The 2010 Salary & Fringe Benefit Survey Summary Report will reflect data current as of January 31, 2010, including a compilation of actual salaries of approximately 5,000 employees across 71 job classifications within 40 Michigan private, nonprofit child and family service agencies, presented geographically: statewide, SE Michigan counties and counties outside of SE Michigan.

This 120+ page report will include statewide aggregate data, plus four breakdowns of the General Information, Fringe Benefits, Staff Turnover Report, and Salaries Report by size of agency. This amount of detail allows for a close comparison among similarly sized organizations as agencies consider their own employee compensation packages.

This annual report is one of the many benefits of Full Membership in the Michigan Federation for Children and Families; there is no extra charge for participation and a copy of the summary report.

The 2010 report will be available to non-participating non-members for $200 per copy; $150 per copy for Affiliate and Individual Federation members.

Send your request and check to: Michigan Federation for Children and Families, 320 N. Washington Square, Suite 100, Lansing MI 48933. The printed report will be sent directly to you as soon as it is available.

This report, submitted pursuant to 1997 PA 170, § 9, provides an overview of the review board’s functions and program activity details from this past year. Included are data, trend summaries, and observations gleaned by the board during 2009 from the review of cases involving over 1,300 children in foster care. These reviews were conducted by 200 dedicated and well-trained citizen volunteers. The information obtained from case reviews provides an objective, third-party evaluation of the care that Michigan’s foster care system provides to abused and neglected children.

This year’s report and recommendations address significant issues related to achieving safe and timely permanency for children in foster care, particularly in the area of parent-child reunification.

The Foster Care Review Board (FCRB) is a program established by the legislature to provide third-party review of foster care placements and related matters. There are 30 local review boards throughout the state, comprised of citizen volunteers. For those who are not familiar with the program, complete information can be found at
http://courts.michigan.gov/scao/services/fcrb/fcrb.htm

The Dwayne B. v. Granholm consent decree requires DHS to develop and implement a statewide Quality Assurance (QA) program, directed by a QA Unit established within the DHS central office. The Child Welfare QA Unit has been established as a division of the Child Welfare Improvement Bureau to ensure the provision of service in accordance with DHS philosophy. The Child Welfare QA Unit’s aim is to foster a continuous quality improvement (CQI) culture throughout DHS by introducing CQI concepts to all levels of the child welfare system, training staff on improvement processes and integrating CQI philosophy into long-term and everyday decision making. The QA unit has developed an internal capacity to undertake data collection, verification, and analysis in addition to case record reviews for the higher risk cases identified in the consent decree.

After the submission of the CQI plan in April 2009, the QA Unit began to conduct special reviews as specified by the consent decree. The Data Management Unit (DMU) provides an initial list of identified cases for the high-risk categories. The QA Unit reviews each identified case in the Foster Care Services Worker Support System (SWSS-FAJ) to pre-screen for possible data errors, and ensure that the case meets the cohort definition. The DMU and the QA Unit will continue to refine the querying process to the fullest extent possible.

The QA Unit completed special reviews for Period Three: October 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. This report is a summary of the findings for the special case reviews conducted for during this period.

The Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS) is responsible for administering the state’s child welfare program. The DHS mission includes a commitment to ensure that children and youths are safe; to sustain a higher quality of life; and to give children in DHS permanent and stable family lives. The DHS Children’s Services Administration is responsible for planning, directing and coordinating statewide child welfare programs, including social services provided directly by DHS via statewide local offices and services provided by private child-placing agencies.

A settlement agreement was signed July 3, 2008 and a final consent decree was entered on October 28, 2008. Since then, DHS has made significant strides to improve the quality of service to children and families in the child welfare system by reducing caseloads for its workers, moving more children to permanency, reducing the number of children in out-of-home care, launching a continuous quality improvement system, increasing oversight of contracted providers, and developing extensive data reporting capabilities.

The consent decree requires DHS to ensure that qualified and competent individuals conduct a fatality review independent of the county in which the fatality occurred for each child who died while in the foster care custody of DHS. The fatality review process is overseen by the Office of Family Advocate.

