Feds scrutinize Iowa’s child-welfare system

Iowa officials were given generally positive marks Friday by federal regulators who reviewed the state's child-warfare system, but now face a new deadline to devise a program improvement plan to address areas of concern.

“Iowa has made strides” since the last federal review seven years ago, said Silvia Kim, child welfare program manager in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' children's bureau who led the federal review. She noted that no state has met or exceeded the federal benchmark in all areas as part of an effort to promote continuous improvement in protecting the nation's most-vulnerable children.

Kim applauded Iowa for implementing training and quality assurance measures that weren't in place during the 2003 review, but she said there are concerns in areas of ensuring consistency in child-welfare situations, assessing and addressing underlying root causes of family problems, returning children prematurely to unstable situations, utilizing a high incidence of shelter placements, and assessing safety and risk issues on an ongoing basis especially after family members are reunified.

Iowa ranked above the national average in providing timely adoptions and establishing a sense of permanency for children, but was below average in placement stability and other measures, she said.

Iowa has improved at placing children who must be removed from their parents with relatives, keeping siblings together, and keeping them near their homes and schools. Also, the state maintained its strong performance at keeping families together and reuniting them when a foster placement occurs.

“Iowa is far ahead of where we were in 2003 but the federal benchmarks are even more difficult to reach in this second review, meaning every state will once again be required to improve,” said DHS Director Charles Krogmeier.

Kim noted that Iowa case workers have faced extraordinary challenges due to budget cuts that have created staff turnover and high work loads. “I have to hold my breath and say ‘wow'” regarding the case loads that state child-welfare are faced with, she said.

Wendy Rickman, administrator of the Iowa Department of Human Services' Division of Adult, Children & Family Services, noted that DHS workers have “been through floods and furloughs,” layoffs, across-the-board cuts and reinstatements in the process of maintaining quality child-protection services.

“This gave us an in-depth opportunity to take a step back and hear what folks are saying about how we do things from their perspective,” Rickman said of the federal assessment. “I think we want to focus heavily on safety first.”

Rickman said there were no surprises in Friday's preliminary assessment. Once state officials receive the final, detailed analysis, they will have 90 days to produce a program improvement plan that addresses weaknesses identified during the extensive federal review.

The state must show progress to continue receiving federal money for child welfare programs – $66.8 million a year.

The federal team chose 65 recent cases at random and met with case workers, judges, family members, counselors, and other service providers in Polk, Linn and Webster counties.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, who attended Friday's meeting, said she was encouraged by what she heard.

“I think we've made progress and I think some of the things they've identified are items that we're working on. It's helpful to get that objective input,” Ternus said. “I'd be more concerned if we were surprised by their findings.”