Child Protection Accountability Commission

CHILD PROTECTION ACCOUNTABILITY COMMISSION April 11, 2007 New Castle County Courthouse 12th Floor Conference Room

Those in attendance: Members of the Commission: Statutory Role:

C. Malcolm Cochran, IV, Esq., Chair Child Protection Community 16 Del. C. § 912 (a)(10) Susan Cycyk Dir., Div. of Child Mental Health 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(9) Patricia Dailey Lewis Attorney General’s Office 16 Del. C. § 912 (a)(3) Sgt. Trish Davies Law Enforcement. 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(10) (proxy for Col. Gregory) Allan DeJong, M.D. Medical Community 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(10) Carlyse A. Giddins Dir., Div. of Family Servs. 16 Del. C. § 912 (a)(2) Col. Rick Gregory Law Enforcement. 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(10) – pending The Honorable Chandlee Johnson Kuhn Family Court 16 Del. C. §912(a)(4) The Honorable Melanie George Marshall House of Representatives 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(5) (proxy for Rep. Maier) The Honorable Jennifer Mayo Family Court 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(4) (proxy for Judge Hitch) Joanne Miro (proxy for Sec. Woodruff) Department of Education 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(8) Mariann Kenville-Moore Attorney General’s Office 16 Del. C. § 912 (a)(3) (proxy for Attorney General Biden) Julia Pearce Child Placement Review Board 16 Del. C. § 912 (a)(7) (proxy for William Murray) Alvin Snyder Child Protection Comm. 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(10) Karen Triolo (proxy for Sec. DeSantis) Children’s Department 16 Del. C. § 912(a)(1) Randall Williams Child Protection Comm. 16 Del. C. § 912 (a)(10) (also proxy for Janice Mink)

Staff: Tania M. Culley, Esq. Executive Director Molly Dunson Angela M. Fowler, Esq. Lorin H. Hurst, Esq. Allison McDowell

Members of the Public: Daniel Atkins, Esq. Anne Pedrick Karen DeRasmo Bridget Poulle Gaye Falkowski Phyllis Sculley, Esq. James Maxwell I. Welcome/Introductions

Attendees were welcomed and introduced themselves. Chief Judge Kuhn announced that Judge Hitch would be replacing Commissioner Mayo as the second Family Court CPAC representative. Ms. Miro announced that she has retired but will continue working as a casual/seasonal employee for the Department of Education (DOE) and will continue to represent Secretary Woodruff on CPAC. Mr. Cochran noted that Col. Rick Gregory, the New Castle County Police Chief, was in attendance and stated that the appointment process for the Law Enforcement position on CPAC is moving forward and that he appreciates Col. Gregory attending.

Mr. Cochran informed the group that the FY06 CPAC Annual Report was formally issued to the Governor and the General Assembly and asked anyone who did not receive a copy to contact the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA). He also noted that since the last CPAC meeting, he prepared memoranda outlining CPAC’s legislative priorities, which he forwarded to the Governor, the leadership of the General Assembly, and, because of fiscal impacts, all the members of the Joint Finance Committee. He offered to provide copies of those memoranda to anyone who is interested. Primarily those legislative priorities are Caseloads/Workloads, Extended Jurisdiction (EJ), and Training. Mr. Cochran appeared before the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) on behalf of CPAC to describe the legislation and testified that Delaware’s child protection community needs action in these three areas and needs the financial resources to achieve the desired outcome for children. OCA is following up to secure sponsorship for the Caseloads/Workloads bill and the Extended Jurisdiction bill, and was invited by Rep. Marshall to address the “Kids Caucus” of the General Assembly in May.

Mr. Cochran commended the staff of CPAC for work done, particularly this month, and noted how all of the agencies represented are operating in a child protection system that is incredibly burdened and without sufficient resources. He particularly noted the volume of hearings the Family Court is being asked to handle – 3,248 just involving DFS over the last year.

Ms. Culley distributed a corrected version of the draft Caseloads/Workloads bill. She also distributed CASA statistics to be added to CPAC packets.

II. Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the January 10, 2007 meeting were approved with no changes.

