supervision of the state, (2) the department finds that placing the child with the entity, individual service provider, or person is in the best interests of the child, and (3) the conduct that is the basis of the barrier occurred at least ten years before the date the department receives the application for licensure or renewal or makes a payment to the entity, individual service provider, or person. Section 7 amends requirements relating to the transfer of a child from one placement to another to require a supervisor at the department to certify in writing whether the department has conducted a search for an appropriate placement with an adult family member or family friend. Section 8 provides that a foster parent has the right and responsibility to use a reasonable and prudent parent standard to make decisions relating to a child in foster care, and requires the department to provide foster parents with training relating to the reasonable and prudent parent standard. Section 9 requires the department to engage a child in an out-of-home placement who is 14 years of age or older in the development or revision of a case plan, permanency goal, or alternative permanency plan for the child and allows the child to select up to two adults, in addition to the child's foster parents or department employees who are supervising the care of the child, to participate in the development of the plan. Section 10 amends AS 4 7.10.093(a) to conform to new AS 47.17.030(g) added in section 18 of this Act. Section 11 amends confidentiality provisions to require a state or municipal agency or employee to disclose appropriate confidential information regarding a case to the sibling of a child who is the subject of the case if it is in the best interests of the child to maintain contact with the sibling. Section 12 requires a supervisor at the department, when the department takes emergency custody of a child, to certify in writing whether the department has conducted a search for an appropriate placement with an adult family member or family friend. Section 13 requires the department to search for an appropriate placement with an adult family member or friend when the child is removed from the parent's home. The section also requires a supervisor at the department to certify in writing whether the department has conducted the search. Section 14 amends AS 14.14. l OO(i) to provide that when a child can remain safely at home with an adult family member or guardian who lives with the child, the child may not be placed with an out-of-home care provider. Section 15 requires the department to provide contact information to siblings who are in separate placements if it is in the best interests of the children to maintain contact. Section 16 requires the department to implement workload standards and a training program for department employees and to provide a report to the legislature if the department is not able to meet certain standards. Section 16 also provides that the department is immune from suit if the department is unable to meet workload standards under certain circumstances. Section 16 requires the division of the department with responsibility over the custody of children to provide an annual report to the legislature on employee recruitment and retention. Section 17 adds a new subsection requiring the department to assist an adult family member in obtaining a foster care license, including any necessary variances, if placing the child with the adult family member is in the best interests of the child. Section 18 adds a new subsection providing that when the department or a local government health or social services agency completes certain investigations and identifies an appropriate community organization that will provide support services to families, that the department or a local government health or social services agency shall refer the child's parent or guardian to the community organization upon consent of the child's parent or guardian. Section 18 also provides for confidentiality of information received by the community organization under the new subsection. 1:46:31 PM Representative Gara continued to address the Sectional Analysis: Section 19 requires the department, for a person who is 16 years of age or older, to provide the person, or assist the person with obtaining, the person's birth certificate, social security card, health insurance information, medical records, driver's license or identification card, and certificate of degree of Indian or Alaska Native blood, if applicable, when the person is released from state custody under AS 47.10. Section 20 requires the department, to the extent feasible, to approve or deny a foster care home license, including a request for a variance, not more than 45 days after the date the department receives the application for a foster care home license. Section 21 provides secs. 2, 7 ? 9, 11 - 15, 17, and 19 of the Act applies to a child in the custody or under the supervision of the department under AS 47.10 on or after the effective dates of secs. 2, 7 - 9, 11 - 15, 17, and 19 of the Act. Section 19 also provides that secs. 3 - 6 and 20 of the Act apply to applications for a license, license renewal, certification, certification renewal, or payment received by the department on or after the effective dates of secs. 3 - 6 and 20 of the Act Section 22 allows the department to adopt regulations necessary to implement the changes made by the Act. The regulations may not take effect until the effective date of the section of the Act implemented by the regulation. Section 23 requires the department to implement the changes made by secs. 7 - 9 and 12 - 14 not later than 90 days after the effective date of those sections. Those sections relate to searches for appropriate placements with family members, foster parent decision-making, involving children 