Welfare Watch - January 25, 2010 - Kenny A Monitoring Reports Faulty Data

The Atlanta Constitution and the Children's Rights Press Release headlines scream, Foster children experiencing ‘high' rate of abuse and neglect.

The Kenny A Monitor's  report  in fact gave the State high grades for its continued progress.  For 27 out of 29 measures,  the State's performance was similar to or surpassed its best previous achievement.  Georgia is doing a good job, according to the Monitors of complying practice policy, in its investigative practices.  Investigations are timely and foster parents are not using corporal punishment.  A majority of the children in care are achieving permanency with their families or new families.  Fifty percent of the children that entered care since the consent decree have achieved permanency within 12 months or less.  About a third fewer children are reentering foster care once they leave the care of the State.  Foster children are placed closer to their homes; they are placed with their siblings and visiting their parents and siblings more often.  Permanency and connectiveness are, it would seem from the data, to be a priority for Georgia. 

Georgia is doing a better job in its infrastructure for the care of foster children.  Children are in more stable placements; they have their case managers longer; they are seen more often by their case managers and the case managers are doing a better job of identifying needs and meeting those needs.  Virtually all children are in approved placements, which are not overcrowded, and receiving supporting Federal reimbursements.  Caseloads are down and 89% of the caseloads are meeting consent decree standards. 

Faulty data and ambiguous definitions caused the deficiency in this Monitor's report.  The Monitors found erroneously 25 out of 2348 foster children sustained "substantiated maltreatment during the time period."  Maltreatment as defined by the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is serious harm (neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse or neglect) caused to children by parents or primary caregivers.  What Georgia often calls "substantiated maltreatment" does not rise to this level of definition.  A child running away from a facility with adequate supervision is not neglect, yet it was substantiated as neglect by Georgia's child welfare agency.  A behaviorally disturbed child committing self harm was identified as  "substantiated maltreatment" in this report.  Several of the "substantiated" incidents in these reports reflect children committing developmentally expected, but harmful acts. 

While no one wants any child harmed, children will get hurt in the process of growing up.  Providers will do everything in their power to prevent any harm.  As any parent knows, children get hurt in spite of our best efforts.  When children do get hurt, it does not mean that the parent was abusive nor even neglectful.  If the standards of the last reporting period were placed on all parents in Georgia, almost all children in Georgia would be in foster care.  The only way any parent could meet the standards of the last reporting period would be to lock up a child in a padded cell.  Children have the right to live in the least restricted environment while balancing their safety needs. 

Since this report, Georgia has made progress in resolving many of its data problems.  Regular provider meetings (called G-Meetings) held by the Office of Provider Relations and Utilization, Georgia's Contracting Division, has helped.  Providers and DFCS compare the data to the reality on the ground.  This has helped identify the problem areas in the data.  The data is being processed to reflect accurately the actual state of child care in the private sector.  For example, Georgia's first report about private agency compliance to provider regulations, showed a 50% compliance rate.  Within three months of working with providers around the accuracy of the data, compliance was shown to be above 95%. 

The Georgia data system continues to get Georgia into trouble.  The data used to monitor its performance often is not up to the demands placed on it.  The Kenny A Period VII Monitoring Report for the first half of 2009 generally gives the State excellent marks for showing significant progress in the care of its foster children in Fulton and DeKalb Counties.  Where the report gives failing marks is exactly where the State does a poor job of collecting accurate data and collecting data that accurately reflects what the Monitors are seeking to report.

The headlines should laud the progress that the State and the private child welfare providers have made in meeting most of the goals of the Kenny A Consent Decree, keeping kids safe in care and moving them to safe and permanent homes.

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                            Normer Adams, Editor
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