III. New Business

a. CPAC Legislative Initiatives/JFC Presentation

Mr. Cochran explained that he focused exclusively on the three aforementioned initiatives in his JFC presentation because they cost money. When he advised JFC of the number of additional workers CPAC is recommending with the Caseloads/Workloads bill, JFC’s reaction caused some concern, but the explanation of the 3-year phase-in relieved them somewhat. He reported that Rep. Wagner commented that CPAC members are the experts and they should tell JFC what it needs to do.

There followed discussion of CPAC prioritizing its fiscal requests for JFC. Ms. Culley suggested that the Executive Committee work on this issue.

Ms. Culley then addressed the question of whether the positions with the Extended Jurisdiction legislation should be state positions or if they should be contracted out to Independent Living (IL) providers. The primary concern with using contracted providers is whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) would provide legal representation on Extended Jurisdiction cases if a contract provider is in Court. She asked if Pat Dailey Lewis or Mariann Kenville Moore could take that question back to DOJ and then provide feedback to CPAC. The legislation calls for 5 such positions. Ms. Giddins advised that the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (DSCYF) supports contracting out the positions. Julia Pearce expressed concern about workers changing after children turn 18. Ms. Giddins clarified that children would have a case manager through an IL provider prior to turning 18, and that case manager would then continue after the youth turns 18. The contracted providers would serve the entire population of youth aging out of foster care. Ms. Pearce agreed that that would be preferable to Child Placement Review Board (CPRB).

Mr. Cochran and Ms. Culley explained that the two bills presented in January, Caseloads/Workloads and Extended Jurisdiction, had “whereas” clauses added in order to state the case for the legislation up front. Attendees were asked to discuss any comments on the clauses with Ms. Culley after the meeting. Ms. Culley emphasized that the bills are about ready to be introduced and that they just need to finalize the lead sponsors in the General Assembly. She noted that Rep. Maier will prime both bills in the House and that she is working on finding someone to prime them in the Senate; they will then find other sponsors.

Although the substance of the bill was approved by CPAC at the January 10 meeting, there was some discussion about the clause that Extended Jurisdiction services will be lost if an Emancipated Assisted Person is charged with a felony rather than convicted. Chief Judge Kuhn represented the view of the Family Court that this is unjust and may cause problems, and suggested the compromise of changing the clause to say that services will be suspended until the charges are resolved. If they are resolved in the Emancipated Assisted Person’s favor, EJ services will be restored; if not, services will be lost. Ms. Giddins agreed that DFS could support that, and Angela Fowler agreed to help draft language to reflect the change. Because of the fiscal note attached to the bill, it needs to be introduced by May 23, so Mr. Cochran asked and the group agreed to support the compromise and then move forward on the same authority as before, when the legislation was agreed upon in January. Ms. Culley requested that the Court track any individual concerns if the bill is passed, so that CPAC can revisit those issues if necessary. b. Near Death Report

Ms. Giddins thanked the subcommittee for its work but outlined a series of concerns she had with the draft report. Mr. Williams explained the process by which the subcommittee came to the outcome of the report and asserted that the group endeavored to make conclusions drawn from the document and recommendations that were global, objective and not personalized.

It was agreed that Mr. Williams would work with Ms. Giddins to rework one particular piece of the report. Subsequently, a motion was made to release the report subject to agreement on the issues discussed. One person opposed the motion; all others agreed and the motion carried. The report will be embargoed until such time as the changes have been incorporated. c. Division of Child Mental Health Services/CPAC

For the last two meetings, due to time pressures, the Division of Child Mental Health Services (CMH) was not given enough time to discuss what is going on within the agency, so the CMH agency report was moved up on the agenda. Susan Cycyk noted that CMH is increasing the number of children it is serving. Through the Community Policing Project in the City of Wilmington, CMH has received about 500 referrals. The challenges are that CMH front line workers are carrying caseloads of 23-25 children and the providers are having a hard time getting children into the services they need. Ms. Cycyk discussed this system issue at her JFC hearing. She then noted that the information CMH is getting back from the Ohio Scales evaluation tool indicates that children are getting better and that family satisfaction is high. Ms. Culley remarked that she and Ms. Cycyk have spoken about attempting to break out the population of children in DFS custody to see whether the Ohio Scales data for these children is consistent with the findings that they are getting better and that family satisfaction is high. Ms. Cycyk agreed that CMH would try to do this but at the moment was unsure how to go about it. She conceded that there are some issues with CMH’s ability to collect data, but that she hopes the group can be patient and work on this issue together.

