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From YouTube: COVID-19: Child Welfare Placements in an Uncertain Time
Description
The 2018 federal Family First Prevention Services Act is catalyzing major changes in child welfare systems. One provision of the bill aims to reduce the use of congregate care by restricting federal reimbursements for non-family placements. In the fourth installment of NCSL’s COVID-19 and child welfare series, we focus on long-standing challenges in congregate care settings, how COVID-19 exacerbates these problems, and how Family First could address them.
Speakers:
Anne Teigen, program director for NCSL's Criminal Justice program
Clare Anderson, policy fellow for Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
Senator Sara Gelser (D-Ore.)
Senator David Wilson (R-Alaska)
A
A
All
right:
well,
I
just
want
to
start
out
by
welcoming
everyone
to
ncsl's
covet
19
and
child
welfare
series
of
virtual
meetings.
Today's
program
is
the
fourth
in
a
five-part
series
of
interactive
virtual
meetings
lasting
through
august,
and
we
launched
this
series
back
in
june
on
june
10th
and
have
archives
of
the
june
10th,
24th
and
july
15th
presentation
on
our
website.
A
I
want
to
just
give
a
short
shout
out
to
and
thanks
to
casey
family
programs
and
annie
e
casey
foundation
for
their
support
on
this
project,
and
I
want
to
tell
you
a
little
bit
about
what
you
can
expect
today.
What
our
agenda
is
and
the
objective.
So
we
have
four
presentations
today
and
they
are
very
dynamic,
you're
not
going
to
want
to
miss
them.
We
have
one
audience
poll
and
one
panel
discussion
and
we'll
end
with
a
wrap-up
which
will
include
a
two-minute
online
evaluation.
So
we
want
to
hear
from
you
all.
A
So
a
few
housekeeping
notes
at
any
time
during
this
presentation,
if
you
need
help
just
refer
to
that
zoom
cheat
sheet
that
we
sent
out
beforehand
and
please
put
any
questions
that
you
may
have
in
the
chat
box.
So
I
want
to
tell
you
who
you
can
expect
to
hear
from
today.
We
have
a
pretty
dynamic
panel.
A
A
We
have
senator
sarah
geyser,
I'm
sorry
gelser
from
oregon,
who
is
the
chair
of
oregon
senate
interim
committee
on
human
services
and
she's.
Also,
a
member
of
the
joint
special
committee
on
corona
coronavirus
response
and
she
was
also
a
ncsl
2018-19
child
welfare.
Fellow
and
then
we
have
senator
david
wilson
from
alaska,
who
is
the
chair
of
the
alaska
senate
health
and
social
services
committee
and
was
a
member
of
ncsl's
2018
and
19
child
welfare.
Fellow.
B
Hello
and
thank
you
so
much
donna,
as
donna
mentioned.
My
name
is
anne
tegan
and
I
supervise
the
juvenile
justice
portfolio
here
in
ncsl's
criminal
justice
program,
and
there
is
such
a
prevalence
of
crossover
between
children
in
the
child,
welfare
system
and
children
in
the
juvenile
justice
system
that
they
even
have
their
own
term.
B
So
in
2018,
congress
passed
the
family
first
prevention
services
act
and
it
also
passed
the
juvenile
justice
and
delinquency
prevention
act
and
both
laws
focus
on
serving
children
and
families
in
their
communities,
decreasing
out-of-home
placements,
investing
in
prevention
programs
and
addressing
racial
and
ethnic
disparities,
and
one
of
the
key
provisions
in
the
family
first
act
places
restrictions
on
when
the
federal
government
will
reimburse
non-family
placements
in
an
effort
to
reduce
congregate
care,
and
I
will
demonstrate
why
that
is
extremely
important.
By
presenting
the
following
statistics
and
research.
B
B
So
now,
once
involved
in
the
juvenile
system,
we
know
from
data
and
research
that
out
of
home
placement,
even
in
non-secure
group
homes,
does
not
reduce
the
likelihood
of
reoffending
among
justice
involved
youth
compared
to
similar
youth
who
were
not
removed
from
their
homes.
So,
basically
out
of
home
placement
does
not
reduce
recidivism,
and
there
are
numerous
studies
that
show
out
of
home
placement,
but
particularly
secure
confinement
exposes
justice
involved,
youth
to
more
experienced
criminal
behavior
and
reduces
the
likelihood
the
person
the
young
person
will
graduate
from
high
school
and
in
a
study
entitled.
