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A quick rundown of Ohio child protection news this week
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Weekly Update for March 11, 2019
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Association Updates
Gov. DeWine proposes unprecedented investment in children services
On the heels of his first
State of the State Address
, Gov. Mike DeWine personally attended PCSAO's May 7 Executive Membership meeting to speak directly to county children services leaders, announcing his proposal to nearly double the state's investment in children services. PCSAO and its members are grateful to the Governor for what could amount to a $74 million increase in spending -- including a $30 million increase to the State Child Protection Allocation.
Watch his announcement
on PCSAO's Facebook page,
read our response
, and check out news coverage below. It was a great day for children services, but as the Governor himself cautioned, these are only proposals for what will be a challenging state budget process starting this Friday, when the complete executive budget is unveiled, stretching through to June 30, when the budget must be signed into law. Thank you, Gov. DeWine, for standing up for children and families!
Members meet Cabinet directors, hear from legislative champion
While the Governor certainly headlined last week's Executive Membership meeting, there were many other exciting highlights. Three of the Governor's Cabinet members spoke on their vision for children within their respective departments: Kimberly Hall, Maureen Corcoran and Lori Criss, directors of the Ohio departments of Job and Family Services, Medicaid, and Mental Health and Addiction Services respectively, shared a unified focus on improving the well-being outcomes of children involved in our system. Through their leadership, with coordination by the Governor's director of children's initiatives, LeeAnne Corynyn, and new vision from Fairfield County's Kristi Burre as director of child welfare transformation, members were promised a closer working relationship between the state and counties. PCSAO is grateful to all five of these visionary leaders for attending our meeting. Members also received pointers and enjoyed remarks from PCSAO's 2017 Legislator of the Year, Senator Jay Hottinger, now majority whip, who recalled his experience riding along with a caseworker in Coshocton County. Carla Carpenter, deputy director of the Office of Families and Children, provided updates on new Title IV-E funding for legal representation, the renamed predictive analytics project (now ASAP), fatality reviews, the public-facing data dashboard coming in April, and the CFSR Program Improvement Plan. Carla returned on May 8 with Family First Act Project Manager Crystal Williams to join PCSA representatives to the FFPSA Advisory Committee (including Patty Harrelson, Richland; Jewell Good, Montgomery; and Julie Gilbert, Butler) to update members and gather input on implementation plans for the myriad changes to federal law. Tim Schaffner (Trumbull) reviewed PCSAO's
Children's Continuum of Care Reform
, which will be boosted by the Governor's proposals and by elements of FFPSA, and later, he and Jody Walker (South Central Ohio) shared their efforts to build such a continuum locally. The meeting also included updates on the EDMS-child welfare project and staff updates on legislation, rules, Ohio START, and anti-human trafficking. Presentations from the meeting are available on the members-only page, and
photos are posted on Flickr
. PCSAO's social media, including our
Twitter feed
, has been busier than ever!
PCSAO trustees meet
The PCSAO Board of Trustees met March 7 following day one of the Executive Membership meeting. The board reviewed and approved February meeting minutes and the January 2019 financial report. The board debriefed on the first day of the membership meeting, including the Governor’s incredible announcement for proposed new investments in children services. The board received updates pertaining to pending legislation and rules, PCSAO priorities, and a reminder to Wear Blue on April 10. The board will meet next on April 3.
PCSAO Conference Call for Presenters coming soon
The 2019 PCSAO Conference Planning Committee will be releasing the Call for Presenters in the coming weeks. The committee will be looking for presenters who have dynamic and engaging presentations that will educate, encourage and uplift the attendees of the conference. The 2019 conference will be Sept. 25-27 at the DoubleTree in Worthington.
Anti-human trafficking update
On Feb. 25, PCSAO and human trafficking grant partners, the Ohio Department of Youth Services and the Ohio Network of Children's Advocacy Centers, were able to train over 30 children services, juvenile justice and allied professionals at a training hosted by Mahoning County Children Services. If you are interested in bringing human trafficking training to your county,
email Bhumika Patel
.
The Center for Victim Research will be hosting a webinar on “Human Trafficking and the Child Welfare Population in Florida” on March 26 from 2-3 p.m.
Learn more and register here.
Helping Ohio Parent Effectively (HOPE) update
HOPE facilitators provided a session of Building a Better Future, Training of Trainers March 4-5. Three parents and seven children services staff attended the session from three counties. The session was led by parent partners and a children services professional. The training was enhanced by the cross-county discussion furthering the learning of all involved with the exciting movement of parent engagement. Thank you to Richland County for hosting a great event.
Rules update
Rules in Pre-Clearance: The rule regarding child fatality/near fatality is being split into two separate rules as the process for PCSAs is now completed through SACWIS. As a result, the following rules are currently in
pre-clearance
until March 13:
- 5101:2-42-89 “Public children services agency and private child placing agency procedures when a child receiving services or in agency custody dies,” and 5101:2-33-14 “PCSA requirements for recording a child fatality or near fatality.”
Rules in Clearance:
- Adoption Assistance rule 5101:2-49-05 “Initial Determination of AA monthly payment amount” is in Clearance until March 12. The rule includes multiple changes so therefore was rescinded and created as new for clarification. See the cover letter for a summary of the changes.
- Amendments to chapter 5101:2-25 rules due to automation of the Title XX County Profile form are in Clearance until March 14. The following is a brief explanation of the changes: For rules 5101:2-25-01 and 5101:2-25-02, the JFS 01821 form number and revision date were removed from the rules. For rule 5101:2-25-03 the automation of the County Profile through the Federal Reporting SSBG Title XX System was added to the rule. Also, words and sentences were added and removed for clarity and understanding.
