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A quick rundown of Ohio child protection news this week |
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Weekly Update for August 24, 2020 |
State updates
The following are state updates for this week:
- Gov. Mike DeWine announced that an order from the Ohio Department of Health will outline how sports, both contact and non-contact, may move forward in Ohio. The order will apply to all organized sports in the state and will include guidelines for spectators. The decision for high school fall sports to be postponed to the springtime will be left to the school districts.
- Gov. DeWine announced that adult day care centers and senior centers may open at a reduced capacity beginning Sept. 21 if the facilities can meet certain safety standards.
- He also announced a statewide testing initiative for Ohio's assisted living facilities that will offer baseline saliva testing to all staff and residents at no cost to the facilities. The tests can be self-performed or performed with assistance under the observation of medical staff. Baseline saliva tests are minimally invasive and provide reliable results in 48 hours.
- The governor asked the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) Board of Directors to send up to $1.5 billion in dividend payments to Ohio employers this fall.
- Additionally, DeWine asked the BWC’s Board of Directors to approve of a second distribution of face coverings to Ohio employers and their workforce. This second round will consist of approximately 23 million masks to employers and is meant to replace any masks that have exhausted their effective use.
- The Ohio Department of Administrative Services will be working with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to ensure that Ohio's 88 boards of elections have the personal protective equipment needed to execute early in-person voting and voting on Election Day.
- Following a deadly week of gun violence that resulted in at least 56 people shot, including 17 people who were killed, DeWine again called on the Ohio General Assembly to consider legislation currently pending to address gun violence.
PRT Advisory Council meets
The Youth-Centered Permanency Roundtables Advisory Council met Aug. 21. The PRT program is managed by Kinnect and welcomed new Program Director Angela Wilson. The council, which includes nine participating counties and statewide partners, reviewed data and outcomes measures, discussed challenges and successes of virtual PRTs, presented new coaching resources, and planned for a YCPRT symposium later this year. Kinnect is recruiting new agencies to adopt the promising practice of identifying permanency for longstaying foster youth; participating counties receive financial incentives and significant support from Kinnect. Contact Angela for more information.
OCST Advisory Council finalizes foster care recommendations
The Governor’s Ohio Children Services Transformation Advisory Council met virtually on Aug. 17 and finalized recommendations on foster caregivers and foster youth. To date, the Advisory Council has reviewed and finalized recommendations pertaining to children services workforce, practice, prevention, kinship care, and foster care. The Advisory Council will meet on Aug. 24 to draft adoption recommendations in response to the foster care forums held throughout the state late last year and in January. To learn more about the OCST Advisory Council, click here.
Southwest District meets
The Southwest District met virtually on Aug. 19 for a presentation on the Family First Act’s implementation plans from ODJFS staff. The district then heard updates from OCWTP, Institute for Human Services, and PCSAO board of trustees and staff. The meeting ended with each county providing its own local updates on current issues and the pandemic. The district will meet virtually on Oct. 21.
Partners for Ohio’s Families Advisory Board holds quarterly meeting
The ODJFS Partners for Ohio’s Families (PFOF) Advisory Board held its meeting virtually on Aug. 20. The board had not met since February due to the pandemic. Board members discussed Family First Act’s implementation plans with regard to the following: Qualified Residential Treatment Program requirements for aftercare and level of care; foster parent recruitment and retention efforts to connect more with private network providers; ODJFS efforts to support the children services workforce crisis by developing a new onboarding program; and COVID-19 challenges, procedures and policies. The PFOF Advisory Board will meet next on Dec. 2.
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Registration is open!
PCSAO is pleased to offer an exciting schedule of workshops for our "Partners in Progress" Virtual Conference Sept. 16-17. Thanks to support from our generous sponsors, including our 40th Anniversary Sponsor, UnitedHealthcare, our conference is open to all at a modest daily registration fee, with special discounts for PCSAO members and University Partnership Program affiliates. Continuing education training credit is available to licensed social workers, attorneys, and E-Track users. The two-day conference is structured with a welcome and keynote each morning (no credit) followed by a 15-minute break and then a series of concurrent workshops throughout each day. Visit our 2020 Conference Registration page for more information, or download our schedule at a glance.
Become a sponsor!
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Pre-Clearance: The following rules are open for comments until Aug. 27:
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Rule 5101:5-1-01 - Regional prevention councils operation and regional prevention council member duties.
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Rule 5101:5-1-02 - Regional prevention coordinator duties and selection process to be rescinded.
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Rule 5101:5-1-03 - Boards of county commissioners appointing of regional prevention council members.
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Rule 5101:5-1-04 - Regional prevention council designations to be rescinded.
Clearance: A of Aug. 21, there are no children services-related rules in Clearance.
Filed with JCARR: The following rules were revise-filed on Aug. 18. PCSAO submitted written testimony at the Aug. 18 public hearing on these rules.
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Rule 4751-1-05 - Pre-examination requirements; conditions precedent to application for admission to examination.
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Rule 4751-1-05.1 - Core of knowledge in nursing home administration.
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Rule 4751-1-06 - Subjects for examination.
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Rule 5101:2-9-42 - Qualified residential treatment program (QRTP).
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Rule 5122-29-09.1 - Substance use disorder qualified residential treatment program (QRTP) for youth.
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Rule 5122-30-31 - Background investigation for employment.
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Rule 5122-30-32 - Qualified residential treatment program (QRTP).
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Rule 5160-3-58 - Nursing facilities (NFs): quality indicators and quality payment rate.
