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need to not only fund for full funding, but we need to fund for beyond that,” Caringi said. “The system needs improvement right up to the federal level.”
The way the child protection system is set up now allows for tragedies to occur, he said, because there are holes and gaps due to its crisis-driven nature. Corbally agreed with Caringi’s assessment, saying the child welfare system needs to be more preventative in nature.
“The federal system is funded with the focus on reacting after a child has already been abused and neglected,” Corbally said.
During his survey work, Caringi said he found many positives as well, such as dedicated workers and administration.
Montana’s relatively small population could offer an opportunity to bring about real change in the system, he said.
“In order to create a system that would protect more children, we have to dedi- cate more resources as a society,” Car- ingi said. “That could be Child and Fam- ily Services, but they’re limited with what they can do. It has to be all of us.”
At the most recent session, the Leg- islature increased funding to the CFSD by more than 7 percent, bringing the division total to more than $133 million. This included $3.3 million for additional staff members to handle child abuse and neglect cases.
This, Corbally said, is a good start, but isn’t enough.
“I don’t think it’s enough to solve the amount of child abuse and neglect in this state,” she said. “I also think within the department, we’re trying to make efforts to do some across-the-division collabo- rations aimed at doing more prevention work.”
Rep. Ron Ehli, R-Hamilton, the chair of the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee and member of the House Appropriations Committee during the 2015 Legislature, took umbrage at the idea that CFSD is under-funded, saying the staffing prob- lem in Kalispell is more likely the result of poor management.
“At some point in time, the adminis- tration has got to stop blaming the Leg- islature and the funding sources,” Ehli said. “I’m on appropriations and I’m going to stand strong that this is not a legislative problem. This is an adminis- trative problem.”
Ehli said the department’s requests for more money to pay for staffing are hard to meet, considering the high number of open job positions the department can’t keep filled.
“This is not a funding problem,” he said. “Your inability to keep staff has got something to do with internal operations, and not the Legislature.”
Corbally disagreed with Ehli’s assess- ment, noting that her division had to build its own tools to update to the mod- ern age, such as the caseload reporting system, and the average social worker in Montana is carrying two to three times the recommended average caseload.
“UNFORTUNATELY, FOR DECADES OUR CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES SYSTEM HAS BEEN OVERBURDENED AND UNDER-RESOURCED, COMPROMISING THE ABILITY OF FRONTLINE WORKERS TO EFFECTIVELY DO THEIR JOBS.”
- GOV. STEVE BULLOCK
Gov. Steve Bullock
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
“When the Child Welfare League says 10 cases and four investigations, you can look at our workers who have 15 cases and 20 investigations,” Corbally said.
There were some bills aimed at CFSD that did gain traction during the session. House Bill 612 created a new pilot pro- gram that would use meetings facilitated by a court diversion officer to informally resolve cases prior to filing an abuse and neglect petition. And in 2013, the Leg- islature created the Office of Child and Family Ombudsman within the Depart- ment of Justice to review and investigate complaints of how DPHHS handled child abuse or neglect cases.
Another failed bill from the 2013 ses- sion will also come back into play this fall. During the 2013 session, Rep. Caro- lyn Pease-Lopez, D-Billings, attempted to pass House Bill 75, which would have required DPHHS to undertake accredi- tation for child and family services and produce an annual report on the accred- itation process.
The bill died in the Human Services Committee, but the committee asked the Legislative Audit Committee to conduct a performance audit of the CFSD. That audit should be available before the end
Tf the year.
he Kalispell office should expect to see more workers soon, Corbally said, and Gov. Steve Bullock’s office
has been working with CFSD to address
child welfare issues.
“We’ve been in close discussions with
the governor’s office because this is a pri- ority,” she said.
On Sept. 21, Bullock announced the new Protect Montana Kids Initiative, which will focus on immediate system improvements, system reviews, and stat- utory recommendations for the 2017 Legislature.
Bullock said the immediate improve- ments would include increasing the capacity and skills of frontline workers by hiring 33 additional staff, continuous evaluations and improvements of train- ing, and building a new electronic system to improve case management. The ini- tiative will also bolster supervision and oversight of frontline workers by allevi- ating caseloads for supervisors, thereby freeing them up to prioritize oversight responsibilities, and develop a formalized process for monitoring compliance with statutory and regulatory timelines.
Another immediate improvement will be the use of evidence-based practices to provide statewide consistency in investi- gation assessments.
“One of our most important obliga- tions is to protect child victims of abuse and neglect. Unfortunately, for decades our child and family services system has been overburdened and under-resourced, compromising the ability of frontline workers to effectively do their jobs,” Bull- ock said in a prepared statement. “Today,
I’m announcing a series of improvements to this system to better serve children and families across Montana. These improve- ments are an important step as we con- tinue to work to find ways to bolster this system.”
Bullock also announced the creation of the Protect Montana Kids Commission through an executive order. The commis- sion’s purpose will be to make recommen- dations on aligning the Montana child protection system with national stan- dards and “best practices in the field of child welfare.”
Corbally also said the division is taking steps to improve training and securing funding from the Legislature, as well as making the jobs in Montana more attrac- tive, potentially through mobility options or pay increases.
At the local level, the former child wel- fare workers said they hope the Child and Family Services Division can pull itself together, because the work they did and could do is such an important aspect of keeping the community safe and healthy.
Piorek, the former supervisor in Kalispell, said she hopes the community doesn’t lose faith in the CFSD, and that the issue will resolve soon.
“My wish is that (CFSD) can find the sweet spot for the sake of the children and the families,” Piorek said. “It’s a commu- nity and we all want it to be healthy.”
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SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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