Tucson Arizona Region, CPS staff to see pay cuts if goal is unmet:Target is boost in numbers of kids kept in own homes...

Tucson Region
CPS staff to see pay cuts if goal is unmet
Target is boost in numbers of kids kept in own homes
By Josh Brodesky and Daniel Scarpinato
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.03.2007

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/181317


Child Protective Services workers could take a cut in pay this year if
the agency fails to increase the number of children it keeps in their
own homes, instead of removing them.
The requirement is part of the new CPS pay-for-performance program,
which docks employees if the agency fails to meet target goals for
keeping children with their families and reducing institutional placements.
A "bonus," as state documents call it, equal to 30 cents per hour, is
already included in employees' pay. But if the agency doesn't meet its
performance goals, the incentive gets taken away.
"You don't gain (a bonus)," said Liz Barker Alvarez, spokeswoman for
Child Protective Services. "You just lose."
CPS officials defended the performance measures and incentives, saying
the agency has long had the goal of keeping more children with their
families because it creates greater continuity and stability.
But in light of two recent cases in Tucson where parents have been
charged with killing their children, the measures have raised the
hackles of state lawmakers who are concerned that financial incentives
might affect decisions about child placement.
"We're tipping the scale with performance pay," said state Rep. Jonathan
Paton, a Tucson Republican who is part of legislative hearings to
examine the CPS role in the two Tucson cases. "It's kind of like telling
a judge we have too many people in the jails right now, and we're going
to base your pay on how many people you don't send to jail."
The Legislature authorized the "pay-for-performance program" last year.
But it was left to each agency to implement the policy and set its own
performance measures.
Child Protective Services is overseen by the state's Department of
Economic Security.
In order to keep the bonuses, the department must meet two of the
following three goals:

Promote economic self-sufficiency.

Safely reduce the number of children in out-of-home care.

Reduce the number of children and adults placed in institutions by
developing the capacity of extended families and communities.

The financial incentives also apply to the placement of vulnerable adults.
Achieving those goals is measured by hitting preset targets.
For example, each year the agency must reduce the number of CPS children
in out-of-home care — foster homes or institutions — by 200. It also
needs to keep 72 percent of CPS children with either foster families or
relatives.
"Safely reducing the number of children in out-of-home care has been a
goal for this agency for a number of years," Barker Alvarez said.
CPS has had a hard time meeting that goal over the last three years.
Between 2003 and 2006, the number of children in out-of-home care jumped
from 7,535 to 9,833, according to the most recent semiannual CPS
performance report.
The same report shows that between 2003 and 2006, the number of licensed
foster homes increased from 1,892 to 3,256.
Lawmakers say the process of providing financial incentives may have
unintended consequences.
A frequent critic of CPS, state Sen. Karen Johnson, a Mesa Republican,
called the policy "perverse. … We've absolutely seen that CPS workers
are not being paid enough," she said, adding the base salary needs to be
increased.
Salaries for entry-level CPS specialists begin at $32,342 and can be as
much as $55,802 depending on education levels and experience.
The semiannual report says "the recruitment and retention of skilled
case managers" is one of the agency's biggest challenges. "The
Department continues to struggle with an inexperienced work force that
is unable to deal with the complex issues present in the child welfare
system," it says.
State Rep. Phil Lopes, a Tucson Democrat and House minority leader, said
the incentives could result in families remaining intact because the
caseworkers may benefit.
"It's not clear what the motivation is," Lopes said.
Also difficult to understand, Lopes said, is how much control the
caseworker has had over the situation, since other entities, like the
courts, are involved in making decisions.
Ken Deibert, deputy director for the Division of Children, Youth and
Families, dismissed the idea that financial incentives would cloud the
judgment of case managers and investigators.
"For anyone to speculate that a person who works in child welfare and
has made a career commitment to safety for children, that they would
jeopardize a child's well-being for 30 cents an hour is absurd," he
said. "Anyone who would make that kind of conjecture demonstrates a lack
of understanding of the professional and personal commitment that it
takes to do child-protection work."
Moreover, he said when investigations are completed, they are reviewed
by supervisors. There is also a foster-care review board, independent of
CPS, which examines substantiated abuse complaints. The agency also does
random reviews of cases, he said.
It's unclear if other states use pay-for-performance measures on employees.
"I have not seen a pay-for-performance like this in my experience,"
Deibert said.
Neither had Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition
for Child Protection Reform, a Virginia-based advocacy group that agrees
with the principle of keeping children with their families.
"As far as I know, linking performance in child welfare to individual
pay is extremely unusual," he said.
Nevertheless, he said he supports the idea if it reduces reliance on
foster care.
Will Johnson, a senior research analyst with the Welfare Policy Research
Project in the University of California president's office, also said he
hadn't heard of such incentives in his state.

Contact reporter Josh Brodesky at 807-7789 or

Contact reporter Daniel Scarpinato at 307-4339 or .



CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...