The following rule was original-filed on Aug. 20 with a hearing date of Sept. 23:
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Announcements and Resources
PCSAO, DYS, Human Trafficking Task Force offer webinar on dynamics of exploitation
The Ohio Department of Youth Services, Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force and PCSAO are partnering to present the webinar "Dynamics of Exploitation in Human Trafficking" Aug. 25 from 1-2:30 p.m. Hollie Daniels, Rebekkah O'Bryan and Bhumika Patel will provide participants with a foundational understanding of how traffickers exploit victims. They will explore how this exploitation may render survivors dependent on their traffickers and wary of supportive systems, and how service providers can work to empower survivors toward recovery. Register here.
Capacity Building Center for the States offers webinar on IV-E prevention services
The Capacity Building Center for the States will hold a webinar called “Tools to Support Effective Collaboration for Strengthening Families” Aug. 26 from 1-2:30 p.m. It will cover using "Planning Title IV-E Prevention Services: A Toolkit for States" and other frameworks to meaningfully collaborate with public and community partners in building prevention-focused systems. Attendees will:
- Hear how agencies and community partners have operationalized trusting partnerships and learn approaches to effective collaboration.
- Examine strategies for establishing common values and collaborating to identify and fund community-based solutions to strengthen families.
- Learn approaches to using data for continuous quality improvement and to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of a partnership.
U.S. Department of Education offers human trafficking webinar
The U.S. Department of Education is offering a webinar on “Addressing Human Trafficking: An Expanded Look at Online Safety” Aug. 27 from 3-4 p.m. Subject matter experts who work directly with survivors of trafficking will address questions compiled from educators. The intended audience is administrators, teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, parents, caregivers, and students. Speakers featured in this webinar will include:
- Savannah Sanders, founder, Sex Trafficking Prevention and Lived Experience Expert;
- Erin Williamson, U.S. Programs Director at Love146; and
- Tanya Street, founder, Identifiable Me and Lived Experience Expert.
Ohio IWGA offers webinar on race, ethnicity, and early identification of autism
The Ohio Interagency Work Group on Autism is offering a webinar on “Race, Ethnicity, and Early Identification of Autism” Aug. 28 at 11 a.m. Children from racial and ethnic minority groups are diagnosed with autism later (or not at all), less likely to receive timely services after diagnosis and less likely to receive the recommended type or amount of service. Learn more about the experiences of families of color, implicit bias in the medical community, and policy and practice implications of this work in this webinar. Presenters include national speaker, parent, and disability advocate Gwen Harshaw and Tiffany Huber, health equity specialist from the Ohio Department of Health. Register here.
CDF-Ohio, Groundwork Ohio launch pilot to expand infant-toddler court teams
Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio and Groundwork Ohio announced a partnership to improve outcomes for Ohio infants, toddlers and their families who are involved in the state juvenile court and child welfare systems. Funded by a one-year $425,000 State Expansion Grant from the national group ZERO TO THREE, the partnership will support the development of Infant-Toddler Court Teams in Cuyahoga, Montgomery, and Scioto counties under the leadership of Judge Kristin Sweeney, Judge Helen Wallace and Judge Alan Lemons respectively. Cindy Oser, recently retired from ZERO TO THREE, will serve as the statewide coordinator for the grant. Read more.
Attorney General’s Office offers Linking Systems of Care series in September
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is offering a Linking Systems of Care for Ohio’s Youth Virtual Research Series throughout September. Each week will showcase two of the symposium presentations, highlighting innovative work across Ohio that bridges the gap between research and practice. Presentations will last 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes for Q&A with the presenters. Sessions include:
- Sept. 1, 1-2 p.m.: Who Experiences Violent Victimizations and Who Accesses Services? Findings from NCVS for Expanding Our Reach
- Sept. 3, 1-2 p.m.: Joining Forces for Children: Using a Collective Impact Approach to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Sept. 10, Noon-1 p.m.: Leveraging Linked Data to Maximize Healthcare Delivery for Foster Youth
- Sept. 15, 1-2 p.m.: The Needs Portal: A Resource Referral and Management Information System
- Sept. 22, 1-2 p.m.: Promoting Racial Equity in Child Welfare CQI and Evaluation
- Sept. 24, 1-2 p.m.: Public- Private Collaboration to Transform Child Welfare Systems for LGBTQ+ Youth
- Sept. 29, 1-2 p.m.: Focusing on Services, Gaps and Needs for Ohio’s Traumatized Youth and Crime Victims
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Child Protection in the News
A new state website featuring profiles of children available for adoption is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Anything to make potential forever families aware of the 3,000-plus Ohio children permanently removed from their parents is welcome, but the idea of displaying them like Amazon offerings is uncomfortable.
As Ohio continues to cope with the coronavirus, the foster care system is one of many forced to adjust to the new normal. Lighthouse Foster Care Services Director Mindy Arlotta said the stay-at-home order meant strict regulations for foster services. Children could not have any in-person contact outside of their foster families and their caseworkers. Even visits with their biological families were virtual.
Ohio’s adoption website now includes profiles of children waiting for homes. But unlike such sites in other states, viewers won’t see photos of the kids.
Educators have a role to play in reporting child abuse and neglect. But what happens when teachers don’t physically see their student because of remote learning? Lucas County Children Services is gearing up for September, which is always a busy month for them. When school is back in session, the kids are once again around those teachers, who are mandatory reporters of situations like child abuse.
At the latest Scioto County Commissioners meeting in Ohio, those present pushed for parents to foster children, a move made following the deaths of two children in the care of Scioto County Children Services (SCCS) in the past years and a half. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reports there are currently 56 homes that house the 266 children in the SCCS system.
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Sept. 2 | Board of Trustees Meeting
Sept. 3 | Rules Review Committee Meeting
Sept. 16-17 | PCSAO "Partners in Progress" Annual Conference
Note: Meetings will be held via web meeting for the foreseeable future.
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Public Children Services Association of Ohio | 614-224-5802 | www.pcsao.org
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