B
A
C
Terrific
thanks
so
much
hi
everyone,
I'm
claire
anderson,
a
policy
fellow
at
chapin
hall,
and
many
of
my
comments
are
going
to
reinforce
much
of
what
anne
shared
with
us
about
the
opportunities
and
the
challenges
both
in
family
first
and
in
congregate.
Care
family
first
really
is
about
family
first
putting
families
first
as
the
core
policy
thrust.
C
It
does
reduce
the
federal
fiscal
participation
in
congregate
settings
after
two
weeks
for
children
who
are
newly
placed
in
congregate
care,
beginning
october,
1
of
2021
or
the
date
on
which
a
state
begins
implementing
the
prevention
provisions
of
family
first.
It
does
also
provide
a
new
placement
setting
option.
C
The
qualified
residential
treatment
program
sometimes
referred
to
as
qrtp
for
children
and
youth
with
elevated
needs,
with
the
understanding
that
we
need
a
comprehensive
continuum
of
placements
to
meet
the
needs
of
kids
and
families,
but
with
an
overarching
policy
thrust
of
further
reducing
the
use
of
congregate
care
through
a
number
of
levers
that
family
first
makes
available.
First
is
prevention
efforts
so
that
children
aren't
entering
foster
care,
as
many
kids
are
placed
in
congregate,
settings
upon
entry
into
foster
care
and
preferencing
family
based
placements
and
kinship
care.
C
C
First,
I
want
you
to
note
that
there
has
that
that
both
institutional
care
and
group
care
are
on
the
decline
before
family
first
even
is
initiated,
and
so
family
first
furthers
provides
additional
policy
and
fiscal
disincentives
to
further
drive
reductions
in
congregate
care.
I
also
want
you
to
note
the
inc.
C
So,
while
we
think
about
reduction
of
congregate
care
and
as
your
constituents
come
to
you,
either
out
of
concern
that
their
programming
is
being
decreased
or
that
they
or
or
that
that
organizations
that
have
operated
for
numerous
years,
don't
exactly
know
what
to
do
in
the
new
context.
There
are
absolute
new
opportunities
for
them
in
terms
of
supporting
kinship
placements
therapeutic
foster,
home
and
rethinking
their
business
models
around
prevention.
C
C
The
states
that
are
in
the
foster
care
data
archive
are
making
reductions
in
congregate
care
anywhere
from
10
to
reduction
of
80
percent.
So,
to
the
extent
that
you
are
working
with
your
public
child
welfare
agency
to
understand
both
the
pace
at
which
it's
making
reductions
and
what
more
is
needed
to
make
reductions?
C
We
often
hear
the
argument
or
the
statement
that
children
who
are
in
congregate
care
have
different
needs
that
they
are
the
the
the
poor
outcomes
that
amy
described
in
her
present.
The
and
described
in
her
presentation
are,
are
a
result
of
some
problems
that
that
are
present
prior
to
entering
foster
care
and
that
those
children
are
qualitatively
different.
C
And
what
you
see
on
this
slide
is
an
analysis
that
chapen
hall
did
of
the
national
survey
of
child
and
adolescent
well-being
and
children
in
therapeutic
foster
care
and
children
in
group
or
residential
care.
You'll
see
that
their
clinical
behavior
profile
of
internalizing
and
externalizing
behaviors
as
identified
on
the
child,
behavior
checklist
are
quite
similar,
so
children
who
are
in
congregate,
care
or
residential
placement
have
behavior
profiles
that
are
quite
similar
to
children,
who
are
also
being
maintained
in
therapeutic
foster
care.
C
We
do
find
that
children
in
congregate
care
do
have
a
tad
bit
more
externalizing
behaviors
and
far
fewer
internalizing
behaviors
than
children
in
therapeutic
foster
care,
which
has
implications
for
the
services
that
we
might
provide
outside
of
congregate,
care
to
try
and
address
their
trauma
and
their
behavioral
and
clinical
needs.
This
is
a
pulling
from
the
california
evidence-based
clearing
house,
those
evidence-based
interventions
that
are
designed
to
address
disruptive
or
externalizing
behaviors,
as
well
as
interventions
that
are
designed
to
support
placement
stability.
So
we
do
have
an
array
of
interventions.
A
Thank
you
so
much
claire
for
that.
I'm
I'm
really
impressed
that
you
were
able
to
fit
all
that
information
in
such
a
short
period
of
time.
We'll
dig
a
little
deeper
into
some
of
the
things
that
you
said
during
the
panel,
but
right
now
we
want
to
hear
from
our
audience
so
I'm
going
to
actually
turn
it
over
to
nina
to
launch
a
poll.
