Foster Kids

A word about SB 5943 and HB 2106

Every state provides child welfare (foster care) services through a combination of public and private agency collaborations. Washington is no exception. Currently on average throughout the state, 28 percent of the child welfare services are provided by private agencies, with the rest provided by the Children’s Administration (CA), under the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).

There are three issues with the current service delivery. First, DSHS and CA currently contract with private agencies per service. That results in approximately 1800 individual contracts that CA must monitor. Also, Washington’s average length of stay for foster care children and youth is about 536 days (in 2007). This is a longer than average length of stay. Lastly, although CA continues to work on reducing child fatalities for children in foster care, child deaths continue to happen. Addressing these and other child welfare issues requires new ways of doing things.

Many states and cities have had success with performance-based contracting. Instead of 1800 individual contracts, private agencies would contract to provide all of the necessary child welfare services in a particular region. They would be able to provide more flexible, client-directed services. The flexibility in services would permit the agency to save money which could be reinvested for prevention services. Most importantly, CA could require specific outcomes (like shortening the length of stay in care), which would move foster children and youth out of the state system much faster.

SB 5943 takes a dramatic step towards making this happen. The state would continue to provide all of the initial child protective services investigation and licensing work, but over time all case management functions would move to private agencies. An oversight committee would be put in place to work out the implementation details. This is a different approach than Rep. Kagi’s bill, HB 2106, which requires selecting demonstration areas and a community dialogue so that implementation of performance-based contracts can happen in a more measured way to get to the same goal.

The House and Senate are hearing both bills. No one approach has been adopted. Yet the time is ripe for a change in how child welfare services are delivered.