In recent years California has had more than its share of kids in foster care. With 13% of the nation’s children, California has had 20% of the kids in foster care. And California (like every other state) flunked a 2002 federal review of its child welfare system.

Now a redesigned child welfare system is aiming for major change. The new plan, says Tamsen Stevenson, director of Family Support Programs at the Children’s Network of Solano County, calls for:

• Focus on working collaboratively with community-based organizations. In Solano, the county child welfare system coordinates with community agencies through the Integrated Family Support Initiative (IFSI). “These separate services work together to wrap around the family in a holistic way,” says Rosemary Kennedy, coordinator of the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Solano County.
  
  
• Emphasis on prevention and early intervention. Most families reported to Child Protective Services don’t have serious enough problems to need foster care. But often those families come back later with worse problems, so the child welfare redesign has created “differential response” programs: Families with less serious problems are offered community services to strengthen their ability to care for their children.
  
  
• Shift from a punitive approach to building families’ strengths. In Team Decision Making, for example, family members—including the children—meet with professionals and community members for case planning. In the Family to Family program, birth parents work with the foster family and community agencies to make changes that can bring their family back together.

Resources needed

“This philosophy is really positive,” says Kim Thomas, Children’s Network executive director. “The only problem is that money has not come with it for many counties.”

Eleven counties received funds in 2004 to help them implement the redesign. Money for others was supposed to follow. Although that hasn’t happened, “other counties saw the pilot (counties’ programs) as so valuable that they have used their own funds” to start similar programs, says Mary Ault, deputy director for Child and Family Services.

Is it working?

The number of children in foster care in California has dropped 20% since 2000, partly because of earlier changes, such as efforts to keep more children with family members.

And California’s child welfare system has now “met all the federal requirements but two,” says Ault, “and in those two areas we are close to passing.”

Federal goals met include: reducing repeat maltreatment, reducing mistreatment in foster care, and moving children more quickly to either reunification with their families or adoption. Goals not yet met: increasing stability within foster care and reducing the number of kids who re-enter foster care after leaving.

Continuing challenges

Counties are still working on this overhaul—many families have not been reached by the new approaches. And underfunding keeps many children from getting the care they need, say advocates (see Children's Advocates Roundtable: Foster family crisis).

A report last year by the National Center for Youth Law pointed out that different counties “provide widely different levels of protection and care,” with children faring much worse in some counties than others.

African Americans and Native Americans are still over-represented in foster care.

And there are still more than 75,000 California children in foster care

Two families’ stories

Emphasis on prevention

Nancy (not her real name), mother of three-year-old Lina, was having a hard time after Lina’s father died. Finally a neighbor called the child abuse hotline. She reported that Lina often played alone in the front yard and more than once she’d darted into the street as a car was coming. Neighbors pulled Lina to safety, took her home, and found Nancy asleep.

This didn’t sound like a bad enough situation for Child Protective Services to open a case. In the past, that would have been the end of the story. But under the county’s Differential Response program, a county worker went to visit Nancy. They discussed the challenges of parenting a young child with no help from family or friends. Nancy also hinted that she had other problems that made her too tired to take good care of Lina.

The next day, the worker returned with a case manager from the local community agency. The three discussed the situation and the case manager helped Nancy connect to local community resources. They enrolled Lina in preschool and arranged a medical appointment for Nancy. They discussed options for inexpensive family activities.

Over the next few months, the case manager saw real changes in Nancy. She became more connected to her community, built a support network, and seemed proud of taking a more active role as Lina’s parent.

—Adapted from Choosing the Path Less Traveled: Strengthening California Families Through Differential Response, by Patricia Schene and Stuart Oppenheim, published by the Foundation Consortium

Building on strengths

Lisa Carmel is a mentor for Orange County parents whose children have been placed in foster care. But six years ago she was addicted to drugs, and her two-day-old daughter, Lily, was placed in foster care.

Although her county did not yet have the program, Carmel says, “My whole case had a Family to Family ‘feel’ to it. My caseworker used a gentle approach. He made me feel valuable, as an equal. He allowed me to communicate, so I was open and honest.”

Carmel reluctantly agreed to meet Lily’s first, temporary foster mother and found, “She was such a warm woman!” Lily’s next foster mother also reassured Carmel: “I’m just here to care for her until you are able to care for her.” Carmel visited Lily and the foster mother every week.

Meanwhile the caseworker connected Carmel with a community of support: mentoring by other parents, a perinatal drug recovery program, couples counseling for her and her partner—even a hotel voucher when they were homeless.

“I felt like we were all in it together,” says Carmel. “Everyone involved—social services, the foster parents, even the judges—made me feel like they were there to support me in getting my daughter back.”

For more information

Department of Social Services, 916-651-8848

• Child Welfare Redesign: http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/cfsweb/PG1519.htm
• 2006 Progress Report: www.childsworld.ca.gov/res/pdf/APSRFFY2006.pdf

Child and Family Policy Institute of California

• Child Welfare System Improvements in California, 2003-2005: www.cfpic.org/children/pdfs/2YearReport.pdf

National Center for Youth Law, 510-835-8098

• Broken Promises: California’s Inadequate and Unequal Treatment of its Abused and Neglected Children: www.youthlaw.org/publications/broken_promises

Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin

• Implementing Differential Response in California, Casey Family Programs, offers promising practices from California's efforts to develop a broad range of responses for vulnerable families. Online at
  http://www.casey.org/
  
• Is Kinship Care Good for Kids?, from the Center for Law and Social Policy, finds that children in kinship care have fewer placements, like their placement better, and have fewer behavioral problems. Online at http://www.clasp.org/publications/
  is_kinship_care_good.pdf
  
  
• Promoting Healthy Families in Your Community, from the Child Welfare Information Gateway Children's Bureau, is a resource packet for service providers on fostering "protective factors" in families. Includes tip sheets for parents in English and Spanish. Online at http://www.childwelfare.gov/
  
  
• Rise, from Youth Connection, is a magazine written by and for parents who have been involved in the child welfare system. Topics include visiting, recovering from addiction, handling an investigation, reunification, parent advocacy, and domestic violence. Online at http://www.risemagazine.org
  
  
• Sibling Issues in Foster Care and Adoption, from the Child Welfare Information Gateway, discusses how service providers can help maintain connections among siblings. Online at http://www.childwelfare.gov/
  
  
• Time for Reform, by Kids are Waiting, highlights how federal support for kinship care could help move some children from foster care to safe, permanent families in familiar neighborhoods. Online at http://kidsarewaiting.org/

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