Early indications are the privatization of child welfare services is improving the assessment and investigation process used by social workers concerning reports of abuse and neglect of Kansas children.

It also appears that changes in the process of measuring the success of the child welfare system put in place by a task force appointed by Shawnee County District Judge James Buchele are beginning to show positive results.

Indicators of success include a just-released report from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) internal monitoring unit, which showed very high compliance levels with guidelines concerning assessment and investigation of child abuse reports. Those results, together with a large increase in the number of child abuse cases being investigated and taken into the court system in Sedgwick County, indicate the system for protecting children in Kansas is improving.

Over the last few years, SRS contracted with private, not-for-profit agencies to run three programs previously carried out by state social workers: adoption, family preservation and foster care. An important goal of privatization was to allow SRS social workers to concentrate efforts on responding to reports of child abuse and neglect.

The latest report from the agency’s internal monitoring unit shows that for the first two months of this year, SRS social workers have taken timely protective action in response to reports of abuse and neglect. The report, done by an internal quality control unit that reports directly to Deputy Secretary Janet Schalansky, covers the months of January and February of this year.

The monitoring reports began in those months after a several-month break intended to allow the effects of privatization and other changes recommended by Judge Buchele’s task force to take effect. Under a system put in place after settlement of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and now taken over by the Children’s Rights Project Inc., the monitoring work done by the internal SRS unit is forwarded to the division of Legislative Post Audit, which checks a sample of the findings.

The monitoring report showed social workers have been working closely with law enforcement agencies in dealing with reports of abuse and neglect, have interviewed all appropriate persons in abuse investigations, and have documented actions taken on cases. In most cases, these items have a 100 percent compliance rate during the monitoring period.

A complete list of questions looked into by the monitoring group and the percentage of correct actions taken by social workers in the cases monitored is attached.

SRS Secretary Rochelle Chronister said positive results concerning privatization are starting to show up in the most important work done by SRS -- protection of children from abuse and neglect.

"Protection of children from abuse and neglect has always been our top priority," said Mrs. Chronister. "I believe that freeing up overworked social workers to concentrate on this most important job of responding to reports of abuse and neglect of children is beginning to show results. We will know more as time passes, but early indications show the assessment and investigation system is working much better."

In Sedgwick County, the number of child abuse civil cases jumped from 326 to more than 2,000 since 1995, according to court records. Mrs. Chronister said although this increase is putting a strain on the court system, nonetheless if abuse or neglect is taking place, there is no alternative.

"We must protect our children," she said.

Judge Buchele’s task force identified a number of needed changes in the monitoring process. Of special importance was the need to monitor recent compliance records of social work, rather than monitor reports that were 12-18 months old. This made it very difficult for SRS social service administrators to look back at the system and identify needed changes.

"With monitoring of more recent cases, we are able to much more quickly identify problems and address them," Mrs. Chronister said. The Secretary added that she expects the improved performance to continue.

According to the task force report, before changes were made "the methods for measuring compliance had inadvertently overemphasized process and procedures. Child welfare in Kansas was being driven by ‘whatever it takes’ to comply with the settlement agreement, without an equal emphasis on service quality."

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001