Ms. Cycyk then reported that CMH continues to have a low number of crimes committed by children after being discharged from services, but they are having increased trouble keeping children in school. While most children come into services with mental health issues, there has been an increase in the number of children coming in with substance abuse issues. CMH is then able to identify and treat these issues. CMH’s budget request includes one more in-house substance abuse service. There has also been an increase in children coming in through the crisis door. Ms. Cycyk remarked that the Rockford Center just opened a 16-bed unit in Wilmington that will allow adolescent boys and girls to be separated, and that they expect to be able to serve adolescents in Kent County in the near future.

Ms. Cycyk went on to tell the group that CMH was going to go through a five day national accreditation process in the next week.

After discussing what was happening in CMH, Ms. Cycyk reported on the Mental Health Assessments for Children in Foster Care Subcommittee. She explained that the subcommittee’s initial focus was making sure that the mental health screening for children coming into foster care was funded by the General Assembly, got implemented, the kids were screened, and were getting to their appointments. The preliminary data received on whether children were going to their mental health appointments indicated that 73% of the children initially screened by CMH continued through treatment, and that the average treatment has been 7.78 sessions. Ms. Cycyk reported that they would like to see children get to 10 or 12 sessions, because that is when children start to receive the best benefit, but this young project is off to a solid start.

There followed a discussion about re-organizing this subcommittee. Janice Mink and Randall Williams were appointed as new co-chairs, and the name was changed to the Mental and Behavioral Health Services to Children in Foster Care Subcommittee. This subcommittee will replace the Mental Health Assessments for Children in Foster Care Subcommittee, and the Foster Care Subcommittee will be deactivated. The new subcommittee’s charge will be twofold:

1. To examine how mental and behavioral health services are delivered to foster children and make recommendations as necessary for change; and 2. To examine the continuum of providers, services and resources for same and make recommendations as necessary for change.

It was suggested that membership of this committee consist of the following:

Mariann Kenville Moore or another designee from Victim Services; A designee from Family Court; Susan Cycyk or another designee from CMH; Tania Culley; A designee from DFS; A designee from DOE; A policy maker and a frontline worker from CMH, DFS and DOE; and A designee from law enforcement.

Alvin Snyder and Julia Pearce also requested to be part of the subcommittee. IV. Special Committee Reports

a. Legislative Subcommittee

Lorin Hurst reported that the Legislative Subcommittee met and reviewed about 20 bills that required determination as to whether or not they were within CPAC’s purview and whether or not CPAC should support them. Those, along with any bills introduced between this meeting and the legislative meeting on May 23, will be presented to CPAC one at a time at the legislative meeting.

Additionally, the Subcommittee reviewed the draft legislation for three bills. The Subcommittee voted to support the Caseloads/Workloads bill after removal of the word “careful” before “consideration;” they also voted to support the Mixing bill with no changes. The Subcommittee had some concern over the Extended Jurisdiction bill about the standard the Judges are to employ when reviewing EJ cases; when they review youth in foster care the Family Court holds DFS to a reasonable efforts standard, and there was a suggestion that there should be some guidance as to what the standard of review ought to be in these cases. Ms. Hurst relayed this concern to Angela Fowler.

The next meeting of the Legislative Subcommittee was scheduled for May 18, from 9:00-11:00, on the 3rd floor of the New Castle County Courthouse (NCCCH).