D
D
D
The
responses
could
be
restricting
visitors
to
facilities
and
screening,
new
residents
upon
entry
testing
residents
for
covet
19,
providing
masks,
gloves,
hand,
sanitizers
and
other
equipment
ensuring
the
provision
of
smartphones,
laptops
and
other
technology
for
educational
purposes?
I
I
see
that
only
one
option
can
be
selected.
All
right
select
your
top
option
that
you
know
about
enabling
continued
in-person,
visitation
with
social
distancing,
masks,
hand-washing
guidance
and
allowing
virtual
visitation
with
family,
siblings
and
caseworkers,
and
I
realized,
go
and
select
just
one
of
those
because
you're
not
able
to
select
multiple
choice.
D
A
A
Okay,
so
I'll
go
ahead
and
end
it
and
then
nina.
Can
you
see
the
answers
or
do
you
want
me
to
read
it
off?
Can
you
read
it
off?
I
can't
see
them
sure.
Okay,
so
46
of
you
said
that
restricting
visitors
to
facilities
and
screening
new
residents
upon
entry
was
the
top
critical
that
you
took
into
account.
A
A
E
Thank
you
so
much
for
including
me
today,
and
it's
just
been
such
a
pleasure
to
get
to
work
with
ncsl
and
all
of
the
resources
that
you
provide
to
us
across
the
country.
Every
year
in
oregon,
we
have
really
been
focused
on
the
issue
of
congregate
care
even
before
family
first,
so
the
advent
of
family
first
was
very
exciting
because
it
created
really
the
the
hook
and
the
carrot
to
make
some
of
the
transformative
changes
that
many
of
us
believe
that
we
needed
to
make
in
our
system.
E
We
know
that
for
many
of
these
kids,
we
are
preparing
them
to
move
from
our
foster
care
system
into
prison
and
frequently
we
are
co-mingling
these
populations,
where
we
are
taking
kids
in
the
foster
care
system
and
actually
putting
them
in
programs
that
are
designed
to
respond
to
delinquency
issues.
That
is
not
to
say
that
what's
happening
in
these
programs
for
kids
that
are
in
the
juvenile
justice
system
is
okay
either.
We
need
a
lot
of
work
there,
because
at
the
end
of
the
day,
kids
are
kids.
E
But
what
we're
talking
about
is
child
welfare.
We
were
making
great
progress
on
this.
We
were
supposed
to
make
our
transformation
on
july
1st
of
this
year,
and
I
was
very
excited
with
this
idea
that
any
kid
that
woke
up
this
fall
in
a
congregate
care
facility
would
know
that
she
or
he
was
there,
because
there
was
an
individualized
assessment
that
said
that
she
needed
those
services
by
an
unbiased
person
and
that
the
court
was
reviewing
that.
E
E
I
got
you
so
I'd
like
to
share
my
screen
and
talk
a
little
bit
about
what
happened
when
covid
and
lack
of
oversight
hit
in
michigan
earlier
this
year.
So
I'm
I'm
kind
of
hitting
share
my
screen,
and
some
of
these
photos
are
somewhat
disturbing,
but
there
was
a
young
man
named
cornelius
frederick.
He
was
a
fought
as
youth
in
the
foster
care
system.
His
mother
died
when
he
was
10
and
he
was
at
lakeside
academy,
along
with
children
from
22
other
states.
Some
of
them
were
there
for
juvenile
justice
reasons.
E
This
program
is
run
by
sql
youth
and
family
services,
which
today
is
serving
about
2
000
of
our
kids
in
congregate
care,
and
I
recently
found
out
they
are
also
doing
proctor
care
and
foster
care,
which
is
something
that
should
concern
all
of
us
at
the
end
of
april.
You
can
see
that
cornelius
was
sitting
in
the
lunchroom.
He
was
kind
of
goofing
around
and
you
see
his
hand
there
on
the
sandwich
a
few
moments.
After
this
he
throws
the
sandwich,
like
many
16
year
olds
have
done
many
times.
E
The
consequence,
for
that
was
that
some
men
came
along.
They
pushed
him,
you
can
see.
Cornelius
is
not
taking
any
negative
action,
but
the
adults
are
coming
and
they
push
him
from
the
lunchroom
table
to
the
ground.
Other
kids
then
move
the
tables
to
make
room
for
the
restraint.
As
you
can
see,
there
are
many
people
in
the
lunchroom.
