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August 19, 2005
The State of DFCS
UPDATE: You can read the entire report here.
Arkansas' Department of Family & Child Services remains problematic, according to a new report by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.
Visits between foster children and their natural parents did not occur in some cases where the goal was reunification. The visits did not occur 60 percent of the time in 2004. Also, last year family needs assessments occurred only 43 percent of the time within the required 30-day period.
The study also found that required staffing occurred within the recommended six-month period just 43 percent of the time.
The percent of siblings placed in foster care declined from 91 percent in 2000 to 73 percent in 2004.
Those are some pretty crappy figures, the end result of which is that children stay in the system much longer than they should.
The underlying cause of Arkansas's DFCS problems is and has been inadequate funding. Inadequate funding equals inadequate staffing, inadequate services and inadequate care. But now that there's a budget surplus, will these issues be addressed by the Rev. Gov. & the legislature?
In a statement released from his office Thursday afternoon, Gov. Mike Huckabee said the budget request for the Division of Children and Family Services was fully funded in the current budget.
"If they needed more money, they certainly didn't tell us or legislators," Huckabee said. "This administration finally ended the Angela R. case after almost 20 years. We certainly don't want to go back to it."
.....
[Rep. Jay Bradford, D-Pine Bluff] said later that he supports that idea.
"It would be a shame not to take the excess money and use it to address a problem like this," he said, adding the Legislature would have go into a special session to appropriate the money before the 2007 session.
Whether or not any additional funding will be given to DFCS remains to be seen. Talk is cheap, and while this topic makes for nice sound bites on the evening news, follow-through has historically been weak. After all, there's also been lots of talk of refunding some or all of the budget surplus to taxpayers....which makes even nicer sound bites.
I know which of For The ChildrenTM vs. For The TaxpayerTM has usually lost in the past....which is the reason DFCS is in its present sorry state.
Let's hope our Rev. Gov. & our legislature does better this time.
Posted by Rita at August 19, 2005 05:31 AM