Ms. Hurst then turned the discussion over to the presenters for the Legislative Subgroups.

i. Custody Subgroup

The Subgroup is hopeful to have a draft to the Legislative Subcommittee perhaps by May 18 or to CPAC on May 23.

ii. Definitions Subgroup

Prior to Dan Atkins presenting on the Definitions Subgroup, Chief Judge Kuhn reported that the Family Court enlisted Patricia Hearn to email each individual Judge to get their feedback on proposed legislation, with the desired outcome of being able to accurately represent the Family Court’s position on all legislation. She asked that anyone with drafts of legislation should email them to Ms. Hearn in addition to Commissioner Mayo and Judge Hitch. Dan Atkins then presented the changes of the Definitions Subcommittee to the Definitions legislation since the January 10 meeting of CPAC. The definition of “abuse” has not changed, and clearly distinguishes between the elements of abuse that will require “care, custody, and control,” and the one element, sexual abuse, which will not. For the definitions of “dependency” and “neglect,” a provision was added to the last sentence of each that would allow the Court to consider history when making a determination as to whether a child is dependent or neglected.

In the definition of “neglect,” clause B(2) allows for findings of neglect based on chronic and severe abuse of alcohol, with an out for anyone who is actively compliant in treatment.

Lastly, the definition of “necessary care” was kept identical to the definition of “adequate care” and only the name was changed from “adequate” to “necessary.”

Representative Marshall asked for clarification on the term “active” in clause B(2) of the definition of “neglect,” whereupon Mr. Atkins submitted that “active” implies compliance and participation. Ms. Culley further clarified that even if a person is determined to be active in drug or alcohol treatment, a finding of neglect may still be rendered under clause B(1).

The group agreed that the plan going forward would be to recognize that the Subgroup’s work is concluded; that Ms. Culley would draft the bill using these definitions; and that the bill would be submitted to the Legislative Subcommittee at its next meeting and would ultimately be submitted to CPAC at the May 23 legislative meeting.

Ms. Culley and Mr. Atkins also offered to speak to any Judges who had additional questions or concerns about the legislation. Ms. Giddins added that if this legislation is passed, there will be a joint training with DFS and Family Court on the new definitions. iii. Mixing

Jim Maxwell presented the work of the Mixing Subgroup. The draft legislation was distributed and Mr. Maxwell summarized it. The Legislative Subcommittee supported this draft with no changes. Family Court also supports the draft legislation, but recommended changing the numeral 2 to the word “two” in lines 115 and 116.

Ms. Culley asked the three Division Directors to work together to plan for children moving between divisons; Ms. Giddins replied that they are already working together to address this issue.

There followed discussion about the provision for allowing adjudicated youth to be placed in Residential Treatment Centers (RTC) without a Court Order or Division Director’s consent. The Subgroup asserted that they explored this issue and decided it was alright. Ms. Cycyk noted that CMH supports this bill because it eliminates delay and does not withhold children from the treatment that they need. She committed that CMH would reach out to RTC providers to be sure they are comfortable with this legislation. It was also noted that Child, Inc. was represented on this Subgroup and supported the legislation.

The group agreed to informally support the legislation, with the exception of the concern over the RTC exclusion. The Children’s Department’s support of the legislation was pledged. Mr. Cochran will send a courtesy copy of the draft bill along to Senator McDowell, who authored the original Mixing legislation. This legislation will then be re-visited at the May 23 legislative meeting. b. Near Death

There was no further discussion of the Near Death Subcommittee. c. Training

Prevent Child Abuse Delaware was commended for its work on the first Child Abuse and Neglect 101 training, which was held in New Castle County and attracted over 50 participants. The second session will be held at the Duncan Center in Kent County on May 21 and 22. A third will be held in Sussex County on September 19 and 20. These sessions were accredited for continuing legal education for attorneys, and OCA’s volunteer attorneys were notified of this. d. Abuse Intervention Committee (AIC)

Mariann Kenville-Moore reported that the Abuse Intervention Committee has a number of subcommittees; most important to CPAC is the Medical Subcommittee. The AIC submitted surveys to the medical community in the state on what kind of training they would appreciate and most benefit from in the area of child abuse and neglect reporting. The AIC will use that information to develop trainings for medical professionals.

