MONDAY REPORT
February 11, 2002
SPECIAL NOTE: Copyright 2002. 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
TRAINING
WAIVER ADVISORY COMMITTEE
OPPORTUNITIES
FOR FUNDING TO SUPPORT DD SERVICES
PLANNING
FOR GUBERNATORIAL INTERVIEWS AND FORUM UNDERWAY
SACWIS
SEAT COUNT PROCESS UPDATE
SACWIS
CHANGE MANAGEMENT ISSUES
PROMOTING
SAFE AND STABLE FAMILIES
PUBLIC
POLICY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 2/5/02
DCFS
SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE
HELPFUL
WESITES FOR PUBLIC POLICY AND ADVOCACY
TRAINING WAIVER ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The first
meeting of the IV-E Training Waiver Advisory Committee was held in Chicago on
February 8.
�
Purpose and Cost Neutrality:
The IV-E Waiver represents approval by DHHS to use federal IV-E funds to provide
enhanced training for new private agency foster care caseworkers. The
supposition is that using IV-E funds to offset the cost of enhanced training
will result in the children served by trained workers going to permanency
earlier, thus saving some of the costs of care (cost neutrality.)
The waiver, as required for all demonstration projects, has a research
requirement. To measure whether enhanced training has the intended effects on
worker performance and the connected impact on the caseload, there must also be
a measurement of what happens when there is no enhanced training. There will
thus be a demonstration group in which enhanced training is provided, and a
control group that will receive the routine foundation training but not enhanced
training. The current vision of
�enhanced� training is that new workers will receive an additional 4 weeks
of training immediately following completion of the foundation and achieving
licensure. The long-term goal is to
demonstrate that training has an impact on private agency worker performance,
which can then impact the length of stay on the state caseload. The intent would
be to then allow reimbursement from IV-E funds for the training of private
agency workers.
�
Qualification for
Participation: Agencies with TFC
and/or HMR contracts that serve the Cook and collar counties (Aurora sub-region)
received a letter from DCFS within the last 2 weeks asking for a declaration of
interest in participating in the project. Agencies must demonstrate certain
criteria (i.e. full staffing) to qualify.
�
Selection of Participants:
Once agencies are deemed qualified, a list will be entered into a database
showing all supervisors in the agency who had at least one caseworker go through
the current foundation training since July, 2001. There will be some additional
filters established to assure key variables are similar across teams (types of
degrees, length of time in the field, etc.) The supervisory team will then
receive a random designation. The team will either be part of the control group
or the demonstration group. Once the designations are made, this will determine
who goes to enhanced training. If a supervisory team is designated to be part of
the demonstration group, whenever a new caseworker is hired on that team, they
will go through the enhanced training. When a supervisory team is designated as
part of the control group, whenever a new worker is hired on that team, they
will go through only the basic foundation training.
�
Trainers: Criteria
for trainers will be established and there will be some of bidding or
application process to assure the trainers for enhanced training can meet the
learning objectives, demonstrate interactive skills and provide top-notch
training experiences.
�
Curriculum/Learning
Objectives: The enhanced training
component has the following objectives: 1) Acquire knowledge and skills
necessary to reduce length of stay in foster care, increase reunification,
reduce the re-entry rate and recurrence of abuse and reduce the length of time
towards other permanency outcomes when reunification can�t occur; 2) Apply
best practice principles; 3) Identify and implement IV-E protocols on subsidized
guardianship, AODA, performance contracting, use of Norman and Chafee funds; and
4) use supervision and child welfare outcomes in evaluating practice and
increase service delivery. Curriculum specialists are in the process of
developing these components.
�
Training Targets of
Opportunity: 1) Reunify 1st
and 2nd time substance-exposed infants with no further allegations to
parents who successfully complete drug treatment; 2) Expedited Adoption for 3rd
timer and more substance-exposed infants where parents failed drug treatment
after 6 months of concerted outreach efforts; 3) Use of family group
conferencing to engage kin in concurrent planning and 4) Permanency for older
wards who enter/re-enter care after the age of 12.
�
Incentives for Agency
Participation: DCFS hopes that
assisting in demonstrating the long-term goal and the possible future use of
IV-E funding for private agencies is the basic incentive for participation.
Additionally, there may be some ability to provide limited financial help to
offset partial costs to the agency of participation in the project and/or
consideration of certain program requirements when workers are at the enhanced
training. A small work group will develop the parameters of these incentives,
given the existing resources available from DCFS and report back to the larger
group.
