No Magic Bullet: Treehouse Roundtable Looks at Foster Care System Reform

A May 8, 2008, forum for Treehouse Builders, "No Magic Wand: What Will it Take to Reform the Foster Care System?" inspired a range of thoughtful responses from those who attended. Four panelists — Connie Ballmer, Board President of Partners for Our Children; The Hon. Bobbe Bridge, Founding President of the Center for Children and Youth Justice; State Representative Mary Helen Roberts; and Phoebe Sade Anderson, Treehouse Educational Advocacy Program Manager — shared their hopes, frustrations and ideas about what it will take to reform the foster care system.

Two clear messages emerged from the day. First, reforming the foster care system will require new strategic alliances across the public and private sectors. And second, many bright, thoughtful people are committed to creating a system in which our children in foster care are protected and nurtured just like our own children.

Janis Avery, Executive Director of Treehouse, moderated the panel and has since received lively feedback from many people who attended. That feedback is presented here, along with responses from Janis.

To respond to this discussion, or if you would like to do more for our kids in foster care, contact Janis Avery at Treehouse.

Roundtable Feedback

The panel was excellent. The different views presented were all trying to improve the situation and all taking different (and sometimes conflicting) approaches. I walked away with a better understanding of the complexities of the system and was inspired with the level of commitment I heard from the panel that changes can be made. I was also excited to hear the level of commitment to collaboration between the panelists.

Janis responds: Our panel gave us a strong sense that the kind of change that’s needed to help kids in foster care thrive may be created through multiple, coordinated efforts.   It seems unlikely that a single strategy will fulfill our collective vision of a child welfare system that accomplishes many challenging activities in order to support children and families.

The one thing I became more aware of is how many different organizations and programs are out there to help these kids and their families as well as the diversity of needs – educational, health, counseling, mentoring, etc, etc. It seems that one of the biggest challenges is coordinating them all and making sure that the people – case workers, volunteers, teachers, agencies and foster families – are trained, educated and well enough informed to make use of the resources that are available. Is there someone, some organization, working to make this happen?

Janis responds: King County is relatively rich in resources, and especially complex.  Children’s Administration contracts with many providers, so influences both kind and quantity of available services. Casey Family Programs has long facilitated the Transition Collaborative, whose members are Children’s Administration, Treehouse, YMCA, Mockingbird Society, Youth Care, Youth Source, Catholic Community Services, and occasional others. These agencies refer to one another and provide collaborative programming in education and employment readiness. United Way and the Community Information Line also play a role in cataloging different kinds of agencies and services.

One of my questions following the meeting was what do other states do? With 50 states in the business of foster care, some must do better than others. How do we compare? I intend to do some research on that subject ASAP to become better informed. The piece about education and its importance to success really hit the bull’s eye for me. Thanks for your great work on this and so many other things. I’m glad to support Treehouse.

Janis responds: This is such a challenging question!  The federal government assesses each state’s child welfare agency through Child and Family Service Reviews. The last time Washington was assessed, it fell in the bottom third of states.  Our state focus on caseworker visits to children in foster care and immediate evaluations of child abuse allegations came directly from the last review. You will find information about the review process and reports by state from the last review at this link:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/cwmonitoring/index.htm

I am wondering whether one action item might be an ongoing media campaign of some sort to impress on the people of Washington the needs of our children in foster care. I keep thinking that these issues are below the radar screen of the general population and this allows our law makers to avoid accountability when perhaps they would not if the needs of 'our children' were in the spotlight in between the times when horrific news events about them occur.

Janis responds: John Morse at Amara has started a collaborative effort called, "A Home for Every Child: There’s No Place Like Home." His vision is of a cross-section of business, human services and media players launching a media campaign and helping Children’s Administration and the Division of Licensed Resources eliminate the barriers to becoming and remaining a foster parent.

Of the 45% of kids in foster care who are in special ed, I wonder how many are ADHD?... I know the syndrome well…I'll bet a lot of our foster children don't get the meds and counseling they need.

Janis responds: Our current state information doesn’t answer this question directly. However, we know that children in foster care have a disproportionate share of mental health diagnoses. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is one diagnosis that likely is in high numbers for kids in foster care. How kids come to ADHD may make a difference in how effective treatment is. My son has this diagnosis, but developed the symptoms as he developed in a very neglectful environment. Medical science has more frequent solutions for children who develop ADHD because of genetic predisposition.

Each of the excellent speakers described the perspective from which their efforts are being directed but weren't relating it to the other efforts, either of those in the room or the many agencies not represented. Someone needs to step back and take a macro view of child welfare, to define and analyze the elements of the system, evaluate the effectiveness of the resources now being directed at each element and to identify where there are no or inadequate resources being directed at an important element.
 
Janis responds:  If DSHS/CA would invite the public in to participate in determining, mission, overall objectives and identifying supportive resources, I think a manageable and effective strategy could be developed.  I think this is consistent with your strategic evaluation comments.  DSHS/CA receives a lot of feedback and suggestions, but doesn’t invite community participation in either mission or scope.  Sadly, this results in a high conflict relationship between the state agency and potential allies: contractors, advocates, clients and other community members.  Transparency of results and community involvement in seeking solutions and supporting the department could make a tremendous difference.
 
Our panelists did have different perspectives and strategies.  I believe these multiple approaches have a positive effect because the work is tremendously complex.

I was impressed with the need to make sure that social workers fully realize the breadth of their responsibilities when removing or working with children and families.  Specifically, continuity of education and access to health care (including mental health care for the children) must be addressed. It appeared from the discussion that social workers may not see this as their mandate or they may lack the necessary training or access to appropriate resources.

The other need was to focus on helping families/individuals become more functional. I think Bobbe Bridge said that the message we give people is, “you are bad, now change,” instead of helping them learn and change.  Just a day or so after the meeting I heard about a mother who left her 2-year-old alone while she went to get some food. The building caught on fire and she nearly lost her child. However, the news was that she may be charged with a crime. What good will this do? She needs help.

Janis responds:  The job of caseworkers at Children’s Administration is extremely complex.  Staff members work with children of all ages and ethnicities.  Can you imagine being a developmental expert for children from birth to age 18? That’s one of the challenging realities facing Children’s Administration staff. In addition, state and federal requirements can layer in such a way as to strangle movement forward. 

I share your frustration with criminal prosecution of the mother you mentioned.  Clearly, she needs support!