This
is
several
minutes
into
the
restraint,
but
people
continue
eating
lunch.
The
restraint
lasted
for
over
10
minutes.
E
E
He
was
lifeless,
and
this
is
pretty
much
the
depiction
of
what
happened
in
that
room
for
12
minutes
before
anyone
called
9-1-1
or
attempted
cpr
staff
and
students
continued
to
cycle
around
him,
eating
their
lunch
clearing
their
trays.
Nobody
was
alarmed,
which
is
incredibly
alarming.
This
tells
us
something
very
serious
about
the
culture
at
sql,
youth
and
family
services,
which
is
probably
not
a
whole
lot
different
than
the
culture
for
a
lot
of
us
and
nbc
news.
I
ran
this
piece.
E
It's
hard
to
move
kids
it's
hard
to
find
placements,
but
this
facility
had
multiple
bad
restraints
as
do
places
elsewhere,
and
that
is
because,
when
a
program
is
not
designed
to
provide
treatment,
a
congregate
care
facility
is
really
more
about
control
than
it
is
about
support.
And
again
these
kids
are
disproportionately
black
and
and
kids
of
color.
The
staff
is
also
disproportionately
black
and
kids
of
color.
I
was
invited
into
a
discussion
accidentally.
I
got
this
mysterious
zoom
link
and
I
was
suddenly
in
a
room
with
staff
of
this
facility.
E
Almost
all
staff
of
color
who
pointed
out
that
the
wealthy
white
executives
of
this
program
are
walking
away
with
no
consequence
and
two
of
the
men
of
color
that
were
part
of
that
restraint.
Doing
what
they
were
trained
to
do
have
been
arrested
and
will
face
manslaughter
charges.
So
this
is
a
an
issue
of
exploitation
of
racial
inequality
that
is
impacting
both
the
kids
and
those
that
serve
them
that
are
making
about
12
an
hour
to
do
this
work.
E
Now
people
have
said
that,
right
now
in
the
midst
of
covet,
it's
not
the
time
to
talk
about
this,
but
I
would
say
that
cornelius,
that
christian,
who
is
interviewed,
who
knew
cornelius
and
the
facility
on
vice
news
that
ran
a
15-minute
segment
on
this
last
night,
would
ask
then,
when
is
the
time
what
covett
has
done
is
magnify
the
problems
that
we
have
in
this
system.
It
is
not
just
because
of
covid
that
we
weren't
watching
we're
not
listening.
E
When
the
kids
tell
us
what
is
happening
to
them,
we
put
them
in
places
where
we
ask
them
questions
when
they
aren't
safe
to
tell
us
what
is
really
occurring.
So
what
we
need
to
be
looking
at
is
how
to
keep
our
kids
out
of
congregate
care
when
they
don't
need
it
when
they
do.
How
do
we
keep
them
within
our
own
states
and
if
they
need
to
cross
state
lines,
we
as
states
need
to
work
together
to
create
strong
regulatory
frameworks
where
we
are
talking
to
each
other.
E
The
22
states
that
had
kids
at
lakeside
we
weren't
talking
to
each
other.
We
didn't
know
about
each
of
our
kids
restraints
in
the
future.
We
can
change
that.
We
passed
legislation
in
oregon
a
few
weeks
ago,
which
I'm
happy
to
share
with
anyone,
but
I
I
hope
that
covet
or
no
povid
we
can
move
forward.
E
Finally,
as
it
relates
to
covid,
our
programs
will
tell
us
they
are
doing
the
right
thing,
but
again,
unless
we
are
actually
monitoring,
we
will
not,
because
if
you
look
at
this
picture,
which
was
at
the
end
of
may,
I
don't
see
a
single
mask.
I
don't
see
a
set
of
gloves.
There
was
no
social
distancing.
There
was
not
pictures
of
hand
sanitizer
and
this
program
at
cornelia's
death.
It
turned
out
that
he
was
positive
for
covid.
He
was
an
asymptomatic
carrier.
E
It
turned
out
that
over
half
of
the
kids
at
that
facility
were
positive
for
covet,
as
were
many
staff
who
had
tested
out
previously,
and
it
turns
out
that
multiple
of
sql
facilities
have
vast
covet
outbreaks
because
they're
only
bringing
people
in
to
do
cleaning
once
every
week
or
two
weeks
and
are
not
uniformly
using
masks.
So
this
is
a
huge
safety
issue
for
our
kids,
especially
in
places
where
we
use
restraints
because
covet
is
making
the
risk
of
those
restraints
even
more
deadly
than
they
already
are.
