Foster care placement, other child welfare changes proposed

The Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Jan. 31 on two bills seeking changes to the state’s child welfare system.

LB269, sponsored by Lincoln Sen. Kathy Campbell, would make several changes to the state’s child welfare system. Campbell said she introduced the bill in response to reports and studies completed as a result of legislation passed last session, and an interim study conducted by the Health and Human Services Committee.

Among other provisions, the bill would make the following changes to the Nebraska Children’s Commission:

• move the commission to the Foster Care Review Office;
• hire a child welfare policy researcher to support the commission’s work; and
• add the director of the Foster Care Review Office and the Inspector General of Child Welfare as voting members of the commission.

The bill also would require the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to:

• apply for federal reimbursement of costs associated with the Nebraska Juvenile Service Delivery Project;
• establish new foster home licensing requirements to expand the use of child-specific, relative and kinship placements;
• secure evidence of financial stability from entities that subcontract with the department to provide child welfare services;
• develop a policy for reimbursement of all allowable foster care maintenance costs under Title IV-E; and
• develop and implement a uniform training program for all case managers, whether employed by DHHS or an agency under contract with the state.

Campbell said the changes would increase Nebraska’s Title IV-E funding opportunities from the federal government and provide greater stability to the state’s child welfare system.

Sarah Helvey of Nebraska Appleseed testified in support of the bill, saying improvements to oversight and accountability are critical to continued reform efforts.

Helvey noted the bill’s support of prioritizing kinship placement of state wards, saying children who have been traumatized benefit greatly from being placed in a home with someone they know.

“This has been a key issue for [advocates] for several years,” she said.

The committee also heard testimony on LB265, sponsored by Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash, which focuses solely on facilitating placement in homes where at least one caretaker is known to the foster child.

Currently, all foster homes in Nebraska must be licensed. LB265 would exempt kinship and relative homes from the licensure requirement. A kinship home is defined in the bill as one in which a primary caretaker previously has lived with or had significant contact with the child being placed.

Under the bill, kinship and relative homes would be subject to criminal background checks of all adult residents and a home visit to ensure adequate housing. In addition, the bill would allow DHHS to issue a waiver for any nonsafety licensing standard for a kinship or relative home seeking licensure.

Coash said relatives and family friends of children entering the foster care system are interested in assisting a particular child and may not be able to invest the time and effort required to gain formal licensure as a foster care provider. He said the top priority should be reducing the amount of disruption in vulnerable children’s lives.

“This bill is about reducing trauma,” he said. “We can’t erase the trauma of whatever the root cause of the removal was … but we can reduce it.”

Sarah Forrest of Voices for Children in Nebraska agreed. Testifying in support of the bill, she said the state needs to do more to encourage kinship placements.

“Licensure should never be a barrier to placing a child in the best possible home for them,” she said.

No opposition testimony was given on either bill and the committee took no immediate action.