DCFS has released its report on the permanency results for FY�00. DCFS staff comments on the document note that the number of children in relative and foster homes has continued to plummet:43152 in June, 1998; 35322 in June, l999; to 27926 in June, 2000. Although raw numbers of permanencies have also declined, the rate has steadily increased. DCFS staff note that reunification has held steady at l0.5%, but has not increased at the rate they hoped, and further note that DCFS supervised cases continue to reunify at a much greater rate than POS supervised cases: l8.7% compared to 8%. Adoption rate has increased by 6.6%, with all the increase coming from POS supervised cases. Rate of guardianships has declined slightly but was more than expected. They note that DCFS supervised guardianships increased more than 45% while POS guardianships declined significantly.

CCA has extracted the following information from the many numbers and charts in the report.

Percent of Substitute Care Caseload

POS Cook: 76.94%

POS Balance: 62.26%

Permanencies % Of Caseload % of Permanencies

TOTAL 11470 33.6% ---------------

POS 7335 30.27%

DCFS 3556 38.8%

POS Reunifications 2111 8.71% 29%

DCFS Reuifications 1460 15.93% 41%

POS Adoptions 5111 21.09% 29%

DCFS Adoptions 1460 12.77% 32.90%

POS Sub. Guard�s 1181 4.87% 16.10%

DCFS Sub. Guard�s 437 4.77% 12.28%

Reunification rates for DCFS and POS in Cook are very similar and fall between 4.9% and 8.7% across the 3 regions. Balance of state areas have much higher percentages of reunification cases but there is a much larger difference between POS and DCFS rates of reunification in non-Cook. The POS rates across the 3 non-Cook regions fall between 12.7% and 20%. The DCFS rates across the 3 non-Cook regions fall between 31.2% and 34%. There apparently are great differences in court systems� willingness to approve reunifications between Cook and the other juvenile courts in the state. We welcome other possible explanations from our member agencies as to the variance in reunification across regions, as well as the significant difference in reunification performance between DCFS and the private sector. We suspect there are a number of operational and structural reasons for this and would like to use these in further discussions with DCFS.

We congratulate all our member agencies on their continued performance. If you would like a complete copy of the report, please contact Barb at the CCA Springfield office. (MB)

More than 120 CCAI members participated in the Fall Membership Meeting at the Lodge in Oak Brook on October 5 and 6. On day one, Peter Goldberg, President and CEO, Alliance for Children and Families challenged the group on developing Strategic Actions on Public Image. He talked about the special identity and tax benefits of the nonprofits and pointed to the current thinking that the age-old distinctions between nonprofits, for-profits and the public sector are blurring. As nonprofits have accepted increasing amounts of public contract work, they have inherited the burden of maintaining quality. Nonprofits must recapture the public trust and appreciation by setting meaningful outcomes and expectations and measuring all that we are doing. Nonprofits must continually assert the nfp identity to all audiences, set reasonable ceilings on types of revenue streams, maintain program service niche that the public sector does not or cannot do, strongly maintain the advocacy role, and develop proactive and crisis communication plans. Our agencies must think "larger picture" and take steps to closely look at the effects of contracting on their organization, and realize the value of nfp�s working together to gain strength.

Fotena Zirps, Director of Mission Support and Performance Team, Florida Department of Children and Families provided current thinking and unique ideas pertaining to Quality and Credibility. There is real and perceived quality. Real quality comes through a system of quality improvement implemented in the agency, while perceived quality may be thought of as an agency�s reputation or credibility. Both are essential. The following grid illustrates a key concept

High Credibility Low Credibility

Full Quality champion light under a bushel

No/Marginal Quality deceiver goner

Agencies must produce full quality services but also address the needs of the various types of customers: clients, boards, legislators, funders, community partners, staff, media and judiciary. There are 6 key things that occur in a well-run, full quality agency: 1)an engaged and knowledgeable leader, 2) an active, supportive leadership team, 3) full inclusion in continuous quality improvement, 4) accurate date, 5) consequences that are meaningful and 6) positive planning.

There must be a champion of quality in the agency, there must committed leadership from executive staff and full inclusion in continuous quality improvement.

Friday presentations included a summary of the annual board of directors work plan, presentation of the association�s policy agenda and discussion of working with the media presented by Linda Lenzini. The meeting wrapped up with a discussion facilitated by Marge Berglind on the issue of performance credibility. Key issues relating to current perception of quality of the services in the private sector as well as future planning on continuous quality improvement must occur in all our individual member agencies but on an association level as well. The options available and the choices CCA makes on the options will have significant implications on the membership in the future.

Sandy Armstrong was recognized at the meeting for an outstanding 25 years of service to CCAI. Ron Moorman also officially received his recognition from the CWLA as Midwest Advocate of the Year.