Rules Original-Filed with JCARR:
The following rules were original-filed on March 5 and are scheduled for public hearing on April 8. Click on the rule number to go to the
Register of Ohio website
for details about the rule filing:
- 01:2-49-03: Special needs criteria for adoption assistance
- 5101:2-49-04: Requirement for adoption assistance past age eighteen
- 5101:2-49-06:Adoption assistance agreement and duration: provision for financial support and services
- 5101:2-49-07: Adoption assistance agreement only with no payment
- 5101:2-49-08: Adoption assistance payments
- 5101:2-49-09: Title IV-E adoption assistance post-finalization application
- 5101:2-49-09.1: Retroactive adoption assistance payment process
- 5101:2-49-10: Determination of continuing eligibility requirements for adoption assistance
- 5101:2-49-11: Suspension of Title IV-E adoption assistance (AA) payment
- 5101:2-49-12: Modification/amendment of an adoption assistance agreement
- 5101:2-49-13: Termination of adoption assistance
- 5101:2-49-19: Title XIX medicaid coverage for Title IV-E adoption assistance eligible children (COBRA)
- 5101:2-49-23: Adoption assistance intercounty and interstate case management responsibility
- 5101:2-49-25: Qualified and disqualified alien eligibility for Title IV-E adoption assistance
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Announcements and Resources
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NEORTC Foster Parent Conference
The 12
th
Annual Northeast Ohio Regional Training Center (NEORTC) Foster Parent Conference is fast approaching. It will be May 2-4 at NEORTC/Summit County Children Services. This annual conference is packed with great information for foster parents. More information can be found in the
conference brochure
. There is no fee for foster parents to attend the conference. Contact Julie Hayden with questions at
jhayden@summitkids.org
or 330-379-1976.
OCWTP distance learning opportunity announcement
Join Lunchtime LIVE on March 22 to learn more about
Protective Strategies for First Responders Exposed to Illicit Substances.
This one-hour webinar offers an opportunity to learn about overdose deaths involving fentanyl and fentanyl analogues that have raised concerns about the potential for exposure to illicit drugs among child welfare caseworkers and other first responders and to ask your most pressing questions. The webinar will take place between noon and 1 p.m. and is open to Ohio child welfare, treatment, court and healthcare systems staff.
Register here.
Family First Prevention Services Act website
A new website highlighting the Family First Prevention Services Act is up and provides the basics to understanding the new legislation and a resource database. The website also includes news on FFPSA, guidance and implementation strategies, and research supporting the upcoming changes. Learn more and explore this new and helpful tool
here.
CCS 2019 Community Fact Sheets detail demographics, income, health, more
The Center for Community Solutions (CCS) recently released its
Community Fact Sheets for 2019
,
detailing a variety of statistics for Ohio localities, including figures pertaining to economic success, health, education, housing and receipt of public benefits. Each fact sheet has a breakdown of populations by age, race and ethnicity, as well as median household income, employment rates, poverty rates, and a variety of other statistics related to health and education. Fact sheets are available for Ohio legislative districts, Ohio federal congressional districts, Ohio counties and large cities in Ohio. More detailed breakdowns of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are available as well.
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Child Protection in the News
The governor pledged as a candidate to make a substantial investment in children services, and now he was unveiling the commitment he would make in his first two-year state budget proposal -- a virtual doubling of funding to $151 million per year.
As that debate drags in the Statehouse, however, we hope legislative and administrative leaders take to heart one of the other overriding themes of De-Wine's address: improving the lot of Ohio's children. DeWine responsibly proposes a multi-pronged, interdepartmental, full-frontal crusade to address a litany of social ills that weaken the quality of life for far too many of the state's most precious resources - its children. Legislators can ill afford to back-burner many of those promising initiatives.
Making good Thursday on his promise to protect abused and neglected children, Gov. Mike DeWine proposed doubling state aid for family and children services. Under the Republican governor’s plan, state funding would increase to $151 million a year, up $74 million from current spending.
Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday recommended a $74 million annual increase for Family and Children Services in the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for the upcoming 2020-2021 budget biennium.
Governor Mike DeWine announced an unprecedented $74 million increase in the state’s investment in protecting abused and neglected children, plus related spending, making good on a campaign promise that Ohio should not be last in the nation when it comes to the state’s responsibility for funding such a critical program.
A recent study shows that 53 percent of Ohio's children's services caseworkers have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. That compares with national incidences that range from 35 percent to 75 percent of child-welfare staff.
While GOP legislative leaders offered up the expected praise of the 45-minute chat, unexpected plaudits rolled in from such Democrat-friendly groups as the Ohio Education Association, the Ohio Poverty Law Center and One Ohio Now, a coalition of more than 100 health, human service and labor groups.
"Ohio is one of the worst states in the country for state funding for child protective service agencies," she states. "So that leads to sending one person to do a site visit instead of two like you would do in the past. The government and what it funds is vitally important to social work and to our safety." Smith adds social worker pay lags behind other professions that perform similar duties. The average annual salary for social workers in Ohio is $48,000, compared to about $57,000 for a teacher and $70,000 for a registered nurse.
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March 12 | Ohio START Southern Consortium Meeting
March 15 | Conference Planning Committee Meeting
March 18 | Legislative Committee Meeting
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"It is hard to beat a person who never gives up."
-Babe Ruth
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Public Children Services Association of Ohio | 614-224-5802 |
www.pcsao.org
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