14 or older in case plans, and allowing a child to remain in the child's home with an adult family member. Section 23 also requires the department to implement the changes made by secs. 2 - 6, 11, 15, 17, 19, and 20, and some of the changes made by sec. 16, not later than one year after the effective date of those sections. Those sections relate to legislative findings, barriers to foster care licensing and payments, sharing case information with siblings, providing sibling contact information in certain situations, department training and reports, assisting family members in obtaining foster care licenses, providing identification information to children 16 or older when released from department custody, and approval of foster care licenses within 45 days of receiving an application. Section 23 further requires the department to implement the rest of the changes made by sec. 16 of the Act not later than two years after the effective date of that section. Those changes relate to employee workload standards. Section 24 provides that sec. 22 of the Act takes effect immediately. 1:47:47 PM Ms. Sydeman relayed that the bill would give 1 year for the department to implement searches for placement with appropriate family members, to train staff on how to involve children 14 and older on the development of case plans, to implement the policy of allowing a child to remain in a home with an adult family member that was not a parent, and to bring training up to the new standard of 6 weeks of training. She said that there was a 3-year implementation period for several of the more difficult parts of the bill. She thought that the Senate Health and Social Services committee had ultimately adopted a 2-year training period for caseload standards; to get to the average standard of 13 families per worker, 6 within the first 6 months and 12 within the first year. 1:49:16 PM Representative Gara added that the 90-day effective date sections were for Sections 7 through 9 and 12 through 14. Co-Chair MacKinnon requested further clarification. Representative Gara responded that Sections 7 referred to the supervisor certifying in writing that a family search and been done. Section 8 referred to the prudent parent standard that would allow for children to participate in extracurricular activities without the consent of the Office of Children's Services (OCS). Section 9 would allow for the engagement of children 14 years and older in their case plan and permanent placement planning goals. Sections 12 and 13 referred to OCS signoff on family friend foster home placement. Section 14 was a provision that said that if there was a family member in the home that could keep the child safe then the child would not be removed from the home. 1:51:02 PM CHRISTY LAWTON, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF CHILDREN'S SERVICES, (OCS) introduced herself. Co-Chair MacKinnon asked whether the department supported the bill and the transitional dates therein. Ms. Lawton replied that the department supported the legislation. She revealed that the department had worked with the bill sponsor on the transitional dates and believed that they could be implemented without delay. 1:51:41 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon asked whether there was a mechanism in the bill that required the department to report back to the legislature on the progress of the transitions. Ms. Lawton responded that the bill required that an annual report be submitted to the legislature. 1:51:52 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon asked whether the department would be able to submit a report in 90 days that would let the legislature know that the department that trained supervisors of the updated requirements. Ms. Lawton replied in the affirmative. 1:52:30 PM Senator Micciche expressed concern about Section 6 and the barrier crimes. He worried that people who had committed crimes against children might be eligible to become foster parents. Ms. Lawton replied that the challenge with the barrier crimes sometimes came up with grandparents that may have had previous criminal or child protection history. She said that the bill allowed for an evaluation on a case by case basis, it did not require that a license be granted, but allowed for the person to demonstrate how they had changed their behavior. 1:53:42 PM Senator Micciche asked whether a person who had a history of sexual abuse of a minor or physical abuse of a minor would be allowed to foster a child after the 10-year statute of limitations elapsed. Ms. Lawton replied that no acceptations would be made for perpetrators of sexual abuse. She said that in the case of physical abuse the facts of the case would be examined. She reiterated that each case would be examined on a case by case basis. 1:54:26 PM Senator Micciche asked whether there should be a limitation in written into statute that addressed sexual abuse. Ms. Lawton believed that the language in the bill was written sufficiently. She said that process for reviewing such cases was multi-layered. She did not believe that a person who should not be licensed would slip through the cracks. 1:55:15 PM Senator von Imhof thought that there were aspects of the bill that could be dealt with in regulation. She wondered why a statute was required. Ms. Lawton replied that a statute would offer stability and the assurance that the changes would not be undone easily in the future. 1:56:16 PM Senator von Imhof related that if the proposals in the bill were best practices, it seemed unlikely that they would be challenged in the future. Ms. Lawton replied that having the language in statute would give additional strength and authority to the tasks and activities of the department and would help to ensure correct implementation and retention. 