�
Review of Current Foundation
System: The Advisory Committee
will also serve in an advisory capacity as the current foundation training is
examined. DCFS is considering some changes in both the length and content of the
basic foundation program, which will have positive impacts on agencies. There
are also tasks remaining which were designated as issues for follow-up from the
original training group: evaluation of foundation, evaluation of trainer
capacity and effectiveness, development of protocols for granting exceptions to
the foundation training when highly educated/skilled new workers are hired and
ways to improve communication with agencies as to schedules, locations, and
types of training. (MB)
OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUNDING TO SUPPORT DD SERVICES
The Illinois
Council on Developmental Disabilities has announced the availability of up to $1
million for project to improve the lives of people with developmental
disabilities in four project areas: community membership, advocacy training,
education and transportation. Through these grants, the Council is working
towards its mission of promoting change to ensure that people with developmental
disabilities have the same opportunities as others in the community. The Council
will sponsor 2 information sessions for organizations interested in applying for
these funds:Tuesday, February 19 in Chicago and Wednesday, February 20 in
Springfield. Further information and application packets can be obtained by
calling the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities receptionist at
217-782-9696 or e-mail at: [email protected].
(MB)
The
following Internet site has information about the Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2003
budget proposal of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS):
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2003/bud15.html
Information
about the overall FFY 2003 budget proposal can be accessed from the following
Internet site: http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2003/maindown.html
(mb)
�EMERGING
TRENDS IN YOUTH WORK: THE NEXT LEVEL�:
A
NEW TOOL KIT FOR YOUTH WORKERS: CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
The
2002 DHHS Midwest Hub conference,
�Emerging Trends in Youth Work: The Next Level�:
A
New Tool Kit for Youth Workers� is scheduled for June 26-28, 2002 in Chicago,
and will bring together social service providers from throughout a ten state
area to discuss, learn, share, and present the most up-to-date information
regarding effective strategies in working with youth. The conference, sponsored
by the Youth Network Council (includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota,
and Ohio) and MINK (includes Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas) will focus on
several topic areas and emphasize a youth development approach.
Using
input from providers, and research on topics gaining recognition by the US
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Family and Youth Services Bureau
(FYSB), the following topic areas will be targeted: Settings and Opportunities
for Development and Service (educational, recreational, and service learning in
after school and summer programs), Supportive Families and Communities (how
positive youth development can help families, teen parents, at risk youth, Head
Start older siblings and communities), Economic Self Sufficiency and Success
(job entry, career development, welfare dependency, prevention, services to non
custodial parents), Healthy Lifestyles and relationships (Adolescent health
promotion and risk reduction/avoidance, safe families and communities, healthy
personal, domestic and marital relationships), Covering All the Bases in the
American Community (Capacity-building, under-service and culture-specific
issues, special capacities, and national/social cohesion in the new era).
Other topics, which fall within the framework established by the
conference�s title, will also be considered.
The topics are by no means limited to those suggested.
A
wide array of training material, symposia topics, and panel presentations is
encouraged, and must all be tied to the common theme of youth development. This
will result in a unifying focus for the conference and enable participants to
understand relationships between youth development and other emerging trends in
youth work. A very good source of youth development information is FSYB�s
�Toward a Blueprint for Youth: Making Positive Youth Development a National
Priority�. This can be downloaded from the web at the following address:
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/fysb/youthinfo/blueprint.htm
Prospective
presenters are encouraged to complete the attached application and submit it to
the planning committee by February 15, 2002. Both youth and adults are
encouraged to apply. There will be a reduced conference registration fee for
presenters. Interested applicants will receive additional conference material as
it is developed.
For
a presenter�s application, more information on the conference, and workshop
development, please email the conference planners group at [email protected].
In a move that
is apparently designed to undercut a Federal judge�s directive to create
generic certification in special education, House Bill 4466 was introduced in
the General Assembly. This bill
provides the OPTION for special education teachers to have either their
certifications in serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairment, learning
disabilities, autism, mental retardation, traumatic brain injury and other
health impairment, or they could obtain the LBS certification (BRH).
PLANNING FOR GUBERNATORIAL INTERVIEWS AND FORUM UNDERWAY
CCA is developing a platform and
questionnaire for the candidates for governor who will emerge after the March
primary. Candidates� responses to
questions will be distributed to members, interviews with candidates will be
conducted, and they will be invited to speak at the CCA Membership meeting to be
held June 5 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Springfield (BRH).
