The national coalition of organizations that has been looking at the issues of race and culture as they are impacted by MEPA/IEPA and AFSA met again last week to continue their deliberations and to formulate their next steps in bringing about a change in national policy on this issue. (This group was developed following the national dialogue that the African American Family Commission and the Child Care Association sponsored in Washington about a year and a half ago. It has been very rewarding to observe the considerable steps that have been taken as a result of that original jointly sponsored effort). The group has adopted as its formal name the National Family Heritage Coalition since that seems to encompass the majority of issues that are on its agenda. The group spent time reviewing the draft of the formal Position Statement that has been developed. The Statement is entitled: Issues of Race and Culture in the Child Welfare System and the Multi-ethnic Placement Act, the Inter-ethnic Placement Act, and the Adoption and Safe Families Act. Following a good deal of discussion and the decision to make some slight modifications to the draft document, the group formally adopted the document. Once the changes are completed, this document will be strategically distributed to achieve the maximum impact. The group also spent considerable time examining key practice and policy issues related to adoption and foster care including the development of critical themes and positions. The group formed a smaller strategic action to detail the next steps in this process. The plans call for the organization and conducting of a series of regional conferences to highlight this issue with legislators and key policy makers and to begin to build public support for a change agenda. These regional conferences will be followed by a national conference to be convened with key national legislators with the stated goal of effecting change to MEPA/IEPA and AFSA. (RHM)

DCFS has finalized the applications for the Direct Service Employee License.

Agencies should receive within the next 2 weeks packets for all employees who have passed the licensing exam. Staff will be asked to fill out the actual licensing application, and, since this an employee-specific license, will need to use home address information on the materials. Agencies will be expected to fill out the employer certification forms that will ask for verification of degree, background check, etc. As these are completed, agencies should send them in to DCFS and not wait for all applications or batch them. All application materials will need to be returned to DCFS by November 20. Following the submission of the application materials and employer certifications, each license applicant will receive a postcard at their home address acknowledging receipt of the materials. We have asked DCFS to assure a copy of this acknowledgement also goes to the employer. (MB)

Our Cook County agencies are reporting that they are beginning to receive requests from the Public Guardian's Office for foster home licensing records.

DCFS has arranged a protocol with the GAL regarding such records:

*If minor is in the foster home or being considered for placement in the home: GAL should send request to Office of Legal Services, which will contact the private agency licensing representative. The private agency is to send a copy of the licensing record to DCFS Legal, which will remove certain confidential information from the record copy prior to forwarding it to the GAL. This confidential information includes social security numbers, LEADS checks, and names of reporters of complaints about the home.

*If minor has been removed from the foster home: The GAL will issue a subpoena to the private agency and include DCFS legal on notice. At this point the private agency staff may want to consult their own attorney or work with DCFS legal. DCFS may file a motion to quash on the ground that licensing materials are not relevant to the minor's current placement and pending juvenile court case, if they feel it is advisable on the particular case.

When agencies receive subpoenas from the GAL, they need to first determine the name of the child in question. The agency or agency's own attorney should then contact the DCFS attorney assigned to the courtroom for that child. If the agency does not know the name of the DCFS attorney, they should call the main DCFS court office at 312-633-3400, and have child's name and docket number ready. The DCFS staff can then direct the agency to the correct DCFS attorney. There is also a member of DCFS legal responsible for coordinating this: Meryl Paniak, 312-814-8742. She can ultimately be contacted for any other questions or concerns. (MB)

Members of the Search Committee are: Nancy Ronquillo and Ed Bowman (Co-chairs), Tom VandenBerk, Sue Statz, Gene Svebakken, Rick Valesquez, Jim Sherman, Jesse Madison, Peg Arizzi, (Shawn Jeffers is available on an ad hoc basis)

The CCA Search Committee has retained an excellent search firm (Boulware & Assoc.) to help assure the search process is comprehensive and well conducted. The next steps will include: Christine Boulware (principal) will be interviewing the Search Committee, the CCA board members, Ron and the CCA staff, a portion of the membership and several other key stakeholders in order to assist in defining the strategic challenges for CCA as well as the position requirements.

If you have suggestions about who could be interviewed in this research aspect of the process, or if you have ideas about qualified candidates, please forward these ideas directly to Christine Boulware (phone:312-322-0088; fax:312-322-0092;email:[email protected])

The search firm will present its process and timeframes, a preliminary position description based upon all of the input and current requirements; and it will also assist the board in building a clear sense of the strategic challenges facing CCA. This will occur at the November l5 board meeting.

We've set a very aggressive timetable with a March 21 target date for the board to consider/ determine the final candidate. We appreciate all the input, support, ideas and suggestions from the entire membership. The Search Committee is committed to good communication throughout this process. (Nancy Ronquillo, Chair, CCA Board of Directors)

It is with a great deal of sadness to inform you that Yvonne�s husband, Ben Watson, passed away on Saturday, October 14^th after a long illness. Funeral arrangements are tentatively scheduled for Thursday, October 19^th. Time and location are pending. For more information about the services you can call Lawrence hall Youth Services at 773-769-3500 after Monday, October 16^th. Cards and notes of sympathy may be sent to Yvonne Brown-Watson at Lawrence Hall Youth Services, 4833 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625.

The Illinois Performance Based Contracting program, initiated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in partnership with private agencies, is one of ten winners in one of the nation�s most prestigious public service awards programs. Illinois has been recognized for creating a program that changed that Illinois�s focus and resources from maintaining children in foster care to finding them personal homes.

