***For a full copy of the following report, contact Kentucky Youth Advocates via Colleen Hagan by phone at (502) 895-8167 or by email at chagan@kyyouth.org. There is a $5.00 charge for copies and postage.

WARNING SIGNS

The Current Status of Kentucky’s Services to Abused and Neglected Children

Kentucky Youth Advocates, Inc.

Authors

David Richart

Executive Director

National Institute on Children, Youth and Families, Inc.

and

Debra Miller Jackie Town

Executive Director Director of Case Advocacy

Kentucky Youth Advocates, Inc. Kentucky Youth Advocates, Inc.

Prepared by

Kentucky Youth Advocates, Inc.

www.kyyouth.org

2034 Frankfort Avenue 624 Shelby Street

Louisville, KY 40206 Frankfort, KY 40601

502-895-8167 502-875-4865

April 2001

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Since our founding in the 1970s, Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) has called for a fully funded child protection system that ensures that abused and neglected children are adequately protected and that assures that children are placed in safe, permanent homes. Consistent with that call, KYA has served as the principal monitor of the state’s on-going attempts to protect children

In our role as monitor, KYA has spent the last six months listening to the concerns of many individuals involved in the child protection system. What we initially thought to be a few concerns unrepresentative of the norm have multiplied until we see a critical mass of warning signs of danger. We believe that attention to these warning signs by state decision-makers, the media, and the general public is vitally important in order that the state’s abused and neglected children are protected from further harm and provided quality services. The weight of the accumulating evidence calls for a systemic problem-solving approach, not individual case reviews.

Methodology

This report is an example of policy analysis in that it relies on both quantitative and qualitative data collection procedures and analyses. We used a “key informants” methodology as one of our main ways of collecting information. In all, we interviewed at least 176 people throughout the state during the course of our six-month study. In addition to our interviews, we relied on administrative data that are collected by state government agencies or other publicly funded organizations.

Overarching Findings

As person after person told us, unless someone says exactly the right words, the state staff is often reluctant to investigate child abuse and neglect. Professional therapists and other service providers, themselves trained to identify child abuse and neglect, tell us their reports are often ignored. In many of the cases reported to us, state workers seem to be using a “triage” standard to reject reports for investigation. This case triaging system appears to work by intake workers deciding which cases to pass on for investigation and which not to refer for investigation.

Our analysis of child abuse and neglect statistics, admittedly complicated by a change over in administrative data systems between 1996 and 1998, adds to our alarm. The percentage of child abuse and neglect reports substantiated seems to have declined. This is exactly the opposite of what we would expect as more cases are rejected prior to investigation – through what we have called triage.

Inevitably, resources are an issue. It appears that the full complement of state social workers promised by the legislature and the administration in the last four years has not been hired. Supervision is an issue. Available resources drive placement decisions, especially as responsibility for budgeting is pushed to the regional level. We heard over and over again about placement decisions made on the basis of costs not children’s best interests.

Key Questions

Too Much Reform?

We counted no less than 19 reforms underway in Kentucky. It is no wonder that Kentucky’s state social workers are overwhelmed with the challenges and complexity of these efforts. Some workers are said to adopt a “this too shall pass” attitude toward the reforms. Others anxiously wonder what reform is next on the horizon. Kentucky has become so reform-driven that the infrastructure of day-to-day programs that are needed to protect children has not been created.

Too Few Social Workers?

The number of filled social worker positions has fallen by 45 in the last year. In addition, in March 2001 there were 123 fewer social workers on the job than the combined promises of the 1996 General Assembly and the administration’s TANF spending plans.

Does “Triaging” of Abuse Reports Mean Children are Left at Risk?

This relatively new practice of “triaging” relies on the discretion and judgment of a single worker, is an informal process that screens out many allegations of child abuse and neglect that probably should be investigated. In other words, the care of children who may be subject to child abuse and neglect is not investigated because of rather subjective criteria that screen out cases.

Why is the Rate of Substantiation of Abuse and Neglect Declining?

Our analysis shows that the percent of dependency and neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse allegations that were substantiated declined dramatically starting in 1998. We do not know the reasons for these declines. In light of the triaging reported to us, which would seem to mean that fewer unsubstantiated cases would be included in the statistics thus raising the likely substantiations, the declining rates of substantiation bear careful study.

What About “Some Indication” of Child Abuse?

In April 1998, the "some indication" category was dropped. Attorneys for the Cabinet for Families and Children urged that social workers conclude that either they could substantiate child abuse or neglect, or they could not.

Eliminating the “some indication” category has at least three implications. First, it lowers the number of instances in which the state can say that child abuse and neglect is substantiated. In this way, this change in record keeping artificially decreases the number of children who are counted as being at risk. Second, by underestimating the number of children at risk, it artificially reduces the number of social workers or other resources needed. Third, and even more importantly, it wipes away any prior record that there was "some indication" of child abuse and neglect. Inasmuch as some indication of prior abuse may be helpful information the next time an allegation is made, changing this reporting category may unintentionally place children in jeopardy

Are Supervisors Trained Adequately?

We found varying levels of competence and training of supervisors were evident from our discussions with social service workers. We were alarmed about how little background some supervisors have in the philosophy and mechanics of child protection. Perhaps the most common observation made by those who work in the system reflected concerns that some Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children administrators lacked an understanding of the complexity of the child protection and adult protection systems.

Did the Accreditation Process Unintentionally Have the Effect

of Reducing Caseload Sizes and Placing Children at Risk?

An unfortunate attempt to limit caseloads appears to have occurred as a result of Kentucky’s 1998 application to the Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children (COA), a national accrediting body that certifies that certain state services meet acceptable national standards. (We understand that a recent, preliminary report by COA found 128 "exceptions" in Kentucky to the more than 700 national standards for which the accrediting body measures compliance.) From what we can tell, in order to meet national standards on caseload size, some children in state care had their cases prematurely “closed.”

Conclusion

As child advocates, KYA again sounds the alarm that it is time for the public, and our state's political leaders, to thoroughly study the concerns we have raised in this report. We reiterate that our concerns are systemic. While individual children’s cases provide illumination of the issues and demand individual attention for remediation, essentially the questions are two:

Ø Is Kentucky allocating sufficient resources (both people and funding) to provide appropriate quality services to children who have been abused or neglected or who are at risk of harm?

Ø Are appropriate policies and practices in place – both formally and informally – to assure appropriate quality services to children in need of protection?

Read more from the Courier-Journal’s article “State's efforts on child abuse criticized”

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