SACWIS SEAT COUNT PROCESS UPDATE
It was reported by the POS Liaison that all
agency seat count information for SACWIS has been returned except for one
agency. It is expected that will be
returned this week. The current
seat count total is 2163. The seat
count information was development during FY2001 to determine how funding would
be distributed to agencies based on the caseload size and equipment requirements
to meet SACWIS readiness. The initial seat count that was used in September 2000
to determine the original contract amounts was 2677.
If this difference in the number of seats is confirmed as the final
total, the increase in dollars per seat will be about $200/seat.
Agencies are continuing to submit reimbursement requests.
For FY02 reimbursements have been made to 44 agencies totaling $657,550.
(JMS)
SACWIS CHANGE MANAGEMENT ISSUES
At the SACWIS meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 5th
of the POS agency representatives, one of the agenda items raised for discuss
was what will be some of the change management issues that agencies will need to
address as SACWIS continues to be implemented.
Phase I related to intake and investigation is still scheduled to be
implemented April 22, 2002 and the delay that has occurred with the Phase II
Joint Application Development design sessions are scheduled to resume June 1st. Possible change management activities recommended for
agencies to consider related to staff readiness and process issues are as
follows:
 | Consider
having computer and email use policies; |
| Consider
adding computer skills to job descriptions; |
| Train
staff to type and other basic computer skills, if necessary; |
| Consider
focusing on staff being able to compose at the computer rather than having
to write work out first before entering; |
| Think
through the child welfare tasks of the agency in terms of how SACWIS might
them, including the use of DCFS forms for in-house processes; |
| Use
the DCFS templates for forms; |
| Plan
for processes, if the 906 is no longer used, to continue to track days of
care and to pay their foster parents; and |
| Consider
how work written at court or elsewhere will get entered into SACWIS.
|
Additional discussions related to change
management activities are scheduled with AMS and DCFS staff in conjunction with
the next Advisory Committee meeting to be held in March.
(JMS)
PROMOTING SAFE AND STABLE FAMILIES
President Bush�s 2003 budget released on
Feb. 4th recommends full funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable
Families program ($505 million) and the education and training vouchers for
youth aging out of foster care ($60 million) (added to Chafee Foster Care
Independence program). Both are
part of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001 (P.L.
107-133). You can sign onto a
letter thanking the President for his budget request for abused and neglected
children by responding to [email protected]
or going directly to www.cwla.org/pssfletter.htm
by February 11, 2002. (JMS)
PUBLIC POLICY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 2/5/02
The second Public Policy Committee Meeting of
2002 was held at Catholic Social Service in Bloomington this past week to review
the status of current bills and further develop the policy platform of the
Association.
The group reviewed current legislation of
interest to CCA members and was asked to submit their comments via e-mail
regarding those bills to Margaret M. Berglind prior to the next meeting. The
group also heard from DCFS Deputy Chief of Staff and Governmental Affairs
Liaison Jim Kaufmann via conference call regarding bills DCFS plans to support
and/or hopes to generate.
Other discussion items on the agenda
included:
| The
tobacco tax bill,
calling for a $.75 increase per
pack on cigarettes in Illinois, and, in some versions of the bill currently
being reviewed, earmarking a percentage of that tax increase for human
services in Illinois. Updated written information from the Illinois
Children�s Initiative, to which CCA has signed on and encouraged
individual members to sign on, indicated that statements supporting the
Initiative would be made at several hearings . A copy of the proposed
statement is available electronically through the CCA offices by e-mailing
Linda Lenzini, Director of Marketing and Communications, at [email protected]. |
| The
Governor�s Children and Family Leadership Sub-Cabinet Letter,
which was submitted by the group to Governor Ryan on January 10th.
The impact of the letter, which went out on Lieutenant Governor Corinne
Wood�s letterhead, is unknown until after the primary and Corinne Wood�s
status at that time. A copy of the letter is available through the CCA
offices. |
| Discussion
on legislative initiative money
and recent Chicago Tribune
coverage of so-called �legislative pork.� The Committee agreed that
there was no benefit to a public response to this coverage. Copies of recent
articles on this issue are
available through the CCA offices. |
| Comptroller
Dan Hynes' Financial Reform Proposals. The Committee received this information at the last Public Policy
Meeting. The Comptroller is hoping to garner support for his reform
proposals from groups that receive checks from the state.
|
| Report
from the Gubernatorial Candidate Screening Workgroup.
