MONDAY REPORT

November 5, 2001

SPECIAL NOTE:  Copyright 2001. The Monday Report is produced each week as a benefit to the member agencies of the Child Care Association. Please protect this membership benefit - DO NOT copy and distribute this report to agencies/staff that are not members of CCA. Thank you for your cooperation.

Table of Contents

CHILD WELFARE.. 1

LEVELS OF CARE UPDATE.. 1

�     Cases that Exceed their LOC Expiration Date: 1

�     Cases that are no Longer in Specialized Foster Care and/or are Closed: 1

�     Cases that are Assigned to New Workers and/or Agencies/Regions: 2

COOK PERFORMANCE BASED CONTRACT ADJUSTMENTS.. 2

EDUCATION.. 2

AD HOC EDUCATION GROUPS WORK ON MODIFYING RULES AND RATE-SETTING.. 2

A CURRENT LIST OF DCFS EDUCATION PERSONNEL IS AVAILABLE.. 2

MENTAL HEALTH.. 2

TELECONFERENCE � JUVENILE JUSTICE RELATED PRINCIPLES.. 2

GENERAL.. 3

JUVENILE JUSTICE INITIATIVE � PREVENTION/INTERVENTION SUMMIT. 3

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE INTERVENTION.. 4

LEVELS OF CARE UPDATE

DCFS staff have asked us to share this information, which was forwarded in memo form from DCFS last week. Starting in October, agencies will receive a monthly tickler report that will show all of the Level of Care (LOC) reviews that are expiring in the next three months.  It is imperative that agencies forward this information to the worker assigned to the case so that a complete LOC referral packet can be mailed to the DCFS LOC Reviewer in the region at least three weeks prior to the expiration date.  The information listed below should answer general questions about this report:

�      Cases that Exceed their LOC Expiration Date:

If a child remains with a type service code of specialized/treatment and the LOC re-review is not done, the administrative payment to the agency may be automatically dropped to HMR/Traditional.  In order for a child to remain in specialized foster care, he/she must have an updated LOC review.  The Department will be keeping track of all cases in specialized foster care that exceed their LOC expiration date.  Agencies that continue to have cases that fall into this category may be subject to additional penalties. 

�      Cases that are no Longer in Specialized Foster Care and/or are Closed:

If a child appears on the tickler report but is no longer in specialized foster care, a LOC re-review DOES NOT need to be done.  For example, if the child has moved into an I/GH facility or into ILO, the LOC re-review does not need to be done.  If this child returns to foster care at a later date, a new LOC review will need to be done prior to discharge.   

If a closed case is listed on the tickler report, you can disregard; a LOC re-review DOES NOT need to be done. 

�      Cases that are Assigned to New Workers and/or Agencies/Regions:

If the caseworker listed on the tickler report is no longer carrying the case, please make sure that the new caseworker in your agency/region receives the information.  If the case is no longer monitored by your agency/region, please contact Wendy Kalina at 312-814-6867 so that she can notify the agency/region that is currently monitoring the case.

Every agency with a specialized foster care contract and DCFS region should receive this report every month.  If you do not receive this report on a monthly basis please contact Wendy Kalina at 312-814-6867.

COOK PERFORMANCE BASED CONTRACT ADJUSTMENTS

DCFS staff report that contract adjustments based on FY�01 reconciliations have been completed on Cook contracts.  These should be reflected in the November BAT/BARC payments. Questions can be directed to Melissa Ludington. (MB)

AD HOC EDUCATION GROUPS WORK ON MODIFYING RULES AND RATE-SETTING

At the last Education Committee meeting, CCA members developed two ad hoc groups to work on amending the nonpublic special education rules to provide alternatives to terminating school approval for certified staff shortages, and defining CCA�s response to the Illinois Purchased Care Review Board�s (IPCRB) proposal to use �enrollment capacity� as the denominator in rate-setting.  Several strategies have been considered regarding the rate-setting issues, one of which was to draft legislation to eliminate the IPCRB.  CCA members rejected that proposal in favor of other more specific changes that are being finalized using data that is currently being developed.  On the matter of proposing rule modifications to deal with current teacher shortages, ISBE Assistant Superintendent Chris Koch was enthusiastic about receiving such recommendations from CCA (BRH).

A CURRENT LIST OF DCFS EDUCATION PERSONNEL IS AVAILABLE

DCFS now has 24 staff available to work on all school-related problems experienced by children in their system.  This list has been distributed to the Education Committee, but it is available to all agency personnel who provide any services to children in the DCFS system.  DCFS personnel are working on a 24-hour response time to agency problems, but please notify CCA if the system is not responsive to your needs.  The Chicago Public Schools also has staff earmarked to assist children in institutions and group homes.  The list of these staff will be sent to the Education Committee, and CCA will work with DCFS to develop a hiring process for future staff that will include private agency input (BRH).

