Addendum To Six-month Plan

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LASHAWN A. et al., Plaintiffs, v. ADRIAN M. FENTY, et al., Defendants.

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Civil Action No. 89-1754 (TFH)

DEFENDANTS’ NOTICE OF FILING AN ADDENDUM TO ITS PROPOSED SIX-MONTH PLAN The Defendants submit, for the Court’s approval, the attached addendum to the District’s proposed six-month plan, filed on January 26, 2009. The addendum, developed by the District of Columbia Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA or Agency), sets forth a summary of goals and strategies the Agency intends to take during the next six months to one year. CFSA developed the addendum to provide a transparent roadmap for the Agency’s goals. The addendum, with the proposed six-month plan, demonstrates that CFSA has set aggressive goals to achieve safety, well being, and permanency for all the children in its care. The Defendants respectfully requests this Honorable Court approve its proposed six-month plan and addendum.

Respectfully submitted, PETER J. NICKLES Attorney General for the District of Columbia GEORGE C. VALENTINE Deputy Attorney General Civil Litigation Division

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/s/ ELLEN EFROS [#250746] Chief, Equity I Section /s/ RICHARD S. LOVE [#340455] Senior Assistant Attorney General Office of the Solicitor General Office of the Attorney General, D.C. /s/ LUCY PITTMAN [#483416] Assistant Attorney General 441 4th Street, N.W. 6th Floor South Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 442-9891 (telephone) (202) 730-1436 (fax) [email protected]

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ADDENDUM TO DISTRICT’S PROPOSED SIX-MONTH PLAN I.

Introduction The attached addendum to the District’s proposed six-month plan for the period

from January 1 through June 30, 2009, developed by the District of Columbia Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), expands many of the efforts that the District’s child welfare agency intends to put forth over the next six months and beyond. The goals and strategies of the Agency are set out below. II.

Addendum to Proposed Six-Month Plan During the period of the Stipulated Order, from October to December of 2008,

CFSA demonstrated an ability to make great strides in reducing the backlog and to meet and exceed the goals and requirements set forth in the Order. Staff hired during this period are trained and functioning within their assigned units; staff located in the community are fully integrated and use this opportunity to deepen and strengthen practice. In addition to the areas set forth in the Stipulated Order, the Agency has continued to strengthen practice with children, youth, and families in the areas of visitation and health care, as well as to strengthen leadership and management. CFSA has, through its proposed six-month plan, set goals that are realistic and achievable. However, in addition to those areas set forth in the plan, the Agency is dedicated to strengthening its efforts to achieve more positive outcomes in the following areas: ƒ

Casework Practice with children, youth, and families within the Agency and with Private Agencies

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Mental Health Services

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Restructuring of the Office of Youth Development

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Pre- and In-Service Training

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Outcomes-Based Performance Planning

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Leadership Effectiveness and Development

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New Areas 1.

Casework Practice with Children, Youth, and Families within the Agency

CFSA has engaged the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization devoted to improving child welfare practice, to provide intensive training and practice coaching for CFSA supervisors and program managers, and to provide training to CFSA’s collaborative partners. This “back to basics” approach is expected to improve performance on many requirements mandated in the Amended Implementation Plan, including visitation (by clarifying and modeling for staff the intent and importance of visitation with children and parents, as well as visitation between parents, children, and siblings). Over the next six months and thereafter, CFSA will continue a multi-pronged approach to improving safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children and families. Among the most comprehensive approaches are those focused on improving basic practice skills and enhancing social worker and supervisor competency. One of the key elements in achieving CFSA’s goals is strong and effective supervision. Not only does good supervision lead to better outcomes for children, it is the key to retaining good staff. The Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group will provide training, coaching, and in-home modeling of practice skills and techniques, with particular emphasis on enhancing assessment and critical-thinking skills to support the

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implementation of the CFSA practice model and further clarify practice expectations for supervisors and social workers. Over the next seven months, CFSA hopes to enhance and improve practice and see a reduction in the recurrence of abuse/neglect in-home cases, a reduction in the number of children returning to care from reunified families, and an increase in retention of front line social workers. Along with improving performance on visitation, we anticipate this will improve performance on placement stability (by coaching supervisors to support social workers as the team leader) and permanency/safe case closure. 2.

Strengthen and Deepen Casework Practice with Children, Youth, and Families in Private Agencies

Approximately 50 percent of the children in care are served by CFSA’s private agency partners. During the period of the proposed six-month plan, CFSA intends to work with its partners to enhance pre-service and continuing staff training. CFSA will also clarify policies, ensure that they are adhered to by all the agencies, and focus on quality of care issues to make sure that each child in care is in a safe and stable placement, has his or her needs met, and is working toward a viable permanency plan. 3.

Mental Health

CFSA is broadening and enhancing the mental health services available to children and families by continuing to implement the multi-year mental health plan developed in response to the 2007 Mental Health Needs Assessment. 4.

Restructuring of the Office of Youth Development

Over the next year, CFSA will work on planning, testing, and implementing a restructuring of the Office of Youth Development away from what is perceived as an “APPLA” office and more toward a structure where the social workers strive for

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permanent outcomes for youth, either through carrying cases or providing consult services. It is envisioned the office may develop, design, or procure services geared toward the youth in care that develop independent and lifelong skills for success in education, the workforce, parenting, and other life skill areas. 5.