E
So
I'm
happy
to
you
know,
answer
questions.
Anybody
has
or
talk
offline,
we're
working
on
a
toolkit
about
sql
itself,
because
almost
every
state
is
contracting
with
them,
except
for
michigan
and
oregon,
which
both
have
said.
They
will
no
longer
do
business
with
sql
ever
again,
under
any
circumstance.
A
Thank
you
so
much
senator
gelser,
those
that
that
was
a
powerful
story,
and
you
gave
us
lots
to
think
about
we're
going
to
dig
a
little
deeper
into
lots
of
that
during
during
our
panel
discussion.
If
there
are
questions
that
you
all
have,
that
has
come
up
as
you've
heard
from
the
previous
three
speakers.
Please
put
them
in
the
chat
box.
Now,
as
I
turn
things
over
to
senator
david
wilson.
F
All
right
first,
I
just
want
to
remind
folks
about
our
great
state
of
alaska.
How
large
it
is.
You
know
our
capital
is
about
in
georgia.
Our
main
population
hub
is
in
missouri.
We
have
outlining
rural
communities
and
their
hubs
are
in
minnesota,
kansas
and
all
the
way
out
to
california,
if
you
overlay
alaska
over
the
size
of
the
continent
of
the
world
48,
so
that's
the
size
of
our
state.
F
We
have
very
geographical
role,
challenges,
data,
centers
and
hubs
that
aren't
there
in
terms
of
high
connectivity
through
virtual
meetings,
and
so
with
that
just
an
overview
of
where
we're
at
with
our
covet
situation
as
well.
We
have
about
almost
2
800
cases.
I
tell
people
our
state's
been
social
distancing
since
1959
when
we
became
a
state
and
we
have
about
1800
active
cases
right
now.
F
All
our
congregate
care,
centers
inside
the
state,
stop
accepting
new
new
folks
and
out
of
state
was
basically
shut
down
as
well.
We
only
have
about
a
hundred
or
so
kids
out
of
that
are
actually
placed
in
concrete
care
and
about
seven,
obviously
about
70
to
120
on
the
high
notes.
It
fluctuates
throughout
the
year
and
as
of
now,
we
have
about
2
000
2070
kids
in
foster
care
in
our
state.
F
On
the
positive
note
of
that,
you
know
we
had
low
turnover
of
our
staff
workers
until
about
june,
when
we
reopened
is
when
we
started
saw
a
mass
exodus
of
some
of
our
caseworkers,
but
the
numbers
have
gone
down.
Most
likely,
as
many
states
have
seen,
is
just
because
the
children
have
less
contact
with
those
mandated
reporters.
F
So
our
we
also
have
a
lot
of
third-party
vendors
that
do
sort
of
visitations
and
custody
hearings
and
those
have
also
shut
down
throughout
this
time
of
covid,
we've
been
fortunate
that,
in
our
foster
care
settings,
only
two
kids,
only
two
families
have
tested
positive
for
covet,
thus
far
and
out
of
out
of
state.
Only
two
have
been
tested
positive
for
the
kids
that
are
an
out
of
state
placement.
F
As
of
a,
we
saw
a
lot
of
opportunity
with
our
time
of
with
the
changes
with
the
title,
four
funds
that
have
come
through
family
first
in
terms
of
allowing
those
funds
to
be
used
for
more
family
contact
within
our
kids
in
foster
care
or
the
kids
are
in
congregate
care
which
have
been
more
beneficial.
So
there's
nothing
can
replace
that
face-to-face
contact.
Visit
with
family,
but
families
have
shown
a
more
positive
reaction
to
having
more
of
that
face
time.
F
More
of
the
phone
calls
and
they've
actually
had
increased
contact
through
the
virtual
settings
and
through
distance
communications,
and
they
would
have
face-to-face,
and
so
that's
been
the
positive
that
we've
seen
as
an
outcome
of
this,
and
so
our
state
department
of
offices
or
services.
That's
where
they're,
using
the
money
to
invest
in
more
they're,
using
that
money
to
invest
more
into
getting
the
hipaa
compliance
software,
because,
as
of
now,
those
regulations
have
been
laxed.
F
You
don't
have
to
have
the
as
tight
connections
and
have
followed
through
the
security
that
we
would
normally
have
to
do
through
our
medical
settings
and
through
sort
of
our
substance,
abuse
and
other
issues
and
so
they're
making
sure
that
when
this
crisis
ends,
there's
still
the
system
set
up
to
continue.
