This article originally appeared in the November-December 1998 Children's Advocate newsmagazine, published by Action Alliance for Children.

To build a better system

Actions that states, counties, and communities could take to provide better support to troubled, low-income families

by Jean Tepperman

Our November-December 1998 issue of the Children's Advocate, From Welfare to Foster Care? outlines the many perils and potentials that welfare reform presents to the child welfare system.

The challenges:

• Increased pressure on parents to get jobs

• Possible loss of income due to time limits and sanctions for failing to meet requirements

• A ban on welfare and food stamps to parents convicted of drug felonies

• Not enough substance-abuse and mental-health treatment; treatment not geared to parents with children

• The possibility that increased involvement of welfare staff with clients' lives may lead to more reports of child abuse and neglect

• Not enough homes for foster children

• Higher caseloads for child welfare workers

• Overlapping and conflicting requirements from CalWORKs and child welfare departments

• Much more money available for foster care than for family support and prevention services

• New foster-care rules that shorten the time allowed for family reunification

• Not enough safe, affordable housing for low-income people

• Not enough jobs that pay enough to lift families out of poverty

The potentials:

• Better lives for families when parents are working and off welfare

• Increased funds available for child care and social services

• New efforts to coordinate and integrate welfare, child welfare, and family service programs so they can do a better job meeting families' needs

• New federal and state flexibility in allowing foster care funds to be shifted to prevention

Social services organizations, parent advocate groups, and researchers have suggested many changes that might help low-income families facing these challenges. We've gathered some of these suggestions in the following list, but not all of the organizations and individuals we spoke with would support all of these ideas.

To get preventive services to families before foster care is needed:

—The state could increase funding flexibility, for example, allow CalWORKs money to be used for early intervention for troubled families and allow child welfare funds to be used for preventive services.

—Counties could take full advantage of new federal and state laws that allow some foster-care funds to be "diverted" to "wraparound services" to help children and families without placing kids in foster care.

—The state and counties could increase access to mental-health counseling for children.

—The state and counties could provide family support services in community-based family resource centers.

—Counties could use the money they save by reducing welfare caseloads to provide preventive family-support services for all families, whether or not they are on welfare.

—The state or counties could decide to continue providing CalWORKs services such as job training and drug treatment even when financial assistance has ended.

To coordinate welfare, child welfare and other agencies working with families:

—The state could remove legal and administrative barriers to allow for the development of a single case-management plan for a family involved with more than one system.

—For CalWORKs clients with open child welfare cases, counties could use TANF social service dollars to fund family-support services.

—Counties could develop interagency training so staff members develop a common philosophical perspective.

—The state and counties could use technology to share data and avoid duplication of services.

—Counties could develop closer links to local providers of substance-abuse and mental-health treatment, and develop ways of sharing information.

—Counties could build family support into the design of substance-abuse treatment programs.

—Counties could consider giving priority to child welfare plans over CalWORKs plans.

To protect families' rights and address confidentiality concerns:

Counties could:

—Create an ombudsperson program and use this office to identify system-wide issues.

—Clarify the role of CalWORKs staff in reporting suspected child abuse. CalWORKs staff should consult with a supervisor and the family before a child welfare case is opened.

—Develop training sessions for CalWORKs and child welfare workers in which parents discuss issues from their perspective.

—Develop a system of parent advocates and peer-support programs.

—Create community review boards to ensure parents' rights.

—Develop common confidentiality release forms for CalWORKs and child welfare clients, with the most strict guidelines for information sharing.

To help parents working to reunify with their children:

—Counties could suspend or extend CalWORKs time limits and work requirements for families going through the process of reunification.

—The state could allow parents whose children are in foster care to continue to receive CalWORKs for up to 180 days (the federal limit). The current California limit is 30 days.

To change laws to address system problems:

The state could:

—Adopt the federal option to limit work activities to 20 hours a week for parents with preschool children. (California currently requires 32.)

—Abandon the "family cap," the policy that says a family's welfare grant won't go up if the parent has an additional child while on welfare.

—End the ban on aid to people convicted of drug felonies, as federal law allows states to do.

—Repeal state-level time limits on receiving welfare.

—Treat risk of child removal as a "hardship" that exempts a parent from welfare time limits.

—Exempt relative caregivers from time limits if the child can't return to the parents' home safely.

—Exempt single parents with children under age one from work requirements, as is permitted in federal law. (The current California exemption is for six months, although counties may lengthen or shorten it.)

—Eliminate welfare rules intended to modify welfare recipients' behavior (such as penalties for truancy or failure to immunize children on schedule).

—Allow study time to count toward required hours of work activities for CalWORKs clients who are attending school.

To make sure families have the resources to care for children:

Local, state, and federal governments could:

—Increase the availability of family-friendly substance-abuse and mental-health treatment.

—Provide and fund community-based family support centers with family-friendly outreach that is not tied to threats of losing income or losing children.

—Make sure all working families have access to high-quality, affordable child care.

—Increase the supply of good-quality housing affordable for low-income families.

—Make sure low-income families have access to jobs that pay enough to support a family.

What do YOU think? Give us your feedback.

Action Alliance for Children
e-mail aac@4children.org
1201 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 444-7136