Pre- and In-Service Training

CFSA has increased opportunities for practice, management, and specialized training for CFSA and private agency staff designed to reinforce the mission and goals of the Agency. This includes internal and external training and educational coursework, and a system of accountability that tracks participation and documented requirements. This system also assures consistent and timely pre-service training for all CFSA and private agency staff and prioritizes in-service training for continuing CFSA and private agency staff. Moving forward, an annual needs assessment and resulting plan will guide the training opportunities offered. 6.

Outcomes-Based Performance Planning

CFSA is developing an agency-wide focus that builds stronger links to align outcomes and accountability through the performance-planning process underway for 2009. This performance planning process involves a series of meetings with leadership teams and their employees focused on establishing key goals and outcomes for 2009. This process will serve as a vehicle to communicate specific expectations and monitor accountability in areas in support of agency results. 7.

Leadership Effectiveness/Development

Critical to the success of CFSA is leadership capability and leadership benchstrength. In 2009, the Agency will implement a battery of initiatives that focuses on

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leadership development. This includes implementing a needs-based leadership training program for front line and supervisory employees. The purpose of this training is to better equip the supervisory team with critical competencies and resource tools needed to effectively manage and lead their employees. Another key initiative for the leaders will be the Talent Assessment/Succession Planning process. This initiative will focus on identifying leaders that have potential for broader levels of responsibility and leaders with specific developmental needs. The expected outcome of this process will provide a better view of current CFSA leadership bench-strength and gaps. This process also will serve as input to a broader strategic approach to improving leadership capability for CFSA. B.

Six Month Plan: Targets to Exceed

While CFSA has stated the goals that are achievable in the proposed six-month plan, it feels that, with some additional focused efforts, it may be able to achieve outcomes greater than those stated in the original six-month plan in the following areas: ƒ

Investigations

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Placement Stability

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Adoptions/Guardianship

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APPLA

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Medical and Dental Care 1. Investigations

In addition to the quality improvement processes discussed in the six-month plan, CFSA intends to enhance the quality of investigations through the following strategies:

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A. Creation of a secondary on-going training curriculum with select topics such as legal issues, substance abuse, sex abuse, and medical abuse. Projected completion date for curriculum creation will be May 2009. B. Introduction of the case review presentation by social work supervisors and program managers. In these presentations, the supervisor or program manager will present issues revolving around their immediate units and divisions. The items discussed will include staffing concerns, caseloads, overtime, and environmental factors. The goal of this presentation is to foster the thought of ownership among the supervisors and program managers and to ensure best practice within management constraints. Projected implementation date for implementation of this review presentation is June 2009. C. Review of current CPS operational policies to determine if they meet contemporary needs and are beneficial to ensuring child safety. Projected completion date for this review process is October 2009. 2.

Placement Stability

In addition to the strategies proposed in the six-month plan, CFSA intends to reduce the occurrence of multiple placements by identifying and assessing root causes for behaviors causing disruptions and enhancing the support and services provided to those children and foster parents or providers. 3.

Adoptions/Guardianship

In addition to the efforts identified in the six-month plan regarding permanency, CFSA believes that the possibility exists to improve permanency for children by strengthening the role of the permanency specialists and high impact teams. To achieve

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this end CFSA intends to strengthen and/or implement and evaluate the following staff functions: A. High Impact Team of Permanency Specialists. The high impact team of permanency specialists currently in place with oversight by Adoptions Together is addressing permanency for the 40 identified children (outlined in the stipulated order) as well as 25 additional children with no permanency resources, for a total of 65 children. This team also will address permanency for youth referred from the APPLA review project currently underway and permanency for other children identified and referred for intense permanency intervention and support. This team also will assist in ensuring timely implementation of permanency plans developed for the 30 youth for whom action steps and permanency plans were developed during the stipulation period. B. Team II Permanency Specialists. The second team of permanency specialists will provide consultation, and join with CFSA and private agency social workers to provide permanency-related consultation to and problem-solving support for children and youth early in the case planning process. C. Team III Permanency Specialists. Four units of permanency specialists will assume responsibility for children and youth currently served by other CFSA administrations who have permanency goals of adoption and guardianship, but for whom permanency has not been achieved. They will provide full case management with an emphasis on eliminating barriers and achieving permanency for the children and youth.

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D. Team IV Permanency Specialists. The fourth team of permanency specialists will support permanency pre-finalization and post-finalization through their work with case management and finalization of independent adoptions, case management of ICPC (Interstate Compact of the Placement of Children) cases from other states with relatives in this area, adoptee/relative searches, waiting families/matching families with waiting children, and post permanency support and connection. 4.

APPLA

In addition to the commitment in the six month plan to review 600 children with an APPLA goal by the end of June 2009, CFSA expects to refer some of these children to the one of the high impact teams to support the social worker in achieving permanency for the youth. Further, for all children reviewed during the stipulation period for whom an APPLA review has resulted in action steps and recommendations to identify permanent resources, the action steps will be implemented. 5.

Medical and Dental Care

To meet and go beyond the targets included in the six-month plan to improve performance on health screenings and medical and dental evaluations, CFSA is developing additional strategies to increase community accessibility for screening and medical and dental evaluations.

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