CCA staff indicated that the platform which CCA plans to establish and share
with candidates will be developed contingent on the release of the FY2003
budget on February 20th. Candidates
who won their primary runs for governor will be invited to a CCA-sponsored
forum. |
| Status
of Workforce Summit: A workforce
summit is tentatively planned for the March-April timeframe.
The purpose of the Summit is twofold. Panel members from CCA member
agencies will be able to share creative approaches to the workforce issues
in child welfare. Legislative attendees will be there in order for child
welfare experts to educate them on these issues and to solicit their help in
crafting and passing legislation that will improve services in Illinois
communities. More information will be forthcoming when the date is set. |
| Joint
Meeting with the ICOY Policy Board: Attendees reported on this meeting, indicating that the Homeless
Youth Bill, BARJ legislation and support, and training efforts might provide
common ground for ICOY�s Policy Board and CCA�s Public Policy Committee.
|
| Juvenile
Justice Strategies Due to time
constraints, the planning of the JJ Legislative Agenda and the drafting of
policy statements on Community Corrections for youthful offenders was tabled
until the next meeting. |
Next
steps: Public Policy Committee
Members were invited to visit Springfield on February 20th for the
Governor�s noon budget address, and to attend anticipated DHS/DCFS budget
briefings that same afternoon, meeting at the CCA offices the next morning to
review and discuss the state budget and move forward with Public Policy
Committee efforts.
(To submit your agency�s news for
The Monday Report, send to Linda Lenzini, Director, Marketing and Public
Relations, at the Child Care Association. MSWord e-mail attachments for
information and JPG�s for pictures are preferred.)
DCFS SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE
Applications are now available through DCFS
for 48 scholarships awarded annually to youth in care or former wards in
adoptive or guardianship families. Requirements for eligibility are that the
student be at least 16, possess a high school diploma or GED accreditation by
the end of the school year, be in the child welfare system currently or
immediately prior to the adoption or transfer of guardianship. Applications can
be obtained by calling Dwight Lambert, Statewide Education Coordinator, DCFS, at
217-524-2030. Deadline for receipt of applications is March 29th, so
time is of the essence. (LLL)
Part I of this planned study by CCA, which measures the
impacts on service as a consequence of the FY2002 minimal CODB, and anticipated
impacts for service for FY2003, has been completed in draft form. Due to a
lower-than-desirable response rate, non-participating agencies are encouraged to
respond to the survey questions from which this report was generated. To obtain
a copy of those survey questions, or to learn whether your agency has already
responded, contact Linda Lenzini, Director of Marketing and Communications at
CCA at [email protected].
HELPFUL WESITES FOR PUBLIC POLICY AND ADVOCACY
The Illinois Campaign
for Political Reform has now updated its site to include information on campaign
contributors for gubernatorial candidates. To obtain
a complete a complete list of helpful websites for advocacy, contact Linda
Lenzini, Director, Marketing and Communications, at [email protected]
)
February 21 � Downstate Agencies Cash Flow
Meeting
March 5 - �Discipline of Students with
Special Needs in Illinois,� Bev Johns, Gary Kerr,
Springfield IL, register by phone:715-833-3959
March 8-9 � 2002 Spring Foster and Adoptive Parent Conference��Every
Child is a Success
Story.� Crowne Plaza
Hotel, Springfield.
March 12 � CWAC SACWIS Advisory Committee
March 20 � CCA Board Meeting and Leadership Dinner, The Hyatt Lodge, Oak
Brook
March 21 � CCAI�s Spring Membership Meeting, Hamburger University
Conference Center,
Oak Brook
May 3 - Learning Disabilities Association of
Illinois Spring Workshop, featuring Reed Martin,
Special
Education Attorney, Holiday Inn, Naperville, (708) 430-7532
| For further information on any of the
above, contact the staff member noted in parentheses at the end of the
text: MB
= Marge Berglind 312/819-1950
([email protected]) JMS = Jan Schoening
217/528-4409 ext. 25 ([email protected])
BRH= Bridget Helmholz 217/528-4409
ext. 24 ([email protected]) BMO=Barb Oldani
217/528-4409 ext. 21 ([email protected])
|
RJS=Rommel J. Sangalang 217/528-4409
ext.26 (RJS@cca-il.org) SKA = Sandy Armstrong
217/528-4409 ext. 22 ([email protected]) LLL = Linda Lenzini
217/528-4409 ext. 27 ([email protected]) CMS=Cindy Stich
217/528-4409 ext. 23 ([email protected]) |
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