That
type
of
virtual
communications
with
families
and
they're
also
spending
the
debt
and
the
money
to
get
this
out.
The
data
and
a
lot
of
a
lot
of
our
rural
community
settings.
F
You
still
need
to
lay
on
eyes
and
hands
and
interview,
children
and
families,
and
that's
been
a
lot
in
terms
of
ppe
equipment
that
have
been
purchased
to
help
keep
staff
safe
and
the
testing
cost
for
that
as
well,
has
been
also
a
tremendous
cost
and
trying
to
make
sure
how
we
do.
This
safely
is
a
huge
concern,
as,
like
I
said
as
of
june,
when
we
started
resuming
services.
That's
when
we
started
seeing
a
lot
of
our
turnover
in
our
staff
is
just
because
of
their
their
concern
about
continuing
being
essential
personnel.
F
During
this
time.
I
also
want
to
talk
about.
You
know
our
resiliency
in
our
foster
care.
We've
spent
a
lot
of
time
and
money
making
sure
that
we
reached
out
to
our
foster
care
parents
out
of
the
two
out
of
the
2070
placements
that
we
have
of
our
kids.
We've
only
had
three
families
to
really
pull
off
and
was
concerned
about
this
kind
of
covet.
F
So
we've
had
really
positive
outreach
in
terms
of
where
our
kids
are
placed,
but
there
is
a
concern
in
terms
of
when
school
starts
again
and
the
cost
of
how
we
can
use
funds
and
changing
the
regulations
on
some
of
the
federal
of
who
can
be
placed
and
who
can
do
child
care.
Our
child
care
facilities
are
maxed
right
now,
a
lot
of
them
aren't
taking
in
new
ones
a
lot
of
them
closed
in
our
state,
and
with
that
comes
this
overburdens
of
who's
going
to
watch
these
children.
F
While
the
foster
parents
go
to
work,
and
so
that's
been
a
huge
huge
struggle
and
so
they're
looking
at
ways
that
we
can
allow
the
state
funds
to
pay
for
maybe
the
foster
family
foster
families,
family
members
to
help
watch.
So
it's
we're
getting
really
interesting
in
how
this
connectivity
of
this
care
network
is
going
to
work
and
so
without
going
back
to
school
on
a
full-time
basis.
F
That
funding
is
going
to
end
quickly
and
we've
already
funded
through
the
federal
funds
to
the
state,
our
child
care
assistance
programs.
But
it's
not
going
to
be
enough.
We
just
don't
have
enough
child
care
facilities
and
I
hate
to
say
that
school
is
a
child
care
facility
where
a
lot
of
social
services
and
needs
are
for
our
kids
are
met
in
our
state.
F
With
that,
we
also
had
a
huge.
You
know:
we
had
an
airline
go
bankrupt
during
this
time,
covet
that
served
our
rural
communities,
and
so
it's
been
difficult
to
have
caseworkers.
Now
we
have
to
charter
planes
to
go
out
to
do
child
welfare
checks,
and
you
can
only
imagine
the
cost
of
charting
a
plane
to
go
800
miles
to
go
pick
up
a
child
or
have
a
child
to
come
in
for
a
welfare
check.
F
F
Let's
make
sure
I
think
that's
about
all
my
time.
I
have
there's
so
much
more,
but
that's
so
make
sure
I
covered
everything
and
other
than
that.
Our
court
system
is
the
other.
The
only
other
item
that
we
just
also
tried
started
doing
our
china
cases
back
and
also
using
the
federal
funds
to
make
sure
they
have
the
equipment
to
do
the
hipaa
compliance
software
emails
to
work
with
our
adas
and
those
type
of
cases.
A
Thank
you
so
much
as
my
timer
is
going
off
you
you,
you
were
keeping
time
as
well,
so
I'm
sure
those
other
points
that
you
didn't
get
to
highlight
will
come
up
during
the
the
panel
discussion,
or
at
least
I
I
hope
that
they
will
so
if
I
could
just
turn
it
now
into
our
panel
discussion.
That
would
be
great,
and
I
just
want
to
start
with
this
leading
question
about
how
legislators
can
support
the
family.
First
acts
goal
of
reducing
reliance
on
group
care.
So
I'll
start
there.
A
E
So
I
can
start.
One
of
the
things
that
we
have
wanted
to
look
at
is
how
we
can
use
non-traditional
partners
that
and
to
use
the
language
to
hit
that
criteria.
It
can't
just
be
at
risk.