1:56:50 PM Senator von Imhof understood that the bill would limit the number of cases per worker, with the intent of making caseloads manageable. She asked if there was a transition plan for current workers to give some of their cases to new workers. Ms. Lawton replied that the department would need to be thoughtful about how new staff was incorporated to provide relief for existing staff. She said that there had been an increased effort put into having less entries than exits in the system. She believed that if the department could get more children safely exiting foster care, and reduce the number coming in, that would help to safely lower existing worker caseloads. She said that the department was working to refer more services over to the Tribal Child Welfare Compact, which was working on relative searches, helping with family contact, and conducting safety assessments in relative's home for placement. She stressed that the department was working on many ways to bridge the transition. 2:00:19 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon asked how many current case workers were employed by the state and what was the vacancy factor. Ms. Lawton responded that there were currently 219 authorized, case carrying workers. In 2017, the turnover of those caseworkers was at 49 percent. 2:01:10 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon asked how many vacancies the department currently had. Ms. Lawton replied that the department had 64 open caseworker positions. Co-Chair MacKinnon questioned whether a reduction in caseloads could result in the openings being filled without hiring additional workers. Ms. Lawton responded that even if the openings were filled, additional caseworkers would be needed to meet the standards laid out in the bill. 2:01:31 PM AT EASE 2:02:38 PM RECONVENED 2:02:48 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon asked whether there were reasons, other than caseload numbers, that had led to the high turnover rate within the division. Ms. Lawton shared that an annual staff survey had cited caseloads as the number one reason for leaving a position; after that, compensation, lack of sufficient supervision, and the ability to affect real change in communities were other reasons that people left the agency. 2:04:12 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon announced that the bill would be held in committee for further review. 2:04:21 PM Representative Gara related that the bill was modeled on child welfare practices in New Jersey, which were common in other child welfare agencies. He said that the practice of hiring 20 percent more caseworkers than initially necessary was in anticipation of high turnover rates. He said that neglecting to hire the positions in the fiscal note would result in caseloads of 30 cases per worker. He understood that it seemed counterintuitive, but that it necessary to solve the problem of burnout. 2:06:04 PM= Co-Chair MacKinnon felt that there were too many positions on the fiscal note. She felt that the number deserved further scrutiny. 2:06:36 PM Senator Stevens asked whether the bill would address the issue of foster children being placed in many homes over time. 2:07:10 PM Representative Gara said that more kinship or family homes would be sought; additionally, less caseloads per worker would lead to better outcomes for long-term placement of children. 2:08:14 PM Senator Micciche understood that the bill would grant the authorization for the agency to over-hire but that the expectation of proportion of spend was similar to the current spend. 2:09:11 PM Representative Gara reiterated that the extra positions would be needed to reduce the caseloads so that when new people were hired they would face a less staggering caseload. He noted that of the 21 positions, 12 were case carrying workers and 9 were support and administrative staff. Senator Micciche supported that additional positions. He wondered whether the same amount of positions would be necessary in the future once the caseload levels decreased. 2:11:02 PM Representative Gara said that he hoped that turnover could be reduced enough that fewer positions could be a reality. 2:11:39 PM Senator von Imhof thought that increasing caseworkers would not solve all of the problems faced by the division. She lamented that the bill did not address changes that could be made by the department to address efficiencies. She recommended that the money from the unfilled but fully funded PCNs could be used to fund an audit of the department. 2:15:23 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon said that she would be looking into whether there were funds associated with the vacant positions. 2:15:56 PM Vice-Chair Bishop spoke of the successes of New Jersey. He hoped that OCS might hire some people to handle an overflow of casework and then lay off those employees once the workload had decreased. 2:16:40 PM Senator Olson thought that an audit would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. He agreed it could be valuable but expressed concern that the issues that the bill addressed would only get worse if the legislature waited for an audit to be conducted. 2:17:18 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon understood that the suggested audit was meant to occur in conjunction with implementation of the bill. She thought that an audit of OCS could be illuminating. 2:18:20 PM Vice-Chair Bishop thought that it was a matter of exploring best practices. 2:18:42 PM Senator Micciche suggested that senators review the comprehensive audit of the department that had already been conducted. He did not believe that an audit of OCS was necessary. He believed that the challenges faced by OCS were obvious and did not require further study. 2:19:47 PM Co-Chair MacKinnon announced that amendments were due the following day by 5pm. CSHB 151(FIN) was HEARD and HELD in committee for further consideration.