RELEASE: February 25 , 2004

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DYFS Closes Cases on 4,000 Children Who No Longer Need State Intervention

The Division of Youth and Family Services closed 1,104 cases last week and a total 4,188 over the past month, clearing more than two-thirds of 6,000 backlogged cases involving children who appeared to be safe and no longer in need of supervision, Acting Human Services Commissioner James Davy announced today.

Davy, speaking during his weekly press briefing, stressed that the cases are being reviewed closely by about 360 DYFS supervisory staff before they are closed.

“Children’s safety is our paramount concern, so we are proceeding carefully,” Davy said. “These were all cases which probably would have been closed long ago but our workers were unable to complete all the necessary steps because of the growing numbers of children on our caseload. Closing these cases is an important step toward a manageable workload for our employees.”

Clearing the 6,000-case backlog was one of seven immediate action steps that Davy announced on Jan. 14 to improve DYFS while state officials continued drafting a comprehensive reform plan for the child welfare system. That plan was submitted last Wednesday to Children’s Rights Inc. – the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against DYFS – and an expert child welfare panel overseeing child welfare reforms in New Jersey.

Davy offered the following progress report on the six remaining immediate actions:

• Expedite the Licensing Process and Add 100 New Foster Family and Treatment Homes

Status: The Department has licensed 181 new homes this year. In addition, a “parallel track” licensing system has been implemented, allowing home studies on some foster parents while they continue participating in foster parent training.

• Increase transportation and child care services to ensure that foster children do not spend their days in DYFS district offices.

Status: All four DYFS regional offices have transportation aides and contracts with child care providers and after-school programs so that children have alternative places to go. In January, typically two to four children spent significant amounts of time each day in DYFS district offices. Last week, DYFS recorded an average of one child per day. All of those children were teens. Davy said this illustrates the lack of foster placements and programs for older children, a need that will be addressed in the larger reform effort.

• End the practice of allowing newborns to remain in hospitals after they are medically cleared to leave.

Status: Of the 21 “boarder babies” in New Jersey hospitals on Jan. 14, only one remains in a hospital. All told, there are 15 boarder babies statewide as of today. Two veteran DYFS workers continue working in the Newark area – which has about 75 percent of the state’s boarder baby cases – to target this problem. Last week, five family team conferences were held in Newark to discuss active boarder baby cases. In all five cases, a relative was identified to provide a home for the child. Background checks and home studies are underway. Staff members of eight contracted agencies have been trained to conduct immediate home studies on family members willing to take boarder babies home. Those agencies are: Tri-city Peoples Corp.; Family Connections; Multi-cultural Inc.; Newark Family Resource Network; Plainfield YMCA; Children and Family Services; Independence; and the ARC of Hope.

• Redo safety assessments of 6,000 children in out-of-home placement.

Status: To date, 1,507 DYFS workers and 638 community agency staff members were trained in the new assessment protocol. Three additional training sessions are scheduled. DYFS workers and their community agency counterparts have held 65 pre-assessment conferences and completed 17 assessments through the end of last week. No safety concerns were noted in those assessments. The community agencies were contracted to accompany DYFS staff to ensure the assessments are thorough and accurate.

• Bolster foster parent recruitment and retention.

Status: The Hispanic Information Center – which has a contract to develop 10 foster-care beds for Spanish-speaking children – has identified three potential foster homes in Hudson County. Training will begin next week. In addition, DYFS has submitted a larger plan to the child welfare panel outlining efforts to recruit resource homes in targeted communities. DYFS is awaiting the panel’s response.

• Expedite medical examinations of children going to foster homes and other placements.

Status: Pediatricians are available in all 21 counties to examine children going into foster care and other out-of-home placements, and DYFS continues to work on hiring 10 new nurses to handle medical screenings for children moving from one foster placement to another. To date, 19 DYFS offices – half the DYFS field offices in the state – have allocated private space to conduct medical exams. The remaining offices are still working to identify appropriate space.

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