The Medical Subcommittee has discussed some of the concerns in the Green Near Death Report that is soon to be released and will bring recommendations to the Child Death Near Death Stillbirth Commission (CDNDSC) and to CPAC as well.

Ms. Kenville-Moore noted that the next Finding Words training was scheduled for May 7-11 at the Virden Center in Lewes, DE.

She then went on to talk about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the police, DFS, the Children’s Advocacy Center, and the Department of Justice. She reported that they hoped to have signatures by the summer and to begin training by the fall.

The AIC has also been working on Mandatory Reporting and hoped to have something to present at the May 4 joint meeting between CPAC and the CDNDSC. They have been looking at the current penalties for failing to report child abuse and how to implement that part of the statute. The group is looking at initiating this through civil action rather than through criminal action.

e. ASFA Timelines

This committee had nothing to report.

V. Agency Reports and Statistics

Mr. Cochran noted that at the July meeting, Agency Reports will be moved up on the agenda so that agencies are not shortchanged on their reports.

a. Interagency Committee on Adoption

Mary Lou Edgar was not present at the meeting so there was no report.

b. Family Court

Chief Judge Kuhn noted that Justice Holland has been assigned to assist Family Court in the Court Improvement Project. Additionally, Justice Jacobs will become more involved as the liaison for Family Court.

c. Attorney General’s Office

Patricia Dailey Lewis reported that she would be replacing Pete Feliceangeli as the CPAC Commissioner for the Attorney General’s Office. She distributed the statistics for the first quarter of 2007, and noted that they are significantly ahead compared to the first quarter of last year. The total number of cases for New Castle County was about 600 in the first quarter of this year, and was 960 statewide, compared to 784 last year. She then informed that group that the Family Services unit of the Civil Division had an additional Deputy Attorney General (DAG) assigned in New Castle County. The additional DAG is Kemp Vye. The growing number of cases the unit is responsible for illustrates that the addition of another DAG was necessary.

d. Child Placement Review Board

This agency had nothing to report.

e. Children’s Advocacy Center

Mr. Williams reiterated that there were still slots available for the upcoming Finding Words training. f. Department of Education

Joanne Miro reported that the MOU between DOE, the school districts, and DSCYF on child abuse reporting is in its final stage.

g. Division of Family Services

Carlyse Giddins thanked those who testified at the JFC hearing for DSCYF, and stated that once again it was illustrated that child welfare in Delaware does not rest solely with DFS.

She reported that DFS has an active process in place for foster care recruitment and marketing. DFS has reached out to faith based organizations, and beginning in May, 2,500 door hangers will be delivered throughout the state to areas from which they are receiving the most reports, encouraging people to become foster parents.

h. Law Enforcement

Mr. Cochran again conveyed his appreciation to Col. Rick Gregory, Chief of New Castle County Police, for being at the meeting.

i. Office of the Child Advocate

Ms. Culley noted that OCA is currently representing 729 children, 684 of whom are in the legal custody of the Children’s Department. She also reported that there are 142 children in the state with no legal representation, 27% of whom are in Sussex County. OCA is working with DFS and CASA in the hopes of decreasing the number of unrepresented children in DFS custody. The OCA statistics also show the averages of the Family Court Judges and the DAGs.

Ms. Culley also told the group about a national organization, First Star, that looked at Delaware’s legal representation of children in foster care and was unhappy with Delaware’s system. Mr. Cochran explained that the criticisms of First Star were systemic in nature and based on Delaware’s statute, and were not directed at Delaware’s frontline workers or the lawyers who provide representation to the children. Copies of the First Star report were distributed to the group.

VI. Next CPAC Meeting Dates

The next meeting dates are:

May 4, 2007 – 3:00 PM – Joint Meeting with Child Death (CDNDSC) at the Appoquinimink State Service Center May 23, 2007 – 9:00 AM – Annual Legislative Meeting at NCCCH, 12th Floor July 11, 2007 – 9:00 AM – Quarterly Meeting, location to be determined October 10, 2007 – 9:00 AM – Quarterly Meeting, location to be determined

VII. Public Comment

There was no public comment.

VIII. Adjournment

There being no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned shortly after 12:00 noon.