National Child Welfare Experts Confirm Oklahoma’s Policies Sound

OKLAHOMA CITY— The Commission for Human Services welcomed representatives from Casey Family Programs (CFP) at their regular monthly meeting on Sept. 27.  The CFP representatives presented their review and recommendations on the state’s child welfare policies and practices.

Dr. Page B. Walley, CFP strategic consulting managing director, said they are committed to working with Oklahoma Department of Human Services to continue to strengthen its child welfare program and reduce the number of children in state care. 

Walley addressed public concerns about Oklahoma’s child welfare programs and discussed the findings of their review.

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” said Walley.  “But they are not entitled to their own facts.  We are here today to address the facts.”

Walley said current data shows child safety has improved overall in Oklahoma and the state is meeting national standards in preventing victims of child abuse or neglect from having to experience that trauma a second or third time.

“The policies and plan are sound,” said Walley. “The implementation in Oklahoma is going to be multi-year.  That is difficult to digest for those who want rapid change.

“A child welfare system should be judged on its whole,” he said. “The functioning of a system should never be judged totally by its failures or its successes.”

Sue Steib, senior director of strategic consulting at CFP, discussed their review of the OKDHS child welfare practice standards implemented in 2008.  She said their review included the process and tools for assessing child safety, staff training, the use of safety plans to keep children safely in their homes, and staff skills to assess child safety.

“After an extensive review of DHS policies and practices, we found them to be consistent with sound practices in child protection services,” she said.

Steib complimented the state’s training materials for child welfare workers and particularly the critical thinking training for supervisors. She outlined the strengths in the child welfare practices as good guidance to staff in assessing child safety and family functioning, creating safety plans for children, as well as case planning and family team meetings.

In regard to the state’s child protection policies, Steib said they were comprehensive and consistent and included identification of safety threats, incident-based fact finding, identification of abuse or neglect, and provided a process for requesting court intervention when families refuse necessary services voluntarily.  She said CFP’s recommendation was to make one section of policy clearer regarding interviews with parents and caregivers.

Steib said the state’s assessment of child safety was based upon a nationally recognized child protection model and compares well with other tools used.  It clearly defines the terms safe, unsafe, present danger and impending danger and provided staff with good questions to determine the safety of a child.  It also requires an immediate plan for protection of a child if a safety threat is identified.

She said they would like to see more detailed and comprehensive guidance regarding child vulnerability in safety decision making.  In addition, they recommended clearer guidance in determining present danger as distinguished from impending danger.

Steib said the impact of the change to the “imminent danger” standard on child protection practices has not compromised child safety in Oklahoma.  She said the state’s change from an “incidence-based” system to one focusing on actual harm and danger to children was a positive change.

As part of their review, Steib said they interviewed staff in the central office and two areas of the state to get feedback on staff skills and knowledge in assessing the safety of children.

Generally, she said they learned that staff felt training had improved and that mentoring and coaching had been helpful.  Staff voiced some concerns about high turnover of caseworkers in some areas of the state which meant cases were being handled by new workers with little experience.  Staff also said in those offices with high turnover, supervisors often lack extensive experience and supervisory ratios were higher.

“This is hard work folks,” Steib continued.  “This is time-consuming.  There needs to be staff on the front lines that have expertise and can mentor and advise. It’s not something people can learn to do well overnight.”

Steib said staff felt more skill building training is needed with workers and that older employees could benefit from training. Staff also pointed out findings of reviews of child deaths and serious injuries should be used consistently to inform policy and training for all staff.

Steib said staff requested more guidance in handling high risk cases in which children are not “unsafe” at the time of the investigation but where multiple risk factors existed that might expose a child to future risk of harm.  She said staff also requested clearer guidance when community resources are not adequate to address risks or families do not accept services voluntarily and in situations where district attorneys were reluctant to file petitions when OKDHS is not requesting custody.

A video of the entire presentation from Walley and Steib will be available on the OKDHS website soon at www.okdhs.org.

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