This report was prepared in response to a request from Page Walley, Casey Family Programs Managing Director for Strategic Consulting, for an analysis of the privatization efforts of Kansas and Florida. Kansas and Florida were chosen because they are the only two states that have privatized all child welfare services – other than investigations – statewide.

Following a review of the recent literature on child welfare privatization, including independent evaluations, government reports, and state assessments, nine interviews were conducted with private provider staff from Kansas and Florida directly involved with the privatization initiative
and a national consultant on privatization in the target states. The state’s perspective was primarily captured through interviews with current private providers who worked for Florida’s Department of Children and Families at the time of the transition to privatization, as well as information compiled during a March 2009 Casey Family Programs visit with Florida state leadership.

The report includes contextual information on privatization across the states, historical background on the Kansas and Florida initiatives, a summary of challenges and lessons learned during the transition process, the benefits of privatization, and performance and fiscal outcomes. Appendix A provides a table comparing the key components of the two privatization models.

Report from Chapin Hall: Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth
http://chapinhall.org/research/report/midwest-evaluation-adult-functioni...

Mark E. Courtney, Amy Dworsky, JoAnn S. Lee, Melissa Raap, Gretchen Ruth Cusick, Thomas Keller, Judy Havlicek, Alfred Perez, Sherri Terao, Noel Bost
2010

The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (Midwest Study) is a prospective study that has been following a sample of young people from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois as they transition out of foster care into adulthood. It is a collaborative effort involving Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago; Partners for Our Children at the University of Washington, Seattle; the University of Wisconsin Survey Center; and the public child welfare agencies in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

The Midwest Study provides a comprehensive picture of how foster youth are faring during this transition since the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 became law. Foster youth in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois were eligible to participate in the study if they had entered care before their 16th birthday, were still in care at age 17, and had been removed from home for reasons other than delinquency. Baseline survey data were collected from 732 study participants when they were 17 or 18 years old. Study participants were re-interviewed at ages 19 (n = 603), 21 (n = 591), and 23 or 24 (n = 602). A fifth wave of survey data will be collected when study participants are 25 or 26 years old.

For background and current status of the federal Adoption Tax Credit, download the attached Adoption Advocate newsletter issued by the National Council for Adoption.

Additionally, these sites are listed for your convenience:

• The IRS tax topic can be viewed at http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607.html
• The entire IRS publication is available at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p968--2002.pdf
• Forms referenced in the newsletter can be accessed at:
  http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html?portlet=3
  http://www.ssa.gov/online/

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics has just released a report titled Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09, compiled by Allen J. Beck, Ph.D., Paige M. Harrison, and Paul Guerino, BJS Statisticians.

This report presents findings from the first National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC), representing approximately 26,550 adjudicated youth held nationwide in state operated and large locally or privately operated juvenile facilities. Overall, 91% of youth in these facilities were male; 9% were female. had rates between 25% and 30%; and 3 had rates between 20%
and 25%.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79) (PREA) requires the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to carry out a comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidents and effects of prison rape for each calendar year. This report fulfills the requirement under Sec. 4(c)(2)(B)(ii) of the Act to provide a list of juvenile correctional facilities according to the prevalence of sexual victimization.

Between June 2008 and April 2009, BJS completed the first National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC) of 166 state-owned or operated facilities and 29 locally or privately operated facilities. The survey, conducted by Westat (Rockville, MD), was restricted to juvenile confinement facilities that held adjudicated youth for at least 90 days. Facilities were excluded if fewer than 25% of the youth in the facility had been adjudicated, the facility held fewer than 10 adjudicated youth, or if the facility was locally or privately operated and held fewer than 105 youth. All state facilities holding 90 or more youth were included.

Download the report here: Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09

A resource for anyone involved in child protection proceedings, this comprehensive manual walks the reader through every stage from preliminary hearing to post-termination review.

Each chapter includes:
• The purpose of that stage
• Key questions to consider
• A checklist of roles and responsibilities

Excerpts of pertinent state and federal law are included along with an appendix of State Court Administrative Office forms.

This publication was developed by representatives of the courts, Department of Human Services, Michigan Child Welfare Law Resource Center, Michigan Association of Court Appointed Special Advocates, Michigan Foster Care Review Board and Michigan Indian Legal Services.