It
has
to
be
at
risk
of
entry
to
foster
care,
so
we
are
trying
to
figure
out
how
we
can
work
with
our
drug
courts.
Our
mental
health
courts,
where
we
have
families
that
are
kind
of
teetering
on
the
edge
might
not
yet
be
at
the
attention
of
child
welfare,
but
we
can
use
this
as
an
opportunity.
E
F
I
would
just
I
would
echo
those
comments.
We
have
a
lot
of
partners,
our
non-profit
community
and
other
third
party
vendors
that
provide
these
services,
but
also
we've
been
working
on
trying
to
get
some
of
those
screened
out
reports
to
allow
those
entities
to
provide
services
to
those
families
to
make
sure
they
stay
out
of
those
placements
as
well.
I
mean
that's
going
to
be
the
largest
part,
a
lot
of
these
third-party
vendors
and
sort
of
non-profits.
F
They
have
not
quite
opened
up
yet
because
they
don't
have
the
funds
to
continue
on
with
the
protective
equipment
to
make
sure
this
provides
safety
for
their
staff,
so
whatever
we
can
do
to
try
to
buy
safety
for
our
essential
services,
folks
that
are
still
out
there.
It's
it's
still
needed,
and
people
don't
want
to
go
back
to
work.
F
C
E
A
C
And
I
we
thought
that
was
an
interesting
empirical
question.
And
so
we
went
and
looked
at
the
historical
reporting
trends
and
found
that
teachers
are
the
second
highest
reporting
source
to
child
welfare.
But
between
85
and
89
of
the
cases
that
they
report
the
children
or
concerns
that
they
report
to
the
hotline
are
not
substantiated.
C
And
so
we
have
built
a
tremendous
infrastructure
in
child
welfare
to
accept
reports
when
those
could
be
diverted
to
community-based
services
so
that
families
are
getting
what
they
need
when
they
need
it.
Rather
than
pushing
those
families
to
a
system
that
truly
is
designed
to
respond
to
abuse
of
children
and
egregious
neglect.
Not
not
that
kids,
you
know
don't
have
coats
for
school
and
so
to
the
extent
that
we
think
about
the
transformation
holistically.
C
I
believe
we
have
to
begin
thinking
through
how
we
create
infrastructure
within
communities
to
address
the
needs
that
kids
and
families
have
that.
We
provide
alternate
options
for
the
education
system
to
address
the
concerns
that
they
have
and
to
get
far
more
sophisticated
about
being
able
to
identify
the
children
and
families
who
truly
are
at
risk
and
require
the
level
of
intensity
that
the
public
child
welfare
agency
provides
to
ensure
that
children
are
safe.
A
Yeah,
those
are
those
are
really
good
nuggets.
Claire.
Thank
you
for
for
highlighting
those.
I
I
want
to
go
back
to
something
that
ann
talked
about
in
the
beginning,
which
is
that
the
family
first
act
recognizes
many.
Young
people
are
involved
in
both
systems,
child
welfare
and
juvenile
justice,
and
I'm
just
curious
to
hear
how
your
state
agencies
or
how
state
agencies
in
general
are
including
juvenile
justice
stakeholders
in
their
family.
First
prevention
plans,
because
yeah
I'll
just
stop
there
I'll.
Let
you
answer,
and
I
won't
keep
talking.
E
So
we
created
a
big
family
first
work
group
and
one
of
the
first
people
that
we
invited
to
the
table
was
our
juvenile
justice
system.
We
also
brought
in
the
courts
because
the
the
courts
understanding
how
this
works
and
what
their
role
is
is
incredibly
important.
Part
of
what
we
talked
about
as
well
was
the
system
that
surrounds
that
qrtp
process
that
kids
move
through
so
shelter
care,
homeless,
homeless
and
and
runaway
shelters.
E
We
put
some
limits
on
how
people
can
be
together
in
some
of
these
non-qrtp
sites,
and
we
also
use
this
opportunity
to
prohibit
the
use
of
placement
of
kids
in
like
refurbished
detention,
facilities
or
detention
facilities
as
child
welfare
as
child
welfare
placements.
But
we
could
not
do
that
without
the
involvement
of
our
juvenile
justice
system
who
also
have
raised.
Our
juvenile
justice
system
has
asked
us,
as
we
are
looking
at
our
placements,
especially
non-profit
versus
for-profit
and
issues
of
capacity.