Copies of the presentation outlines, board work plan and policy agenda are available upon request from the CCA Springfield office. (MB)

The CWAC SACWIS Advisory Committee met at LCFS in River Forest on October 3, 2000. One of the agenda items included a presentation of the New Mexico model by American Management Systems. The purpose of the demonstration was to provide an example of a SACWIS system and how some of the elements within a statewide system actually work. Areas covered included ticklers, alerts, the organization of casework, eligibility, providers, workers and approvals in the system. Many of the questions raised by the Advisory Committee members noted that decisions had not been made on how that specific item would operate within the Illinois system and would be a part of the detailed design process. Private agencies did request that they be involved in the decision making about what ticklers would be included as part of the SACWIS system and how the priorities would be determined for ticklers. The Committee also expressed concern that AMS understand the role that the private agencies play in Illinois and that there needs to be flexibility in the system in addition to standardization to allow for variances among agencies for supervisory decisions and review. It was also suggested that the New Mexico demonstration be provided to executive directors of private agencies.

Don Vacca gave an update on the Best Practices Project. The two areas of focus that were reported were resource and licensing and treatment paths. Private agency staff have been involved with Mary Debose�s role in the project and focus groups have been scheduled for resource and licensing. David Sheets will be part of these focus groups. Under the treatment path, they are starting with specific allegations and walking through those allegations into the treatment plan process.

Sam Traylor gave a report on the status of the SACWIS development. This included the invitation bid for application servers, the conversion to Windows 2000, work with Central Management Services on DB2, security systems, and direct access space needs. Work is also continuing on finalization of the Change Management Plan and Communications Plan with AMS and Spectrum. AMS is also in the process of revising the detail design schedule for Phase I and is working on different navigational methods for a browser based system that will be used in Illinois. Decisions also need to be made on the connection alternatives for small sites.

The private agencies requested a Joint Application Development session be scheduled to look at the integration of POS systems and SACWIS. How will the download work and where will the SACWIS system end and the private agencies systems begin. The private agencies suggested that discussions begin on the issue before the end of the year with DCFS, AMS, Spectrum, and private agency representatives.

It was also reported that DCFS is attempting to secure 50% federal funding for the POS equipment. The Feds approved the Implementation Advance Planning Document in May. It included everything except private agency equipment since that plan was not finalized at the time the document was submitted. DCFS will be submitting an update to the plan within the next week, which takes about 60 days for federal review. The new document will include forms and documents being used in the process for securing equipment for private agencies and is seeking federal financial participation at the 50% rate. The update will also request a waiver of the requirement for the federal government to review each contract with each private agency prior to approval. It was stated that if the 50% rate is granted funds will come back to the state but not specifically DCFS.

An update on the status of returned Plan Part one was distributed which relates to the funding for SACWIS equipment. Approximately 50% of the private agencies had returned the completed Plan Part one for their agencies. The final calculations on the number seats are based on receiving the required information from all agencies. This will also be used in determining the amount of the allocation for each seat. Part Two of the plan is scheduled to be distributed to agencies by the end of October.

Additional issues identified by the Committee to be added to the agenda each month with progress reports provided by workgroups, Project Manager or POS Liaison are: the bridge concept between SACWIS and POS systems, change management input, Medicaid, residential services as part of SACWIS, case responsibility assignment and data creep. Recommendation was also made that the second POS position should be hired as soon as possible to be able to assist in the Plan Part Two review process. The next meeting of the Advisory Committee will be November 14, 2000 in Springfield. (JMS)

Many thanks to the CCA Board of Directors who are working with their link members to support them in the completion and return of the CCA Membership Survey. Although the survey has been returned by 66% of the membership, 34% are still outstanding. In order for the data gathered to be truly representative, a goal of 100% response has been set. If you are not certain whether your agency or your link agency has yet turned in their survey, contact Linda Lenzini at CCA. For those who need another copy of the form, it can be downloaded as an MSWord document from the CCA website�s library, or obtained by calling CCA at 217-528-4409.

Does your agency have an innovative program or recent success story that you�d like to share? CCA is interested in sharing your recent success story or innovative program with the rest of the membership. If you would like to be featured on the CCA website with your success story, contact Linda Lenzini at CCA with the details. (LLL)

Calendar:

Oct. 18 � CWAC Medicaid Advisory Committee, Chicago/Conference Call

Oct. 19 � Healthy Families Illinois Policy and Advocacy Committee, Chicago and Conference Call

Oct. 20-21 � "Challenge of Change: 2000 LDA/IL State Conference", Indian Lake Resort,

Bloomingdale, IL 708/430-7532

Oct. 26-27 - "Governor�s Workforce Development Conference," Crowne Plaza Hotel, Springfield.

Contact the following for more information: Barb Senalik, Illinois Department of Employment Security, Job Training Division, 325 West Adams St, 3^rd Floor, Springfield IL 62704-1892.

Nov. 1-4 - The International Adolescent Conference, Portland Oregon; Call (651) 484-5510

Nov. 3-4 � "Issues in Autism 2000", Autism Society of Illinois Annual Meeting, Wyndham Northwest

Chicago, Itasca, IL 630/773-4000

Nov. 15 � CCAI Board of Directors Meeting, Springfield

Nov. 17-20 - The Teaching-Family Association Conference: "Circle of Courage" �Call: 540-370-4439

Feb. 25-28 � 14^th Annual Conference, A System of Care for Children�s Mental Health: Expanding the

Research Base, Tampa Hyatt Regency, Tampa, Fl. Call Lyn Bryan at 813/974-4649 for information.