Kentucky Foster Care Census: Results

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Kentucky Foster Care Census Results
March 7, 2003 Rutha.Huebner_at_mail.state.ky.us
http//www.trc.eku.edu/fostercare
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Authors

• Viola P. Miller, EdD, Secretary, CFC
• Ruth A. Huebner, PhD, Child Welfare Researcher
• Bruce I. Wolford, PhD, Director Training Resource
  Center, Eastern Kentucky University
• Bonnie Hommrich, MSW, CFC
• And a cast of thousands

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Topics

• Census Overview
• Methodology for the Census
• Kentuckys OOHC system
• Results
• Implications
• Future Direction

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Kentucky Foster Care Census

• Initiated July 2002 by CFC secretary dr. Viola
  miller
• Proactive response to
• National concerns
• Local concerns related to quality of care.
• Planned and innovative method

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Census Objectives

• To verify the placement and safety of each child.
• To gather data on the essentials of wellbeing.
• To conduct a needs assessment with foster and
  pre-adoptive parents about child wellbeing and
  their partnership with the Cabinet.

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Census Phases

• I Children in State Approved and Operated
  Homes.
• II Children in Private Child Care
• Residential settings
• Emergency shelters and hospitals
• Private foster homes
• III Children placed with relatives
• IV Children placed out-of-state

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Essentials of Child Wellbeing

• Attention by CFC
• Supported foster parents
• Family Contacts
• A voice in decisions about care
• Services to support needs
• Health
• Competence and Mastery Schooling and skills for
  adulthood.

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Methodology
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Guide to Design

• Need a statewide effort
• Complete in a short timeframe
• Completed by persons external to the Cabinet
• Cost-effective
• Data collectors - sensitive to the needs of
  people and children in care.
• Numeric data
• Data collected from adults

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Census Design

• Consultation and input from
• Foster adoptive parents
• Regional staff
• University Training Consortium Students
• CFC personnel
• Faculty
• EKU Training Resource Center
• Nine Research Review Boards

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Methodology

• Form a statewide research/training consortium
• Cabinet and 8 public universities
• Partner with
• Regional staff
• University Faculty
• University Training Consortium
• Public Child Welfare Certification Program
• Training Resource Center at EKU

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Methodology
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Census Takers

• 131 graduate and undergraduates in social work -
  human service professions
• Enrolled in courses specific to the census
• 2-day training
• Paid a small stipend for each visit
• Acquired skills in interviewing, use of data, and
  understanding of foster care.

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Measures

• Child Census Form
• Indicators of Child Wellbeing
• Completed by Regional Staff
• And Foster Adoptive Parents
• Foster Adoptive Parent Needs Assessment
• Interview worksheet for Census takers and Foster
  Adoptive Parents

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(No Transcript)
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Specifics

• Web-site entry system
• http//www.trc.eku.edu/fostercare
• Tracking system for each census taker and every
  child and home
• Census List generated August 25, 2002
• 100 of the children in DCBS homes on that day
  are accounted for.
• Sept. 9 January 6 all data collected
• Most done by December 1, 2002

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Kentuckys OOHC System

• 6,200 children in care on any day
• 3,300 in state approved operated homes.
• 1000 in residential care
• 1200 in Private Foster homes
• 500 in relative placements
• 50 children move in/out of DCBS homes each week.

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Results

• Data on
• 2996 children and
• 1130 Foster Pre-Adoptive Parents
• State Approved and Operated Foster Homes

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Topics

• The children and foster parents
• Child Needs
• Child/Family Interaction
• Child Service Array
• Foster Parent/Child Cabinet Partnership
• Foster Parent Needs

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When one of the foster children came into care,
she was going into the 3rd grade for the 3rd
time. The foster parents worked with her for the
whole summer. She is now in the 9th grade, on
the honor role, and in the National BETA Club.
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Foster Children Ages
47.1 male 52.9 female
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Months in Care and Placements by Age Group
Placements 2.26
Average Ave 8.30 yrs
Months in care 25.94
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Child Placement Proximity to Home
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Types of Homes
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Foster Parents Experience (84.5 interviewed)
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Number of Children in the Home

• Rural regions tended to have higher
• Average /home
• 2.03 children to
• 3.00 children

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Child Needs
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Attachment between children who are permanent in
the home and those who are not. They become
attached and then the children leave. Its hard
for the permanent children to deal with.
Emotional Needs
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Child Physical and Dental

• Average Time Since Last Physical
• 4.01 months
• 98.4 had a Physical in the past 12 months
• Average Time Since Last Dentist Visit
• 3.62 months
• 98.6 had a Dental Visit in Past 12 months.

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Child School Needs

• In School 73.6
• 5 children ages 5-16 were not in school.
• Foster Parents attends meetings for child.