F
Yeah
so
this
past
year,
we've
made
a
new
deputy
director
position
for
the
commissioner's
office
for
our
department
of
health
and
human
services,
where
our
juvenile
justice
lies
and
his
role
is
to
take
over
sort
of
the
office
of
children's
services
and
the
department
of
juvenile
justice
so
that
they
have
a
single
person
to
contact
before
that.
Commissioner,
his
time
was
spent,
probably
90
of
the
time
on
medicaid
related
issues
and
those
two
departments
were
sort
of
on
the
back
burner
and
so
now
they're
working
more
congregately
together.
F
F
A
A
And
then
yeah,
I
think,
yeah.
I
think
this
the
solutions
are
are
good
and
I
kind
of
want
to
lead,
lead
or
leave
on
that
note,
if
you
all
had
just
sort
of
one,
you
know
call
of
action
or
one
strategy
or
one
consideration
that
you
would
give
to
the
audience
that
are,
you
know
currently
listening
in
order
to
change
this
current
landscape
of
these
dual
status,
youth
or
the
youth
of
the
use
of
congregate
care
in
general.
B
B
E
You
know
so
many
of
our
kids
that
go
into
congregate
care
pick
up
criminal
charges
for
the
first
time
there
because
they
run
or
they
fight
back
in
a
restraint
and
they're
just
being
kids
and
in
a
lot
of
cases,
they've
been
put
in
situations
where
their
civil
liberties
have
been
taken
from
them
without
any
due
process.
A
really
great
example.
We
had
a
kid
that
testified
in
our
committee
and
he
talked
about
being
in
a
placement
where
he
was
told
he
could.
E
E
F
Yeah,
I
would
agree
on
the
prevention
on
the
preventative
side
of
congregate
care.
We
have
initiative.
We
started
years
ago
called
bring
the
kids
back
home
initiative.
We
used
to
have
over
400,
kids
out
of
state
and
placement
and
congregate
care,
because
that
now
it's
down
between
under
100
about
120
at
the
high
end
throughout
the
year.
But
that's
that's
the
mission
we've.
I
would
urge
legislators
to
come
up
with
ways
that
we
can
do
a
private
public
partnership
with
stakeholders.
F
F
So
we
need
to
do
a
better
job
of
making
sure
that
services
are
culturally
relevant
and
keeping
things
sort
of
all
all
sorts
of
kumbaya
rainbow
puppies
and
puppies
and
rainbows
feel.
But
on
a
serious
note,
we
we
just
need
to
make
sure
that
we're
doing
a
better
job
on
the
preventative
and
making
sure
that
we
have
services.
F
And
we
have
folks
that
are
out
there
doing
the
good
work
that
they're
doing
and
taking
care
of
of
of
these
first
responders
to
get
our
kids
in
crisis
from
the
teachers
to
the
social
workers
to
the
foster
parents.
We
need
to
make
sure
that
we're
doing
all
we
can
to
provide
the
resources
that
they
feel
supported.
So
they
can
also
support
our
youth.
D
A
D
On
mute
nina,
thank
you
so
much.
Yes,
everyone.
Thank
you
here,
I'm
pointing
I'll
point
to
the
resources
that
are
available
for
everyone.
On
our
website.
We
have
human
services
and
covet
19
resources,
their
child
welfare
guides
for
legislators
related
to
covet
19's
impact
on
a
child
welfare,
and
we
have
an
overview
of
the
family.
First
prevention
services
act
and
we're
also
tracking
legislation.
There
has
been
a
a
small
amount
of
legislation,
actually
enacted
related
to
family
first
this
year,
and
you
can
find
it
at
that
piece.
D
D
And
I
want
to
remind
you
of
our
upcoming
and
last
webinar
zoom
webinar,
which
will
be
on
wednesday
august
12th
at
2
pm,
eastern,
improving
outcomes
for
older
youth
and
child
welfare.
We
think
this
will
be
a
great
one
and
hope
to
see
you
there.
If
you
have
any
questions,
please
contact
us
and
we
should
have
an
online
evaluation
appearing
shortly
and
we
do
ask
that
you
spend
a
few
minutes
with
us
responding
to
the
evaluation,
so
we
can
better
serve
your
needs
in
the
future.
A
Should
it
be
live?
It
says
it's
running:
okay,
okay!
Thank
you,
megan
great,
thank
you,
everyone
for
joining.
We
hope
to
see
you
again,
but
please
take
a
few
moments
to
fill
out
that
evaluation,
our
panelists.
Thank
you
so
much.
We
really
appreciate
again.
Your
participation
today
take
good
care.
Everyone
be.