Several CCA members were instrumental in the earning of this award. Among CCA agencies interviewed during site visits were Ada S. McKinley, Lakeside Community Committee, Catholic Charities of Chicago, and Volunteers of America of Illinois, according to Frances Pace Barnes, Executive Director of Volunteers of America of Illinois and a participant in the hearings, which took place in Washington this past week.

To learn more about this exciting award and the important part that private agencies played in it being awarded to the State of Illinois, visit the front page of the CCA website at http://www.cca-il.org and read the posted release.

CCA SURVEY UPDATES
FILLING OUT YOUR MEMBERSHIP SURVEY: WHAT�S IN IT FOR YOU?
In addition to having information about your agency included in aggregate data that will be used with the media and the legislature, CCA will have a baseline of data for your particular agency which will be used from year to year to update your information, meaning that you will only have to indicate changes and new programs from one year to the next. Without submitting this year�s baseline information, your agency will be excluded from this process and from the data being gathered. Most of the 70% of CCA members that have submitted their surveys to date indicated that filling out the survey did require a group effort from program staff, financial personnel and development personnel but that the total time spent was under one hour. We encourage you to be involved in this important initiative if you have not yet completed your survey!

If you are not sure whether your survey has been turned in, 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)

Hopefully agencies have made their calls to Washington about the Social Services Block Grant funding. Congress is in the final days of negotiating the federal budget and deals are being negotiated between Congressional Leadership and the White House; therefore it is critical that calls be made to the White House, Senator Lott and Representative Hastert immediately. The message is: Fully restore SSBG to $2.4 billion. Support the SSBG language included in S. 3152, the Roth/Moynihan community renewal bill. Call the White House at 202-456-1414. Call Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott at 202-224-3135. Call Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert at 202-225-0600. (JMS)

At the October meeting of the CWAC SACWIS Advisory Committee, the POS representatives developed a process to provide ongoing input to the detail design for the SACWIS application. CCA held a meeting on Sept. 18^th which invited all participants from the user requirements and use case design meetings that had been held in June, July and August, 2000. Input was solicited from participants on the types of issues that were discussed in their meetings that directly impacted the POS involvement in the project. A list of action items and issues were identified for each of the specified areas: Eligibility, case assignment, case management, staff maintenance, court processing, investigation and intake, ACR, health tracking, resource management, archive, technical, interfaces and financial. It was also recommended that focus groups be organized for each of these areas prior to the next round of design meetings scheduled for June of 2001.

The agreed upon process would include another meeting being held in January 2001 for the focus groups around each of these areas. Prior to that meeting, a lead person would be identified for each group. A presentation of the New Mexico model or Illinois prototype would be made to all participants and then there would be breakout sessions into the specific design areas. The purpose of the focus groups will be to identify critical issues for the POS agencies that will be raised during the Phase II detail design in June 2001. Solicitation of participants for the focus groups will occur during November and December 2000. I would ask agencies to be thinking about potential representatives from your agencies for these areas so that when you receive the mailing you can identify potential participants. We want to be sure that the issues of private agencies around the development of this complex of a system are included and direct the design, since the majority of services are provided by the private agencies. Additional details will be mailed in November 2000. If you have any questions, please contact Jan Schoening. (JMS)

S. 2272 as passed authorizes three grant programs through the Department of Justice (OJJDP): (1) a total of $10 million in grants to State and local courts for development and implementation of automated data collection and case-tracking systems for abuse and neglect cases, (2) a total of $10 million in grants to State and local courts to promote ASFA permanency goals by eliminating backlogs in the courts, and (3) a $5 million grant to the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association to expand CASA programs in the 15 largest urban areas and in rural areas.

A March 1998 Hartford Courant investigative series on the death of an 11-year-old boy in a Connecticut psychiatric hospital prompted public interest and congressional concern about the use of restraints and seclusion. This lead to the introduction of several legislative proposals which would have required a doctor or other licensed professional to provide a written order for the use of very broadly defined restraints and seclusion in all types of residential facilities. The final legislation passed reflects improvements from earlier proposals. 1.) Establishes a new section of the bill to specifically address the circumstances of non-medical, community-based facilities for children and youths. 2.) Removes "residential treatment center" from the mandates for health care facilities that require a physician or other licensed practitioner to provide a written order for the use of restraints and seclusion. 3.) Emphasizes that restraints and seclusion in nonmedical, community-based facilities for children and youths will only be imposed in emergency circumstances to ensure the physical safety of the resident and others. 4.) Ensures that the person imposing restraints and seclusion in nonmedical, community-based facilities for children and youth will have the necessary and appropriate skills, knowledge, and expertise to safely initiate the behavior management. The law leaves many issues to be further clarified in regulation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Additional information on the language changes will be mailed out shortly to all member agencies. (JMS)

This serves as a reminder that the next Downstate Performance Based Work Group meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 25, 2000 from 1:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. at DCFS, 628 E. Adams, Springfield. Main topic for discussion will be the proposed referral rotation system for downstate contracts. (MB)

Calendar:

Oct. 16 � CCA Public Policy Committee, Chicago

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

Oct. 18-22 � American Association of Children�s Residential Centers Conference, Knickerbocker

Hotel, Chicago

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. 25 � Downstate Performance Based Work Group, 1-3:30 p.m., DCFS, 628 E. Adams, Spfld.

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.