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Child Special Education Needs

• Of those in school
• 38.7 have an Individualized Educational Plan.
• 43.6 have an educational need
• Who signs school documents? (chart)

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Educational - Emotional Developmental Needs
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Needs of Children

• Only 39 had no special needs
• Of those with special needs, 61.9 had two or
  more needs. Most often
• Educational and emotional needs
• Medical and emotional
• Developmental and educational
• Medical and educational needs

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• Need
• 32.4 medical need
• 44 emotional need
• 43.6 educational need
• 9.5 physical disability
• 22.9 developmental disability

• Adequately Helped
• 97.1
• 90.7
• 94.4
• 92.6
• 94.1

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Emotional Needs of Children

• want to be in their natural home
• letting him know that his biological parent
  loves him, but is unable to care for him
• afraid to get close to you
• helping the girls work through sexual abuse
• permanency ongoing case for 3 years

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Child Sometimes to Consistently Involved in
Choices About Care
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Nurturing Contact with Family
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Child/Family Interaction

• Time since last visit with biological parents
• 27.2 had no visit
• 48.5 had a visit in past month
• 65.8 visited in the past year
• Reason for no visit
• Parent absent 33.2
• Not appropriate for child - 53.2
• Parent or child refuses 13.6

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Importance of Child Visits to Family
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Visits to Biological ParentsFoster Parent
Perceptions
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Sibling Placements

• 80.7 were part of a sibling group
• Of those with siblings, 73.1 were placed with
  one or more siblings.
• 53.2 were placed with all siblings
• 46.8 had siblings placed elsewhere
• Average time since last sibling visit
• 2.59 months
• 53.3 visited sibling in past month

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Service Array

• Adequate to Meet
• the Needs of Children

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Perceptions of Adequate Services
Varies by Region from 40-74 consistently
available
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Unmet Needs for Children(550 FAP responses)

• After School Programming 29
• Involvement with Peers 28
• Family Counseling and MH 24
• Dental Care 23
• Mental Health Care 22
• Therapies (OT, PT, SLP) 22
• Job Opportunities 20

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Cabinet and Foster
Parent Relationships
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Frequency and Satisfaction ANY Visit to the Home
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Visits to the Specific Child

• Examining children in care for 6 or more months
  (2163 children)
• 55.2 had been seen by their SW six or more
  times.
• 106 had no visits in past 6 months

• 85.5 of children saw their social worker in past
  month.
• 93 in past 3 month
• 201 children had not seen their social worker in
  the past 4 months or longer

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Informed of Court Hearings?
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Informed of Case Conferences?
50
The Best Social Worker Acts on Your Input
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Availability of Help from DCBS Social Workers
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Interference with Partnership 5-700 reply

• Limited information given upon placement of the
  child - 52
• Changes in Case worker - 43
• Limited information about the biological parents
  - 41
• Time to complete paperwork - 30
• Communication between counties/regions - 30

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Foster Pre-Adoptive Parent Needs

• Training and Support

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Biggest Needs of Foster Parents

• Respite care or babysitting
• 52.2
• Information about biological parents
• 45.6
• Support group for children in care
• 28.4
• Communication with foster parents
• 25.8

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Training over the past 2 years has been valuable
to my work.
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Training Computer and Preferred Methods

• Small group 72
• Classroom 69
• Video tapes 51
• Internet based Coursework 42
• Statewide Conference 38

Internet and CD ROM for with computer
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Success Stories

• We worked with the biological mother over months,
  she overcame her drug problem, and was reunited
  with the child.
• Originally they communicated by barking and
  growling - now the youngest is starting to spell
  and write.
• After 5 years, she is to be married soon.
• Mother earned GED, job, and children are home
  safe now.

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Implications

• Making Sense
• of the Census

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Unanticipated Benefits

• Student Learning and Professionalism
• Identified health in out-of-home care system
• Successful statewide effort
• University and Cabinet Partnership
• Innovation
• Knowledge to improve Child Welfare

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Opportunities for Improvement

• Foster Parent Sensitivity and Training
• Discomfort with visits to bio. Parents
• Educational advocacy
• Identify Need to Monitor and Improve Visits to
  Children
• Verification system
• Hot line
• Needs of foster parents for respite care

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Understanding of Childrens Needs

• Prevalent and Multiple Challenges
• Service Array Gaps
• Educational Challenges
• Children of foster parents needs and attachment
  to foster children
• Shorten stays in foster care until permanency
• Increase voice in their care

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Reasons to Be Proud

• Health care provided to children
• Visits to most children and parents are completed
• Foster parent satisfaction with being notified
  and with visits
• Concern for children expressed in stories and
  comments

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Future Directions
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Phase II - IV

• Census to begin May 12
• Private Child Care Agencies
• Children with more needs, tend to be older
• Less statewide information on this group
• Much to learn

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Ongoing Efforts

• Analysis and use of the data
• Training/research partnership
• Longitudinal study census cohort
• Integrate data sets with PCC
• Nested studies in next census
• Technical Support to other states
• Mining of existing data sets to predict
  resilience.

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Thank you