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Foster-care providers are offered incentives



 
 
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Old March 15th 05, 04:09 PM
wexwimpy
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Default Foster-care providers are offered incentives

Foster-care providers are offered incentives

By LAURA BAUER The Kansas City Star

Nine years after private contractors took over, Kansas' foster-care
system is twice as expensive and still struggling to move children
into permanent homes at a faster pace.

So in an attempt to improve a system that in 1996 pioneered private
child welfare, the state is raising the stakes for contractors.

Starting in July, the state will pay them more money during the first
six months a child is in foster care. But that money will be cut more
than two-thirds if a child lingers in the system longer than a year.

The idea is to cut the average time a child is in the system, which is
23 months, roughly what it was before Kansas privatized services.

With more money early on, contractors can tailor services toward
individual families, said Richard Wexler, director of the National
Coalition for Child Protection Reform, based in Alexandria, Va.

“If they're serious about this, they will get serious about offering
families the specific help the families need,” Wexler said. “A
cookie-cutter service plan is what it has been.”

The change, along with three others, comes at a time when some had all
but given up on the private system.

While other states considering privatization watch Kansas' progress,
many child advocates, lawmakers and foster parents complain the state
still hasn't gotten it right.

Yet hopes lie in the changes.

“The bad news is Kansas made seven years of mistakes,” Wexler said.
“The good news is it does sound like they've learned from them. … It
looks like Kansas is finally getting it right.”

Other than the financial incentives, the changes include:

• More communication between foster parents and birth parents.

• More services for birth parents whose children have been removed
from their homes.

• Foster-care contractors will continue with a case even after a child
is referred for adoption. Currently, the case is sent to an adoption
contractor, which some critics say creates a disruption.

Officials with the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation
Services say the changes in next year's contracts are not to fix
anything that is broken. Yet they acknowledge that there always is a
need to improve.

“I don't think anybody is saying we don't want to get better,” said
Sandra Hazlett, director of children and family services for the
department. “I think we've learned how to make things better.”

In 1996, Kansas turned nearly all its child-welfare duties over to
private agencies, which meant contractors would provide services the
state once did. The idea was that through incentives and competition
between agencies, the system would be more efficient.

The goal was to create stronger families and keep children from
lingering in the system for several months to years. But state
officials say the result was that the system went from costing $70
million a year to more than $140 million.

Despite the cost, supporters of private child welfare rave over
several outcomes. Safety of children in the system has improved,
adoptions are at a record level and fewer children enter the system.

Before privatization, “kids waited up to two weeks for emergency
shelter placement. Kids were placed at the first open bed,” said Bruce
Linhos, director of the Children's Alliance of Kansas, a nonprofit
association of private child-welfare agencies. “Family preservation
was in only nine counties, and now it's in 105 counties. … I think we
have to recognize how far we've come.”

Officials with KVC Behavioral Health of Olathe had 778 children in
care when it became a contractor in May 1997. As of last May, there
were 498, a 36 percent drop.

“If you are a child in the system, it's 100 percent better,” said
Wayne Sims, president of KVC, which in July will go from serving eight
counties to 30, including Johnson and Wyandotte. “In terms of progress
that has been made, it has been amazing.”

Critics, however, say services have been geared toward the child, not
the entire family. They say that delays keep children lingering in the
system.

In 2004, about 27 percent of children in foster care were moved to
permanent homes within six months. In the late 1990s, a year or two
into privatization, that number was about the same.

“When I think of how privatization was presented, that it was this
major breakthrough and it would improve outcomes for kids, it is
surprising now,” said Gary Brunk, executive director for Kansas Action
for Children, a statewide child-advocacy group. “We still do poorly.”

Some foster parents worry the changes could make their jobs tougher
and more risky as they are called to work closer with birth parents.

Others say that when it comes to financial incentives, they fear
decisions will not be made based on what is best for the child.

“We look at it from the kids' point of view,” said Johnson County
foster parent Joni Haitt. “Sometimes kids need to be in care longer.”

Former foster parent Marcy Misak said how long a child is in the
system should be judged as a “case-by-case thing,” not something
driven by numbers and money, Misak said.

“I know time is a factor, and it's expensive for the state,” Misak
said. “But is money the issue, or is finding children the right home
the issue?”

Lisa Snell, director of the child-welfare program at Reason
Foundation, a national think tank, said there needs to be oversight as
decisions are made. But she does not think incentives will cause
contractors to make the wrong decisions for children.

“Some kids may be able to move out in a few months,” Snell said. “And
that should balance out with the few that are the hard-core cases.”

Whatever the outcome, other states will be watching.

In Missouri, where private agencies manage 12 percent of children in
foster care, officials are considering privatizing more services.

“We have no intention to do it overnight like perhaps Kansas did,”
said Fred Simmens, director of the children's division of the Missouri
Department of Social Services. “But we are learning how to better
serve children. Whether it's the public sector or private sector,
that's what we're trying to determine.”

Simmens said the goal now is to integrate some private services into
Greene County in southwest Missouri and gradually add more in the
Kansas City area.

Some commend Kansas for getting to know its system as it underwent a
change more mammoth than any state had experienced before or since.

“As the pioneer doing this and doing it so quickly, Kansas did
experience traumatic bumps along the way,” said Madelyn Freundlich,
policy director for the nonprofit advocacy group Children's Rights
Inc. and co-author of a study on privatization of child-welfare
services.

“But I do believe the state tried to learn from that. They are using
data as it is coming in to continually assess, ‘How are we doing? Do
we need to make changes to improve things?'”

To reach Laura Bauer, call

(816) 234-7743 or send e-mail to .
First glance

• Currently, the average time a child is in the Kansas foster-care
system is 23 months, roughly what it was before the state privatized
services.

• Since privatization began in 1996, the cost to the state has gone
from $70 million a year to more than $140 million.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...l/11128729.htm

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