Senate Bill No. 655
(By Senators Prezioso, Caruth, Foster, Unger and Plymale)
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[Introduced February 19, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §49-10-1, §49-10-2,
§49-10-3, §49-10-4 and §49-10-5, all relating to creating
performance-based outcomes to measure sufficiency of service
delivery of child abuse and neglect cases by the Department of
Health and Human Resources; providing intent and findings;
setting forth performance measures; providing reporting
requirements; providing rule-making authority; setting out
alternative approaches; and establishing timelines.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §49-10-1, §49-10-2,
§49-10-3, §49-10-4 and §49-10-5
, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 49.
MANAGEMENT OF CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT
CASES
.
§49-10-1. Legislative intent and findings.
(a) The Legislature is committed to providing for the
well-being of children and families of the State of West Virginia.
Securing a future for some of our most vulnerable
citizens, those
involved in abuse and neglect proceedings, has proven to be a
daunting and on-going effort for the Legislature. To continue to
safeguard these children and families, the Legislature recognizes
that the Bureau for Children and Families needs a more coordinated,
performance based and goal-driven approach to delivery of services.
The most recent federal review of West Virginia's child
welfare program yielded unsatisfactory results, with the state
failing to be in substantial conformity with any measurement used
in the review. The review, however, provides a tool with which to
measure a state's service delivery. These federal outcomes reflect
performance objectives for child welfare practices. The outcomes
are geared toward a reduction in the occurrence of child abuse and
neglect, an increase in permanency for children in foster care
placements, an emphasis on reunification and alternatives to
placement in group homes or institution settings.
Providing benchmarks to create measurable outcomes is
essential to ensuring that all children receive more rapid
permanency placements, placements that present a safe environment
and an emphasis on the totality of a child's needs.
(b) The Legislature finds that adopting an approach to measure the state methods of management of cases of child abuse and neglect
that is grounded in the measures established by the federal
government would best provide a framework in which to gauge program
strengths and weaknesses and would provide the Legislature with
sufficient empirical data to make informed decisions about the
sufficiency of the delivery of child and abuse services.
§49-10-2. Definitions.
For purposes of this article the following terms have the
meaning assigned them in this section:
(1) "Case management" means the administration and care of a
child's case within the child welfare system by an individual or
team that includes coordination of all necessary elements to
increase permanency for children in foster care placements, provide
an emphasis on reunification and alternatives to placement in group
homes or institution settings.
(2) "Child and family service review"
means the evaluation
program within the federal government's Department of Human
Services' Administration for Children and Families for assuring
state compliance with titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security
Act.
(3) "Child welfare program" means the program within the state
Department of Health and Human Resources that has responsibility
for management of child abuse and neglect matters.
(4) "Commission" means the Legislative Oversight Commission for Health and Human Resources Accountability established in
article twenty-nine-e of chapter sixteen of this code.
(5) "Department" means the West Virginia Department of Health
and Human Resources.
(6) "Performance review" means an accountability system which
establishes benchmarks to evaluate and determine the effective and
efficient performance of the child welfare program.
(7) "Performance measures" means effects or results of
effective operation of a child welfare program.
(8) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Department of
Health and Human Resources.
(9) "Substantial compliance" means a finding by the federal
Child and Family Service Review Team that measures the performance
of state child welfare programs that the state's child welfare
program performance is satisfactorily acceptable in reaching their
federally required performance measures.
§49-10-3. Reporting requirements.
(a) Performance review and performance measurement are
valuable tools for identifying serious program progress and areas
of concern within the delivery of services provided by the child
welfare system. As a result, the Secretary of the Department of
Health and Human Resources shall conduct a biennial performance
review of the child welfare services for which it has oversight
using Child and Family Services Review as a guide and measuring the outcomes and progress of the state child welfare program against
federal outcome standards: Provided, That the secretary may
conduct a performance review at any time he or she determines a
performance review to be necessary.
(b) The results of the performance review set forth in
subsection (a) of this section shall be reported to the Joint
Committee on Government and Finance and the Legislative Oversight
Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability biennially.
The Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources
Accountability shall access the results of performance review and
performance measurement. These results shall be used by the
commission as a guide in making recommendations for further
legislative action to improve the performance of the child welfare
program.
§49-10-4. Required performance outcomes; rule making.
In conducting the performance review the secretary shall
measure outcomes using the federal index of outcomes, systemic
factors and associated items used by the Child and Family Services
Review Team to measure program performance. The secretary shall
propose rules for legislative approval in accordance with the
provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to
set forth the performance review measures required in this article
and the manner in which the system shall be improved so as to meet
the required federal outcomes. These rules shall include:
(1) Utilization of the federal index of outcomes, systemic
factors and associated items developed and used as a measure by the
Child and Family Service Review Team as a means of measuring
program performance;
(2) A strategy to move a child in the care of the state to
permanency and pursuing strategies and programs that place a
priority on reuniting families and children;
(3) Creation of a process and strategy for assessing youth
placed out of state, identifying needed community services for
their return to the state, and initiating discharge plans for the
actual return as soon as appropriate;
(4) A plan for joint action with the Department of Education
to ensure that all children in out of home care receive education
services;
(5) A means of privatization, as required by section five of
this article, of elements and components of the child welfare
program that are not in substantial compliance with the federal
performance measures;
(6) The manner in which the department shall oversee program
elements of privatization, including quality control of the
privatized elements; and
(7) Anything additional considered necessary by the secretary
to meet the requirements of this section.
§49-10-5. Alternative approaches; timelines.
(a) When either the Department of Health and Human Resources
or the commission identify a problem and determine, through a
performance review or regular monitoring of performance measures,
that the federal outcomes continue not to be met and the child to
be welfare program remains seriously impaired, the department shall
pursue alternative approaches to service delivery. These
alternatives shall include:
(1) Appointing a team of private sector improvement
consultants to conduct on-site reviews and make strategic
recommendations to the commission and the department toward remedy
of the serious impairments;
(2) Directing that case management efforts, including adoption
and foster care services, of the child welfare program within the
department be privatized either on a county-by-county basis,
regionally or statewide, depending upon direction from the
commission and based upon the extent of the need to immediately
address the impairment as identified by the performance review:
Provided, That any contract to privatize portions of the child
welfare program shall adhere to all requirements of the purchasing
division as set forth in article three, chapter five-a of this
code; and
(3) Recommend continued monitoring of the child welfare system
and to set standards for staffing, reporting, training, time frames
and case processing standards.
(b) Neither the Legislature or the department may take any
action set forth in subsection (a) of this section until receipt of
the results of a federal performance review conducted by the Child
and Family Services team in two thousand eight.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish performance
measures for the state child welfare program. The bill sets forth
reporting requirements to the Legislature, establishes timelines,
requires privatization of program components that do not meet the
performance measures and grant rule-making authority to the
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources to
accomplish the goals of the article.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.