ATFCPA

2002 Annual

Therapeutic Foster Care

Conference

With this workshop, you will understand why R.C. is so important to Alabama and, perhaps, to the rest of the nation. You will hear, first hand, how Alabama is doing with compliance and what happens from here.

The R.C. lawsuit was filed in United States District Court against the Commissioner of the Department of Human Resources in 1988 on behalf of a child who was then in the custody of DHR. The child, identified only by his initials, R.C., had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The suit alleged that DHR had not maintained systems to insure that emotionally disturbed or behaviorally disordered foster children were adequately provided for when placed in the foster care system.

The case was settled by the agreement of the parties and a consent decree was signed and approved by the federal judge in 1991. The settlement required that DHR create a new system of care for the child welfare program. An order approving the Consent Decree was entered by now-retired United States District Judge Truman Hobbs on December 11, 1991. In 1999 Judge DeMent entered an order extending the time for compliance with the Consent Decree until October 2002.

DHR’s efforts to convert child welfare practice in all the county departments to the "System of Care" described in the Consent Decree are ongoing.

As of September 4, 2002 , approximately 41 of Alabama’s 67 counties have achieved conversion.

"· Children shall live with their families unless their safety cannot be protected with the provision of services.

· Individualized services shall be based on an analysis of strengths and needs of the child and family.

· Children who are living with their families or in foster care shall have access to services that are comprehensive and include concrete services. If necessary, services shall be created to meet the needs of children and families.

· Individualized service plans will be realistic, strength based and changed as family needs change.

· Children, families, foster families and others involved in the family's life shall have a voice in the planning process.

· Services will be coordinated, therapeutic and culturally responsive.

· Permanency and stability in children's lives will be promoted.

· Services will be delivered in the most normalized setting appropriate to the family's strengths and needs.

· Children will have access to their families through visitation, phone and mail, and other communication.

· Children, families and foster families will have access to advocacy, including attorneys.

· Children will be free from excessive medication, seclusion and restraint, and shall receive appropriate behavior management.

· Older children will receive transition and independent living skills.

· Needs of sex abuse victims will be met.

· Child abuse and neglect allegations will be investigated quickly."

Partnership is the key principle—between DHR workers, families, foster parents, communities and the providers of all the services a child and family need. This means that county offices, instead of listing children's and families' deficits and assigning them whatever service is available, define a child's and family's strengths and needs and design services case-by-case. When all involved agree—family members, the foster family, other providers, the worker and, when old enough, the child—on what a child needs, and undertake to do whatever is necessary to meet those needs, more intensive services are provided that result in shorter stays and in foster care placements and adoptions that do not break down.

The R.C. reform is not without problems. Children in some of Alabama's largest population areas, have a disproportionately high rate of truancy and teenage pregnancy relative to children who are not in foster care. The DHR offices in these counties have had to cope with a mix of poverty, substance abuse and emotional disturbance in both parents and children. Communities and families there were less involved than in other counties and case workers were overwhelmed. However, with intensive advocacy by the plaintiffs' attorneys and the flexibility fostered by the R.C decree, innovative approaches have started to show success in these counties.

The political climate has always been a factor in implementing the R.C. decree—as it is in advancing any systemic reform. Several years into the process it took a negative turn. In 1995, Governor Fob James took office. In March 1996, he appointed a new DHR commissioner, Martha Nachman, who shared his bias against judicial solutions. The collaborative reform spirit that had prevailed under Commissioner Andy Hornsby and his successors faded quickly.

In recent years a significant backlash against family preservation has developed around the country. Opponents incorrectly characterize it as supportive of leaving children with their families no matter what the risk. The press—in Alabama, as elsewhere—has exploited each report of injury due to possible neglect or abuse, blaming the family preservation movement. But the Alabama counties implementing the R.C. reform have consistently emphasized the need to protect a child's safety as workers and supervisors learn new ways to attend to the child's attachment to family. As a result, children who could not safely live with their families can still maintain ties to them, supported through letters or visits that help the child settle into another permanent home. This simultaneous focus on safety and recognition of the child's attachment needs is a complex skill, as yet found in few other child welfare systems. The changes in child welfare practice fostered by the R.C. litigation hold new promise for preserving the family connections of children at risk everywhere and lay the groundwork for their healthy futures.