Richland County Children Services responds to county commissioner board appointments
December 6, 2011
The following letter was sent to the Richland County Board of Commissioners on Dec. 5 regarding appointments to the agency board.
December 5, 2011
Dear Commissioners Utt, Olson, and Wert:
Through your correspondence of December 1, 2011, we have learned that the Richland County Board of Commissioners authorized the expansion of the Richland County Children Services Board from 11 members to 13 members, pursuant to the applicable statutory authority. According to your correspondence, that decision was based on issues raised by members of this community in support of and against “policy issues” that have been debated “for well over a year.”
In your press release to the media, you stated that no individual has a vested interest or private right of property in his or her appointment. You further indicated that a statement made by Children Services in a November 20, 2011, Mansfield New Journal article was not in compliance with Ohio case law and wrong on its face. We believe that those assertions are flawed and fail to take into consideration valid Constitutional arguments and Ohio statutory authority. Children Services Board Members are considered “Public Officials” for purposes of Article II, Section 38, of the Ohio Constitution. Therefore, as Public Officials, Board Members do have a vested interest and are entitled to receive their due process rights, which include a formal complaint and hearing as required by the Ohio Constitution. See 1963 Opinion Attorney General No. 561, p. 573.
In your statement to the media, you acknowledge that your right as a legislative body to make board appointments without interference from outside influence has been affirmed by Ohio case law. Your ability to make appointments in your legislative capacity is correct, and was previously journalized in the resolution that the County Board of Commissioners passed in December 2010. Pursuant to your resolution, you address all board member appointments that occur post December 2010 by stating that “future reappointments to the Children’s Services Board be limited to not more than two full four year terms”. By your own legislative act, the Richland County Board of Commissioners has created a due process right related to Board reappointments. In this instance, you have failed to follow your own legislative act, and you have insinuated that you have “absolute immunity” in regards to your legislative decisions. Absolute immunity is provided to legislative bodies in regards to lawsuits and/or monetary damages. Your decisions as a Board of Commissioners, however, are subject to appeal pursuant to Section 307.56 of the Ohio Revised Code, and can be reviewed by the Court of Common Pleas to determine, in instances such as this, whether your decision is proper.
As the Board of Commissioners, you have further opined that all public bodies must reflect the standards and priorities of this community as a whole. You insist that public boards be balanced by gender, ethnicity, geography and sufficient professional make up and/or life experience to ensure success. It is our belief that the current members of the Richland County Children Services Board, including the members who were up for reappointment, embody your philosophy. Our Board represents the minority population in this county very well, with 18% of our Board Members consisting of minorities. This mirrors the minority population in Richland County, which is currently at 12% of the population as a whole. Our Board is also well-balanced with respect to gender in that its current make up consists of five males and six females. From a geographical standpoint, our Board is representative of the various communities in this county, with a particular emphasis on the City of Mansfield, which comprises the majority of our client population served by this Agency. Finally, our Board does consist of a variety of professionals, including a pediatrician, foster to adopt parent, personnel director, public school employees, and a licensed social worker, just to name a few.
As the County Board of Commissioners, you indicated that you have listened, for well over a year, to arguments both in favor of Children Services Board replacements and arguments to continue the appointments of current Board members. At no point in time, however, did you speak to Joe Palmer or Connie Hoffman, the two Board members whose terms were expiring at the end of 2011. Mr. Palmer has served on the Richland County Children Services Board since January 12, 2000. He is a highly respected member of the community who is a foster-to-adopt parent. He is also the executive director of a fellow county agency. His service to children and families over the past 12 years has been an asset to this community. Mrs. Hoffman has served on the Richland County Children Services Board since December 12, 2005. Prior to being a Board member, Mrs. Hoffman worked at Richland County Children Services in positions with progressive degrees of responsibility. She is a licensed social worker who has had a wealth of experience both working directly with children and families, and directing the work of social workers, supervisors, and program supervisors. She has volunteered her time on this Board for 7 years, and she, too, has been an asset to Richland County.
