September 25, 2001 - Children receive needed services to stay with families and in their own communities

In Wichita, a new program has successfully teamed mental health case managers with state social workers to provide assistance to families with children who have severe emotional disturbances. Without the help, past records show many of the children would have ended up in state custody and foster care. But with the assistance, only five of 126 children referred to the program have come into custody.

A project begun last year in Topeka has succeeded in keeping children who were battling persistent head lice in school, out of state custody. Bringing these young children into state custody and foster care just didn't make sense to anyone.

In Pittsburg, a new program offers the juvenile court judge an alternative to sending children with serious behavior problems into foster care. It does this by giving the judge the option of assigning them to day reporting services, where both the youth and his or her family set goals and work on family functioning.

All across Kansas, community-based service funding for programs such as these is making a difference, both for children and families, and for state taxpayers.

Community-based funding was provided by the 2000 and 2001 Kansas Legislature as a method to reduce increasing numbers of children being brought into foster care. Lawmakers did this after research done by the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) found that up to 25 percent of children being placed in foster care were put there for reasons other than abuse or neglect.

The children were being placed in state custody for reasons attributed to learning disorders, behavior disorders, or medical needs, based on the research. The research also showed that these children and their families did need assistance, but not necessarily state custody and foster care, which is designed to serve children in need of protection from abuse or neglect.

According to Frank Ross, a respected 25-year veteran of the child welfare system in Kansas, the commitment to community-level funding shows our state has finally put its money where its mouth has been.

"There has always been a lot of rhetoric, but this is the first time that I know of there has been much more than lip service given to the idea of providing resources at the community level to provide another option for youth, judges, and county attorneys," said Mr. Ross, executive director of Elm Acres Youth and Family Services, based in Pittsburg.

Ross, whose agency received a grant from community funding to create the Partnership for Successful Youth program in Pittsburg, said the community level funding will pay off quickly, both for families and taxpayers.

"You don't have to keep very many kids out of foster care for a program like this to be a very good investment," he said.

Partnership for Successful Youth in Pittsburg, which began in June, serves children referred by the county attorney, the district judge, or SRS because of behavior or emotional problems. The program is expected to serve 40 children a year at a cost of $60,656. The average cost to keep one child in foster care is $2,252 per month, which if the child stayed in the system for a year would cost $27,024.

To Mr. Ross, the day reporting program is a prevention program, aimed at assisting youth who are on their way to becoming involved in the state's juvenile offender program.

"It provides intervention at an earlier stage and prevents a much more costly intervention down the road," he said.

Juvenile Court Judge Don Nolan, based in Girard, said ‘Partnership for Successful Youth' gives him an alternative to moving children and youth away from their homes and communities and into state custody. Although he said the program was too new to judge how successful it will be, he has high hope.

"I was pleased to see it adopted by Elm Acres," Judge Nolan said.

Programs aimed at diverting youth from state custody are springing up in every area of the state. Staff in the 11 SRS area offices have analyzed the characteristics of children in their areas coming into state custody. They have found that some of the children being committed to state custody are not placed there because of abuse or neglect issues, but because of other reasons such as aggressive behavior, truancy, and other out-of-control behaviors.

It should be noted that all programs begun or expanded through community services funds are collaborative efforts with other organizations. SRS is working with mental health centers, police and sheriff departments, foster and adoption contractors and subcontractors, district and county attorneys, the Juvenile Justice Authority, county health departments, court service offices, school districts, and other community-level agencies to create or expand community service programs.

Other community-based programs initiated recently include:

*Numerous programs across the state to address truancy, including programs in Wichita, Kansas City, Garden City, Manhattan, Johnson, and Cowley counties.

*Several programs have been created to provide crisis resolution centers that allow youth with emotional problems to have a place to stay while services are set up to serve the youth and his or her family. Centers have been set up in Topeka and Johnson County. In addition, the Emporia SRS area has initiated Project HomeBase, which will provide law enforcement a service resource for youth they come into contact with after working hours.

*Numerous grants from community-based funds are being used to provide additional one on one help from trained professionals for children and families by court service offices and juvenile intake and assessment offices.

Joyce Allegrucci, assistant secretary for Children and Family Policy at SRS, said the programs being initiated across the state through community service funds will reverse a trend that has been hard on both children and families, along with taxpayers.

"We have tried to serve these children in systems not designed to serve them, and we have largely failed," she said. "We have also failed our courts because we gave them inadequate alternatives or no alternatives.

"Now, finally, we are putting a system together at the community level that will provide needed services for children and families," she said.