Sept. 30, 2009

DETROIT ? The Michigan Department of Human Services is making progress in its child welfare reform efforts, especially in the reduction of caseloads for foster care and adoption workers, achieving permanency for children in foster care, in its data collection and reporting, and in staff training, a report released today found.

"Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and the Legislature are our partners," DHS Director Ismael Ahmed said. "We could not have met these goals without their support for programs that ensure permanency for children and families."

The report describes the department's progress toward goals set in a July 2008 settlement between New York-based Children's Rights, Inc., and the DHS over the lawsuit, Dwayne B. v. Granholm. It was filed with Judge Nancy Edmonds in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

"The progress report is truly laudatory and exceptional," Edmonds said. "I commend the DHS leadership and staff for their work on behalf of children."

Public Catalyst Group of Newark, the Court-appointed monitor, published the report, which covers the period between October 2008 and March 2009. It's the first report filed under the agreement.

Sara Bartosz, senior staff attorney for Children's Rights, said: "Comprehensive efforts are taking place to achieve permanency for Michigan's children. This is good news. There is much to applaud today."

The settlement required DHS to achieve permanency for 6,000 state wards; safely reunite 4,000 children and youths with their families; invest in an infrastructure that improves the well-being and outcomes for foster children; enhance investigative practice to better identify maltreatment; and increase supervision, services and support to children placed with relatives.

The report said DHS:

• Is on track to meet its September 2009 goal to achieve a permanent placement for more than 2,500 children who have been waiting for more than a year.
• Met its foster care and adoption caseload goals. Ninety-six percent of foster care workers have caseloads of no more than 30 children to one foster care worker; the goal was 95 percent. Ninety percent of foster care workers have caseloads of no more than 25 children; the goal was 60 percent. Eighty percent of adoption workers have caseloads of no more than 25 children; the goal was 60 percent.
• Improved its capacity to develop and deliver staff training. DHS has nearly quadrupled its training capacity, strengthened the training curriculum and increased minimum qualifications for workers and supervisors.
• Made major strides in its ability to collect, analyze and report child welfare performance data.
• Improved its overall child welfare organization and appointed a well-qualified management team led by Kathryne O'Grady, director of the Children's Services Administration.

"...Investments in leadership and expert data capacity produced impressive and swift returns," the report states, including "the first usable children protective services data in over three years, newly created management reports, critical data to support and report on performance with respect to the settlement agreement, and template for accessible county-based outcomes" scheduled to begin in the next reporting period.

The report described the major challenge the department faces as the distance between the desire to move ahead and the economic resources to do so. "There is reason to be concerned about the adequacy of resources to support the reform going forward," the report states. "DHS cut services for children and families involved in the child welfare system" after the reporting period closed.

With 15 percent unemployment, lowered personal income being reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, reduced state revenue, and the state's major industries facing major economic challenges, the resource issue is significant. This was made clear in the proposed 2010 budget which reduces departmental funding by more than $360 million and calls for the elimination of 100 DHS staff.

"We have reduced the number of children in foster care, in part, by adding field staff and by effectively monitoring cases and the moving of families through our system to achieve permanency," Ahmed said.