Neither Mr. Palmer nor Mrs. Hoffman were contacted by anyone from the Board of Commissioners to discuss their membership, and both were replaced with no advance notice.
In your press release, you stated that many of the arguments in favor of new Board appointments deal with issues of Ohio law. The Richland County Probate Court provided attachments that show adoption numbers, and according to that information, the Board of Commissioners has concluded that “it would appear that the adoption rate in Richland County has fallen starting in 2004 both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of those adoptions initiated by Children Services as a portion of all adoptions.” That information, although accurate, has unfortunately been provided to you out of context of the Agency’s overall delivery system. The fact is that adoptions have declined locally primarily due to more children living safely at home or with kinship caregivers, as opposed to entering the child welfare system in the Agency’s custody. That is exactly what national and state child welfare policy has sought for more than a decade. In 1999, 288 children entered the Agency’s custody, as opposed to 51 children in 2010. The number of adoptions remains proportional to the number of children entering the Agency’s custody. In 2002, the Agency was awarded custody of 163 children and finalized 36 adoptions, which equals 22 percent. In 2010, the Agency was awarded custody of 51 children and finalized 11 adoptions, which, again, equals 22 percent.
Richland County Children Services has been recognized as a model child welfare agency on the state and national level. In 2006, Richland County Children Services received the United States Department of Health & Human Services National Adoption Excellence Award. According to the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “the innovative efforts of Richland County Children Services have substantially reduced the length of time that children in foster care wait for adoption. In the first half of 2000, the mean length of stay for a child in foster care in Richland County, Ohio prior to the finalization of an adoption was 864 days. Over the next five years, the Agency was able to decrease this length of time by 168 days, or 19%. Richland County's Children Services put in place a plan to rapidly secure more adoptive families and reduce the length of time children wait for an adoptive placement.” In the 2011-2012 Public Children Services Association of Ohio Factbook, the number of children waiting to be adopted in 2009 in the State of Ohio was 2,897. In Richland County, there was just 1 child waiting to be adopted. In the State of Ohio, the median number of days for adoption finalization from permanent custody in 2009 was 298 days, compared to 164.5 days in Richland County. Finally, the average number of days a child stayed in placement in 2009 in the State of Ohio was 516 days, compared to 231 days in Richland County.
Based on the information you provided in your correspondence of December 1st and December 6th, it appears that the central focus of the individuals who have approached you regarding Board appointments stems around legal interventions as they relate to children who are at imminent risk of out-of-home placement, specifically whether our Agency should directly obtain temporary custody of children who cannot remain safely in their homes, despite the fact that an appropriate relative may be available to directly assume temporary custody. Although there are circumstances in which legal interventions may be necessary, it is first significant to note that a large number of families we come into contact with work with our Agency on a voluntary basis. As you may be aware, the Agency provides services to over 1500 children each day in its Differential Response, Ongoing Services, and ProtectOHIO Divisions. We work with a multitude of families in developing voluntary case plans to address their needs through an array of local, community-based services here in Richland County.
Historically, children who were at imminent risk of out-of-home-placement were removed from their parents and placed directly into the temporary custody of the Agency. With the operation of group homes and residential facilities, the focus of the Agency’s resources was on the back end of the child welfare system. This was the intervention strategy to keep children safe at that time.
Since 1997, the Agency has relied upon extended family members and family friends to care for children who are unable to safely remain in their own homes. Richland County Children Services has been part of the ProtectOHIO Title IV-E waiver demonstration project, allowing the Agency the ability to offer an array of services to help build protective factors in the community and in individual families. Through the waiver, the Agency has the flexibility it needs to offer preventative services and expand their delivery system to keep children safely at home with their parents, or place them with kin, regardless of whether the children are IV-E eligible or not. These include, but are not limited to, the implementation of evidence-based programs such as multi-systemic therapy (MST), the assignment of school-based social workers in local schools, kinship navigators, parent aide and parenting classes, family team meetings, the creation of a protective services unit, etc. Since receiving these funds, Richland County Children Services has seen a significant decrease in the number of children taken into the Agency’s custody, and also a sharp, yet safe, reduction in days of care for children outside the home.