To see the online version go to: www.childcrt.org. Hard copies are still available for purchase. Go to www.childcrt.org/pub for pricing and order information.

The Right Start in Michigan 2009 report, released today, finds that Michigan has improved in six of eight areas when it comes to maternal and infant well-being. It reports substantial reductions in births to teens, repeat births to teens and prenatal smoking.

Click here to view the report.

On June 24, 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan released a comprehensive report that examines the severe disciplinary policies and practices that push children permanently out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system. “Reclaiming Michigan's Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School-to-Prison Pipeline documents and analyzes data from 40 Michigan school districts that shows how the frequent use of suspensions and expulsions contributes to our high drop-out rate and how these suspension practices hit African American students the hardest, putting them on a high-risk path to incarceration. During the 2006-2007 school year in the Ann Arbor School District, black students received 58% of all suspensions despite making up only 18 percent of the secondary school population.

This trend is reflected in school districts statewide. The study found that one significant contributor in Michigan's school-to-prison pipeline is the lack of due process for students in suspension and expulsion hearings. Unfortunately, due process policies and procedures to remove students from Michigan's public schools vary from district to district. To combat this problem, the ACLU recommends uniform statewide procedural protocols for the discipline of students that ensure students accused of misconduct have full and fair opportunities to explain their actions and otherwise defend themselves. In addition, Michigan's zero tolerance expulsion law, which is broader in scope than federal law requires, also contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline. Federal law requires that states receiving federal education funds must enact a law mandating one-year expulsions of students who posses firearms. However, Michigan's law goes a step further and requires the expulsion of students who possess a “dangerous weapon.

Two new Child Trends briefs draw on research across the fields of college readiness, workplace readiness, and youth development to identify the skills and competencies high school students need to master for future success. The briefs also highlight strategies that high schools can use to help students develop these skills.

A Developmental Perspective on Workplace Readiness: Preparing High School Students for Success
This brief highlights specific competencies in the areas of social, cognitive, and psychological development that research has identified as necessary for a person to become a valued and skilled employee.  It also identifies strategies that high schools can use to help young adults develop these competencies.

A Developmental Perspective for High School Practitioners on College and Workplace Readiness
This brief identifies gaps in current high school curricula; suggests how high schools can modify curricula to help students attain the skills they need; and highlights practices that are particularly effective for students facing specific challenges.

Click on the title to download the full report:

Elements of Promising Practice in Teen Fatherhood Programs: Evidence-Based and Evidence-Informed Research Findings on What Works

Compiled by: Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Ph.D, Mary Burkhauser, M.A., Allison Metz, Ph.D.

Introduction
The timing of the onset of fatherhood is a powerful predictor of the paternal role and is likely to determine men’s levels of involvement with their partners and children (Parke, 2001). Early entry into fatherhood is often viewed as a non-normative event and an accelerated role transition (McCluskey, Killarney, & Papini, 1983; Parke, 2000).

Click here to download the full report:Race Equity Review: Findings from a Qualitative Analysis of Racial Disproportionality and Disparity for African American Children and Families in Michigan's Child Welfare System

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
National data show that African American children and families are disproportionately represented in almost all child protective systems in the United States. Once involved with these systems, African American children are more likely to be removed from their homes, spend longer periods of time in out-of-home care, and oftentimes their families have less access to relevant and helpful social services.

In a courageous step to examine racial disproportionality and disparity, the State of Michigan's Department of Human Services (DHS) undertook to have their policies and protocols analyzed by a team of national experts, local leaders, and stakeholders. This team, led by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, designed and implemented a qualitative Race Equity Review (Review) to assess the institutional features of Michigan's child protective system that directly produce or contribute to racial disproportionality and disparity.

Click here to download and view the Michigan Foster Care Review Board's 2007 Annual Report.

The Foster Care Review Board program was established by the legislature to provide third-party review of foster care placements and related matters. There are 30 local review boards throughout Michigan, comprised of citizen volunteers from various backgrounds.  Complete information about the Foster Care Review Board program can be found here.