TELECONFERENCE � JUVENILE JUSTICE RELATED PRINCIPLES

The Division of Community Health and Prevention with the Illinois Department of Human Services is sponsoring a satellite teleconference on November 6, 2001 from 10 a.m. to Noon entitled �Principles of Effective Intervention�.  This satellite teleconference will introduce youth services and juvenile justice practitioners to the �what works� principles of providing effective services to high risk and delinquent youth.  The teleconference will provide background and specific examples of intervention programs that work with youthful offenders.  DHS will be using these principles to determine future funding requirements.  Objectives of this presentation include: The �what works� principles of assessing risk, targeting need and motivating high risk and delinquent youth; The big six targets of effective interventions as well as practices that are effective at reducing risky behavior and delinquency; Staff characteristics that impact on the intervention process; Examples of effective evidence based approaches � family, group, and individual client based programs.  Locations for the teleconference were at Public Health Departments throughout the state.  Registration was required in order to determine if satellite access would be available for all sites.  Locations and registration forms were faxed to all members last week.  The registration deadline had been extended from the original date of October 26^th.  All registration forms should be faxed back to KAREN YOUNG AT 217-753-0143.  If you should have any last minute inquires, contact Marlin Hollis at the Community Health Training Center 217-753-4066.  It is noted that a copy of a video about this teleconference will be available approximately three weeks following the presentation.  (JMS)

JUVENILE JUSTICE INITIATIVE � PREVENTION/INTERVENTION SUMMIT

The Juvenile Justice Initiative Prevention/Intervention Workgroup held a planning meeting on October 30, 2001 in Bloomington, Illinois.  The purpose of the meeting was to develop recommendations and strategies within four key areas that had been identified by the planning committee as a guideline to legislative direction and funding initiatives.  The four areas within prevention/intervention that were addressed were: 1.) Mapping � What exists and where does it exist? How do we document it? 2.) Special Needs of Mental Health and Girls � What are mental health related issues and what are juvenile justice adolescent development issues? 3.) Effective Programs � documenting principles of effective programs and develop recommendations around principles. 4.) Evaluation of programs � how do we include measurements in programs? Some of the initial recommendations developed in each group are described below. 

Within the area of mapping it was recommended: 1.) A format/framework for mapping youth programs be developed that could be used at the community level.  2.) Identify and implement at a pilot site.  3.) Invite additional members to join the prevention/intervention planning effort. i.e. United Way, Illinois Violence Prevention. 4.) Do assessments for all station adjusted youth (YASI) walk ins, etc. 5.) Do mapping of services from other state agencies.

Under the area of special needs for mental health it was recommended that: 1.) Conduct a review of assessment instruments.  Determine what exists and send out to the juvenile justice field.  Do not reinvent the wheel but look outside of Illinois and develop a more uniform assessment.  2.) Identify effective truancy programs and use the internet to research more about special needs. 3.) Work with the Women�s Commission on reviewing gender specific programming and studies and encourage training on gender specific issues.

Under the area of effective programs it was recommended: 1.) Use principles of effective intervention to fund programs; 2.) Encourage collaboration; 3.) Use youth as resources to guide programs; 4.) Engage the business community e.g. Honeywell; 5.) Use outcomes that are tied to the principles; 6.) Allow creativity amongst communities.

Under the area of evaluation of programs, it was recommended:  1.) Focus on marketing of programs not prisons; 2.) We must combat safety, security of community; 3.) Focus on the positive aspects of evaluation such as meeting needs of adolescent development; 4.) Find model programs to market; 5.) Seek collaborations; and 6.) Pursue after school programming movement. 

Material distributed at the planning meeting included: �The Comparative Costs and Benefits of Programs to Reduce Crime�, �Juvenile Justice Planning and Service Continuum� and �Description of Selected Programs Serving At-Risk or Delinquent Youth�.  (JMS)

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE INTERVENTION

At the Juvenile Justice Initiative planning meeting for prevention/intervention, a brief review was provided of a number of principles that are now widely accepted in the fields of juvenile justice and correctional treatment.  In developing new initiatives, the Illinois Dept. of Human Services will use these principles for selecting and funding agency programs.  The three main principles are risk, need and responsivity.  Risk refers to the probability that an offender will demonstrate negative outcomes in the future.  Need is about focusing our intervention efforts on the right targets.  Responsivity is concerned with the techniques, methods or styles that are used in interventions with correctional clientele.  In developing a plan to implement and deliver a new service, a proposal should indicate how the 3 principles of effective interventions would be addressed.  (JMS)