Child welfare oversight changes advance
A bill seeking changes to oversight of the state’s child welfare system advanced from general file April 9.
Lincoln Sen. Kathy Campbell, sponsor of LB269, 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 state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has been a good home for the commission, Campbell said, but the entity needs a greater sense of independence.
“The department has gone out of their way to make the children’s commission welcome and to give them a good start,” she said.
Campbell said additional provisions in LB269 would increase Nebraska’s Title IV-E funding opportunities from the federal government and provide greater stability to the state’s child welfare system.
The bill would require 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.
A Health and Human Services Committee amendment, adopted 34-0, made technical changes to the bill and added a tribal representative to the children’s commission. In addition, the Inspector General for Nebraska Child Welfare would be made a member of the Child Death Review Team and a nonvoting, ex officio member of the Nebraska Children’s Commission.
The amendment also would require determination regarding eligibility for Medicaid coverage for state wards and removed a provision of the bill that would have required joint training of caseworkers and onsite, unannounced verification of child welfare services provided by private contractors.
Campbell said the joint training of caseworkers and verification provisions were removed due to cost concerns and an acknowledgement that more study should be done to determine best practices for private contractors.
Omaha Sen. Heath Mello said adoption of the amendment would eliminate three quarters of the bill’s attached fiscal note.
Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha supported the bill and the amendment, saying DHHS is a large and complex agency that has required a great deal of structure and assistance from lawmakers in order to carry out its functions properly.
“It has taken this kind of oversight to try and bring that focus back to that department, this state and to this Legislature,” Krist said.
Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash agreed. Speaking in support of the bill, he said a lack of direction and oversight regarding the state’s child welfare system was the impetus for creating the Nebraska Children’s Commission last year.
“It was the lack of those two things that got us to where we had to add this commission in the first place,” Coash said.
Following the 31-0 adoption of a technical amendment offered by Campbell, senators voted 34-0 to advance the bill to select file.
