RELEASE: November 30, 2005

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The DHS Office of Children's Services submitted a plan to the child welfare reform panel today pledging to create 200 new front-line positions, retrain all current front-line staff during the next year, and recruit more than 450 new foster homes by June 30, Commissioner James M. Davy announced.

Davy said the corrective action plan was drafted to supplement the state's initial response to a court motion by Children's Rights Inc. asking U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Chesler to declare an emergency and order immediate relief. The state and Children's Rights met several times with a mediator, but discussions broke down earlier this month.

“The plan we submitted to the panel makes significant new investments and reaffirms our priorities. We remain committed to fixing this system,” Davy said. “If the plaintiffs still insist on going back to court, we welcome the chance to discuss this plan with Judge Chesler.”

Deputy Commissioner Kathi Way said the plan focuses primarily on a few key actions, especially adding staff to reduce caseloads to manageable levels and to implement strengthened case practice.

Average caseloads among DYFS workers have dropped about 30 percent since June 2004. In addition, the proportion of the workforce with caseloads of 30 families or more has dropped from 28 percent to 5 percent.

Still, the caseloads need to be reduced further, Way said, so 200 front-line DYFS staff will be hired early next year, filling positions that become open in January due to the closing of the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center . The new hires are on top of the accelerated hiring of 156 new caseworkers approved this summer.

Together, those moves will ensure that DYFS will be able to meet caseload standards by September 2006, Way said.

In addition, the state for the first time has committed to retraining its entire workforce to introduce or reinforce new case practice models.

A curriculum for the training is being developed and will be submitted to the panel for its approval by Dec. 31. Under the plan, front-line supervisors will be retrained by June 30, 2006 , and caseworkers by Dec. 31, 2006 .

Another key action step would require the state to recruit 450 new unrelated foster homes between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2006 , and show a net increase of at least 50 homes during that time period.

During the first year of the reform, the Office of Children's Services greatly exceeded a pledge to recruit more than 1,000 new resource homes. However the net increase was about 600 homes, and that was due primarily to an increase in children being placed with relatives.

This year, DYFS will focus more on recruiting unrelated foster homes to ensure that workers have greater capacity to place children quickly in appropriate foster homes near their neighborhoods.

Also, the plan pledges a 50-percent reduction in children placed in out-of-state residential centers for care they could be receiving in New Jersey . Currently, 228 children are in such out-of-state treatment. The plan requires a reduction to 150 children by December 2006.

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