It was time to join up for children in need of permanency. No more finger pointing; no more working in isolation.

In Sedgwick County, those critical to the lives of children placed in foster care because of abuse or neglect are working together as never before. The three juvenile court judges, the county's top state-level social service official, the county commissioners, and the district attorney are leading an effort to monitor, evaluate and improve the way the social service system responds to the need for children to have permanency in their lives.

But in creating system improvements, the Sedgwick County Permanency Coordinating Council will not be using isolated opinions about what needs to be done. That has happened too often in the past.

The Permanency Council will have hard data garnered from months of painstaking research to back up changes made. They will also have an Operations Board made up of front line workers in the field of foster care and a recently appointed Community Systems Review Board made up of Sedgwick County citizens advocating for improvements.

"This is not just reform for reform's sake," said Sedgwick County Juvenile Court Division Judge James Burgess, a member of the Council. "We are trying to get the data that tells us what needs to be done, and then make appropriate changes."

This month, the Sedgwick County Permanency Council received a second year funding grant from Kansas Families for Kids to continue efforts to reform the foster care system. Topeka-based Kansas Families for Kids, operating with a $2.06 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation with a goal of reforming the state's child welfare system, provided a second, $68,700 grant. The Permanency Council's work is also being studied by the Office of Judicial

Administration in Kansas as a potential model to share with other judicial districts in the state.

The three juvenile court judges in Sedgwick County -- Burgess, Carol Bacon, and Jennifer Jones -- along with John Sullivan, the Wichita Area Director for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS), Debra Donaldson, director of the county's community mental health center, ComCare, representing the Sedgwick County Commission, and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston form the Permanency Coordinating Council. They adopted the following formal mission statement for the council:

"To examine the operations, staffing and organization of juvenile court proceedings and the supporting systems involving abuse and neglect of children. Further, to implement reform measures which lead to safe, permanent and stable homes for those children in an efficient and timely manner."

The data about the lives of children who become foster children after a child-in-need-of-care petition is filed and a judge orders state custody is being collected and analyzed from many angles. Judge Burgess said basing decisions about system reform on factual information, much of which has never been collected before, is key to the project. And he agreed that the area of child welfare has in the past brought out anger and blame in Sedgwick County.

"We've gone through that over the years," he said. "There is a lot of passion; a lot of different prospectives about what we do."

Joan Wagnon, now Mayor of Topeka but previously executive director of Kansas Families for Kids, was instrumental in starting the Permanency Council in Sedgwick County. She said they used a model based substantially on operations of the child welfare system in Kent County, Michigan. Wagnon praised child welfare system leadership in Sedgwick County for their willingness to bring the foster care system under intense scrutiny.

"They chose to stop blaming and start solving problems," Wagnon said. "Everyone saw the need for change, and they got down and did it. There was a willingness to be evaluated and a willingness to be accountable."

Sullivan, the SRS Area Director, said the project has brought a recognition from everyone involved in the child welfare system that permanency for children is everyone's primary goal. Similar to Judge Burgess, Sullivan said in the past, blaming other parts of the system had become too common.

"Now we're looking at hard data, instead of letting one high-profile case sway our opinion about an entire agency," he said.

Karen Langston, chief of the juvenile division of the Sedwick County District Attorney's Office, represents District Attorney Foulston on the Permanency Council. She said the work has

been a "growing process" for everyone involved. She also said the council was set up at a time when relationships between some parts of the child welfare system were badly strained.

"We had to do something to make all segments of the system accountable," she said. "Now, we better appreciate each other's perspectives...I think SRS is able to better understand our position."

Langson said the Permanency Council has also added to everyone's understanding of how important permanency is in the life of a child.

"Before, I don't think all had the same sense of urgency," she said.

Data collection and analysis for the Permanency Project is being done by Wichita State University's Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs and by the Project Freedom Family and Youth Coalition.

Among data being collected is the following case specific information on each child placed in state custody:

• the length of time a child stays in foster care;
• the number of continuances filed that delay court hearings;
• the availability of needed services for children and the use of services that prevent out-of-home placement for children;
• analyses of the degree to which progress on a child's case is affected by the consistency of professional services, included the effect of a change in judge, social worker or guardian ad litem;
• the average length of time cases have been open listed by judge, by social worker, and by guardian ad litem;
• and the degree to which the type of problems a child may have may have contributed to time in the system.

Officials involved with the data collection also stressed the importance of getting this information in light of the privatization that has occurred with SRS child welfare programs, including foster care, over the last year. Representatives of the private agencies under contract with SRS to run social service programs are included on the Operations Board.

Robin Clements, a policy analyst with Wichita State who is experienced in field of foster care issues, is directing project operations. She said the collaboration is already having a positive effect. First of all, she said, people in the field no longer feel isolated in what can be a very difficult job.

"People's sense of isolation is diminished," she said. "It's boosted everyone's morale. This is systems review; this is systems reform. We have depersonalized it and put our commitment and our hearts into doing something better for the kids."

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001