RELEASE: October 23, 2003

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In unprecedented effort, DYFS visits 14,000 children

The Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) has conducted face-to-face safety assessments on more than 14,000 children in foster care since June to comply with an agreement settling the class-action lawsuit brought by Children’s Rights Inc. DYFS has also and hired 497 new employees over the last four months as part of its efforts to improve the child welfare system.

DYFS submitted a report today to Children’s Rights detailing the state’s progress in fulfilling the terms of the settlement, which was signed June 23. The lawsuit, Charlie and Nadine H. v. McGreevy, was filed against the state in August 1999.

The safety assessments were conducted by DYFS and various agencies acting on the state’s behalf, an unprecedented effort to visit and evaluate all 14,393 children in substitute care, including nearly 700 children placed in homes and institutions outside New Jersey. The 14,393 children had been removed from their natural homes and placed in foster homes, relatives’ homes, residential treatment centers and other institutions, shelters and group homes.

The overwhelming majority of the children, 14,306, were deemed safe, but DYFS noted safety concerns for 87 of them. Of those children, 31 were immediately removed and placed elsewhere. The remaining 56 children were kept in placement after DYFS developed plans to ensure their safety.

“This was a massive undertaking necessary to ensure the safety of children.” said Department of Human Services Special Deputy Commissioner Colleen Maguire. “If we are to protect children, we must be able to remove them from abusive situations and put them into places where we know they are safe.”

“The task wasn’t easy. Many people, from DYFS and our community agencies, put in many, many extra hours and efforts to make this happen. I would like to thank each and every person who helped us make this happen. This is the first full assessment of all the children ever conducted in New Jersey. It is a landmark effort.”

New policy dictates that, effective immediately, children in out-of-home placement will undergo safety assessments at established intervals and the DYFS Quality Assurance Unit will monitor the results.

DYFS also announced that the state will expand safety assessments to include an additional, more comprehensive risk assessment – which attempts to look beyond a child’s current status by accounting for risk factors such as alcohol or drug abuse and domestic violence.

The report to Children’s Rights also noted that DYFS has hired 497 new employees since June 23, including 257 caseworkers and 114 direct supervisors.

Still, nearly 80 vacancies remain, and DYFS implemented strategies to accelerate the hiring process and to recruit more experienced staff.

For example, DYFS and department staff are jointly assessing prospective candidates and then referring them to the appropriate regional office for interviewing. So far, this effort has identified 124 qualified candidates for the open caseworker positions. In addition, DYFS is planning a mass interview session on Nov. 15 in a central location, in the New Brunswick area, to screen 150 candidates for positions in the central and metropolitan regions.

DYFS will improve recruitment and retention efforts by amending the current requirement that all new caseworkers serve 12 months as “trainees.” The new rule will allow workers with prior child welfare experience to be promoted from trainee status after six months and ultimately will end the trainee requirement completely for newly hired caseworkers with child protection experience.

The settlement agreement also required DYFS to review several facilities, including the state-operated Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center. Brisbane, a psychiatric hospital that cares for about 40 children aged 11 through 17, has been a target of frequent criticism by child advocates and the parents of children at the hospital.

Three independent mental health professionals and representatives of the DHS Office of Licensing and the Institutional Abuse Investigations Unit conducted a two-day unannounced review at Brisbane last week. The team found that the facility was safe when it was reviewed but determined that some corrective actions were needed.

Specifically, the team raised concerns about the physical plant, the training of the staff, and self-destructive and sexual behavior by the patients that occurred due to staff training deficiencies. Brisbane must submit corrective action plans within the next 30 days, and the review team plans to revisit the facility to follow up. This corrective action plan – as well as those for other reviewed facilities -- will be closely monitored and each facility will be subject to regular, unannounced inspections , said Maguire.

Recently, Commissioner Harris asked the newly appointed Child Advocate, Kevin Ryan, to initiate his own broader and more far-reaching independent review of Brisbane.

The report also outlines specific actions the state has taken to:
• streamline the purchase of supplies and equipment for DYFS workers, especially new hires
• dramatically expand specialized foster care placements for infants and for older children with behavioral problems
• change employment regulations to encourage people with child protection or related backgrounds to become DYFS caseworkers
• help keep workers safe by implementing a buddy system and hiring additional Human Services Police assigned to local offices.

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