Good afternoon Chairman Cryan, Vice Chairwoman Oliver and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to update you on the Department of Children and Families' progress in implementing child welfare reform. As you know, we have taken an approach that first focuses on the fundamentals.

Caseloads
Between March 2006 and June 2007, we reduced DYFS caseloads dramatically, with the majority of DYFS offices now meeting caseload carrying standards for both intake and permanency workers.

In March 2006, only 17 percent of DYFS offices met intake caseload standards and only 40 percent met the standards for permanency caseload.  By June of this year, 82 percent were meeting intake standards, with 84 percent meeting permanency standards. By June, we reached 90 percent compliance in meeting standards for adoption caseloads and supervisor to staff ratios.

In March of last year, 131 DYFS caseworkers were responsible for a caseload of over 30 families. By June this year, we reduced that number of staff from 131 to six - a 95 percent improvement.

This improvement in caseloads was possible first and foremost as a result of the leadership and commitment of resources from this Legislature and Governor Corzine, for which I am enormously grateful.

Foster Families
Between June 2006 and this past July, DCF committed to licensing 1,030 new foster homes.  We licensed 1,287, exceeding our target by 25 percent. We achieved a net increase of more than 600 foster homes in the first six months of 2007, tripling our net gain from the entire previous year.

Out-of-State Placements
New Jersey has long been confronted by a lack of in-state services that would allow our kids who need residential care and treatment to stay close to home and avoid out-of-state placement. 

Earlier this year, we awarded contracts to establish 86 new specialty beds in New Jersey and recently issued another RPF to establish 60 additional specialty beds that will allow us to keep and bring New Jersey's kids back home, including children with developmental disabilities.

While we still have much work to do, our efforts to bring New Jersey's kids back home is showing signs of progress.  In March of last year, 327 New Jersey children were placed out of state through our Division of Child Behavioral Health Services.  As of last Friday, the number had been reduced to 235 youth placed out of state, a 28 percent reduction. More work to do, but progress.

Adoptions Finalized
Last year we committed through the Modified Settlement Agreement to finalize 1,100 adoptions for foster children, and we achieved 1,402 adoptions.

This year our target is 1400, and I am optimistic that we will reach it. A new state record for the greatest number of foster children ever adopted in a single year is in sight, and if we continue to work hard this month, we may reach that milestone.

NJ Spirit
On August 22 of this year, DCF deployed statewide NJ Spirit, also known as SACWIS, the new computer system for DYFS.  Statewide implementation has been challenging as any system change of this scale usually is, but the staff are working incredibly hard to build their proficiency.  Our primary focus is on the resolution of "incidents," which are issues with the application that may require the vendor to design, code, and test a fix to the software. As of December 4, 2007, we have identified 1,627 incidents that we project will require actual software fixes.  Of those, the vendor and we have resolved 65% (1,051). We have instructed the vendor to develop a plan to resolve the remaining software fixes as efficiently as possible, such as by addressing all of those that relate to a particular area of code at the same time.  Finally, we have requested that the vendor add ten more staff, which they have agreed to do.

OTHER VITAL WORK AHEAD

Health Care for Kids in Care
We are working to establish a complete network of health services to provide comprehensive health exams for foster kids. For some time now, the existing provider network has been able to meet the medical service needs for only 36 percent of our kids.  The network has consisted of nine sites in nine counties, leaving the children in the other 12 counties to travel, sometimes more than three hours round-trip, to get medical exams and services.

Last month, we concluded an RFP process and made an initial round of awards that more than doubles our medical service capacity for children in foster care with five new providers:  Zufall (Morris); St. Joseph's (Passaic); the Plainfield FQHC (Multiple sites - Union, Somerset, Warren, Hunterdon, Sussex);  Visiting Nurses™ Association of Central Jersey (Monmouth); and Monmouth Family Health Center (Monmouth).

And we are finalizing negotiations presently with three additional providers, which will further increase our capacity to meet the needs of our kids.

Case Practice Model
While there is still significant work ahead, much of our foundation for reform is laid through the fundamentals. Caseloads are down. Brothers and sisters in foster care are now significantly more likely to be placed together in a foster family setting than before reform - though we can do even better. Children are safer as a result of the reform - though again, there is absolutely more progress we can make. We have more than doubled the number of current and former foster youth attending college as part of the Foster Care Scholars program, from 224 in 2005 to 490 this year. And the proportion of children who leave foster care and had to be returned to foster care again has also improved steadily. Twenty-three percent fewer children re-enter foster care within 12 months of leaving placement than prior to reform.

We are ready to move into a new phase, an immense undertaking to change the culture of our practice.  This is the work to implement a new Case Practice Model, which begins next month and focuses on working much more closely with families.

Implementing our new Case Practice Model is probably one of the most important and intensive initiatives that we have taken on in our child welfare reform efforts. 

But in the end, if given time to mature, this work will continue to produce measurable returns that can be seen in improved outcomes in three long-term and primary goals: achieving the safety, permanency and well-being of children.

DCF's Case Practice Model defines how we serve children and families, the expected outcomes of our services, and our guiding principles and expectations. It draws on practices proven in the field and through research to have produced good outcomes for children and families.

To achieve this, the Case Practice Model focuses on improving supervisory conferencing and accountability (supervisory training and coaching); improving the quality of family visitation and family team meetings; improving our use of risk and safety guides to keep children safe; and improving access and development of services to meet children's and families' needs.

Child Abuse Prevention
Some of the most important work we are doing is through programs that prevent child abuse and strengthen families. Governor Corzine is leading the way in supporting a strong statewide network of nonprofit prevention and family support services, working with local partners across the state.

We have established more than 30 Family Success Centers across the state, from Salem to Sussex, to provide "one stop shops" for wrap-around resources and supports for families before they find themselves in crisis.  We are the first state to establish a statewide continuum of these centers, from Sussex to Salem.

We are underway with our Differential Response pilot programs in Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem and Camden counties to provide family support services through grassroots-based, community agencies on a voluntary basis once a family is identified as needing services to prevent harm to children. With Union and Middlesex counties next in line to implement Differential Response along with the first four counties, we are expanding our ability to tackle disproportionately high child poverty and placement rates in key parts of the state, and I hope we will expand this program even further in future years.

I thank all of you for your commitment to our children, and in a special way would like to thank Assemblyman Payne and Assemblyman Gregg for their leadership over many years. Each man is a passionate advocate for children - and you will be missed by children, families and child advocates in your own districts and across the state.