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Ken Caldwell was
present for the presentation together with Aric Bidwell. Mr.
Bidwell began a PowerPoint presentation on Children and Adult
Services as follows:
The Children
Services Process is as follows:
-Abuse/Neglect
-Physical, Sexual Abuse, Neglect
and
Emotional
-Families in
Need of Service (FINS)
-Family
must request service from
them
directly, cannot be from
another on behalf of the family
-Information
and Referrals
-Any
other call that comes into the
agency
-Dependency
-children that cannot be taken care
of at
no fault of parents due to
finances, illnesses, ect.
-All
non-emergency intakes must be
entered and
screened in or out or
decided on
within 4 hours of
being
received
-Emergency
intakes must be entered
and
screened within 1 hour
-Cases
screened out or Information &
Referrals
require no further action
-Cases
screened in require additional
action as
follows:
- Non
emergency cases:
-
Contact is initiated within 24
hours
-
Face to Face
interview with alleged child victim within 3 days with continued
attempt every 5 working days if the victim is not seen
previously
- Emergency
cases:
-
Contact is initiated within 1
hour
-
Face to Face interview with
alleged child victim within 1
hour
-
Case then follows normal
format for subsequent
case activity
-
In either
case, case activities include a safety
assessment
within 4 days of date
of report or
24 after contact with
the alleged
child victim,
whichever
comes first. A family
assessment
must be done on
most cases
within 30 days of the
date of
report, or 45 days with
legal
justification.
-
The average
caseload held by the investigative workers is 10-15 open cases,
with 8-12 new coming in monthly. The total average hours put
into each case is 22 to 24 hours.
-
Some cases
are moved to ongoing because the family voluntarily requires
further assistance or requires legal ongoing agency involvement
with is court ordered.
-
Ongoing case
activities include case planning meetings/case plans/case
amendments; monthly visits with all involved parties; case
reviews every 90 days; Semi-annual reviews; reunification plans;
visits with children 3 times within 1 month after placement;
utilize concurrent planning, meaning that all options are kept
open with the goal to reunify the family, but to keep another
course of action open just in case that would fall through.
-
The average
caseload held by the Ongoing caseworkers is 12-14 open cases,
with a new case about every other month. It was noted that
about 5% of all cases move to ongoing, which out of
approximately 370 cases, calculates to approximately 18 per
year.
In the event that
permanent custody is taken by the agency, an adoption must take
place. Depending on the circumstances of the case, it may take
up to 2 years to obtain permanent custody. The agency will
contact foster care and wait for a match for the child(ren).
The child is then taken to the hospital for a thorough physical
exam. Food and clothing is obtained if needed. Paperwork is
completed and the child is transported to the caregivers
residence.
Caseworkers are on
call 24/7. In the event of a situation, the caseworker is paged
through the Sheriff’s Department. The caseworker will talk with
whomever initiated the page and may possibly go out and take
care of the situation. The caseworker must also contact their
supervisor when paged.
Court action
involves contacting the Prosecuting Attorney for assistance,
setting a court date for non-emergency cases, or contacting the
Judge in situations where Ex-parte Orders are needed. Custody
can only be taken of a child when a Judge orders. This consists
of an initial court appearance/shelter care hearing and may take
up to 5 court appearances to arrive at an initial decision.
During this time there are also ongoing court appearances for
Semi-annual reviews.
The common themes in
families that are involved in these situations often involve
substance abuse, domestic violence, mental health issues, lack
of educations, generational pattern of abuse/neglect and
poverty.
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