When a child cannot remain with his or her parents, federal and state laws require the Agency to first seek relatives or family friends when possible, to preserve the child’s connection with his or her family. This is done through the proper application of Ohio law by competent legal practitioners at Richland County Children Services. According to Section 5101:2-42-05 of the Ohio Administrative Code, when a child cannot safely remain in his or her home, the Agency “shall explore both maternal and paternal relatives regarding their willingness and ability to assume temporary custody” of the child. On January 1, 2006, a new program was implemented to provide financial support to kin caregivers. Ohio’s Biennial Budget (HB 66) established the Kinship Permanency Incentive Program. This program provides financial support for minor children in the legal and physical custody of grandparents, relatives, or other “kinship caregivers” (defined in Ohio as any relative or non-relative adult who has a long-standing relationship or bond with the child and/or family). Upon approval of their application, the caregivers receive an initial payment of $525 per child, and $300 per child every six months thereafter, for up to three years. Through December 1, 2011, Richland County Children Services has provided $484,600.00 in Kinship Permanency Incentive assistance to kinship caregivers.
Richland County Children Services is also one of seven Ohio public children services agencies awarded a three-year federal grant to provide and expand kinship efforts. The grant is administered by the Public Children Services Association of Ohio and work under the grant began October 1, 2009. The Agency uses the funding provided by this grant to contract with local service providers to assist kinship caregivers in meeting the needs of the children for whom they care. The service providers visit with caregivers to determine their needs and then make referrals to the appropriate community resources in Richland County to meet those needs.
When there are no kinship caregivers who are willing and able to assume temporary custody of children who cannot remain with their parents, the Agency may request temporary custody and place them in a licensed foster home. At that time, the goal of the Agency is to reunify those children with either one or both of the parents through the implementation of community-based services here in Richland County that address the needs of the family. If the parents are either unable or unwilling to address the concerns that led to the removal of the child from his or her home, the Agency will pursue permanent custody, thereby terminating the parental rights and obligations of both parents. This allows the child to be adopted by his or her foster parents. Since 2002, the Agency has finalized 187 adoptions, providing another form of permanency for children who were unable to remain in the care of their parents. To date, the Agency has paid $2,516,064.46 in adoption subsidies to those children who were adopted.
Richland County Children Services will be pursuing its third re-accreditation through the Council On Accreditation (COA) in 2012. The initial accreditation was in 2000, with subsequent re-accreditation in both 2004 and 2008. The Council on Accreditation partners with human service organizations worldwide to improve service delivery outcomes by developing, applying, and promoting accreditation standards. An organization is evaluated against best-practice standards, which are developed using a consensus model with input from a wide range of service providers, funders, experts, policymakers and consumers. COA is essentially a standard of excellence that supports Richland County Children Services Board’s mission and vision. The Agency is accredited in four program areas, including Child Protective Services, Kinship Care, Foster Care, and Adoption. The Agency is also accredited in Administration, Management, and Service Delivery Standards. Richland County Children Services has a dedicated, well-trained, and competent staff, and a diverse, caring, and compassionate Board, whose only focus is on the safety, care, and protection of Richland County’s most vulnerable citizens—its children.
An agency that once had long-standing cultural traditions and practices that resulted in underdeveloped services and extreme financial distress has flourished over the past ten years. With administrative, programmatic, and service-delivery redesign consistent with contemporary best practices in child welfare, Richland County Children Services has redirected its spending, and revenues have been diversified and maximized to meet the needs of local children and families.
Sincerely,
Randy Parker, Executive Director
Richland County Children Services
Elayna E. Rizor, Esq.
Richland County Children Services
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