The Number Of Ჹɲʻ Children In Foster Care Dropped To Lowest In Decades
Department of Human Services officials attributed the steady decline to reforms. High caseloads and staff shortages continue.
The number of children in foster care in Ჹɲʻ hit a 20-year low last year, an encouraging development for the troubled state Child Welfare Services Branch.
CWS acknowledges in a newly released report that it isn’t sure what caused the recent drop, but believes it is largely due to “a shift in mindset among staff” as the system moves ahead with federal and local reform efforts.
“Ჹɲʻ is relieved that the number of children in foster care has been declining, but CWSB is not confident that this number will continue to decline,” according to the latest CWS .
Agency officials dismissed the possibility that fewer children in the system could be attributed to staffing shortages in the agency. However, the report confirmed staff vacancy rates, especially for workers who assess troubled children and families, are dramatically higher than a few years ago.
The foster care population has been declining for four years including fiscal year 2023, ending June 30, 2023, the most recent year covered in the report. The total number of children in foster care that year dropped to 1,959, a little over one-third of the 5,207 children in the system two decades earlier.
Vacancies Among Crucial Caseworkers
The report shows 37% of caseworker positions in the Child Welfare Services Branch vacant in February, a modest improvement from the year before.
“Most experts in the field consider direct caseworker positions to be the most essential to child welfare work,” according to the report. “Ჹɲʻ is currently attempting to do its work with only 63% of these vital positions filled statewide.”
Even more alarming are vacancies in the ranks of assessment workers, those responsible for investigating reports of abuse or neglect. The statewide vacancy rate for assessment workers was 46% as of February.
CWS is seeking extra funding this year from lawmakers to boost salaries to help recruit and retain the critically important child welfare caseworkers.
The voluminous data in the progress report assesses several aspects of Hawai’i’s child welfare system as the state Department of Human Services struggles to implement some pieces of the initiative.
The document also sets the stage as lawmakers consider the ambitious Mālama ʻOhana Working Group Report, which urges an array of changes in the system.
Recent Deaths Increase Public Scrutiny
In recent years the department has been excoriated by critics following deaths and abuse of children who had open CWS cases or who had been in the system in the past. The solicited ideas for improving the system from people who had direct contact with it, including current and former foster children, their biological parents, social workers and foster parents.
Elladine Olevao, branch administrator of the Child Welfare Services Branch, traced the foster care population decline in part to the launch of Family First Hawai’i, which “has been a shift in applying resources to children to keep them safely in the home.”
“If we can achieve that, that is what we will do first, that is our priority,” she said. “Our children should remain safely if at all possible within their family homes.”
The , passed by Congress in 2018, prompted Hawai’i to launch its Family First Hawai’i initiative.
A major component of Family First is leaving children in their homes instead of removing them, and supporting their families with substance abuse treatment, mental health services and parenting training. CWS expects to receive about $5 million a year in federal reimbursements for Family First Ჹɲʻ.
Olevao attributed the decrease in numbers of children in foster care in recent years to "collaboration and more training around safety decision making, and really the paradigm shift that children can remain safely at home, that that's what the priority is going to be."
'Lived Experience' Incorporated Into Department Policy
The department cites a number of other changes in Hawai'i's child welfare system in recent years that may also help explain the decline foster care population.
Daisy Hartsfield, administrator of the Social Services Division of DHS, said CWS also had to learn during the pandemic to partner more efficiently with community-based social service agencies, which has helped. "We learned that we needed to partner better," she said.
Another factor cited by the department has been extra emphasis on trauma-informed training for staff. Olevao said the department is also incorporating the views and voices of people who have gone through the system into the department's training and policy making.
That lived experience "has been valuable for us to really step back and look at what we're doing and how we can do our work better," she said.
Hartsfield does not believe the decline in the number of children in the foster care system in recent years can be attributed to staff shortages.
"I think the assessments being made are still appropriate and valid, and kudos to the workers," Hartsfield said. "Being short-staffed, they are still making assessments that can be validated with the tools that we use to determine safety issues."
Olevao said every report is evaluated, and those that are deemed appropriate for investigation will be investigated. Even if there is a shortage of assessment workers, also known as investigators, a trained permanency worker steps in to handle that responsibility.
"Reports don't get pushed to the side waiting for an assessment worker," she said.
Caseloads Remain High
The vacancy rate in the ranks of the CWS social workers remains a concern and the caseloads for child welfare social workers in Hawai'i are far above national standards.
The last two progress reports showed overall vacancy rates for all positions in CWS at 30% or more, a dramatic increase from previous years and more than double the 14% CWS vacancy rate in 2021.
The vacancy rate for the CWS assessment workers who must investigate complaints is far higher, at 46%. The report explains: "The intensity of emotions that arise during a CWS investigation from parents and children, particularly when an assessment worker decides to take a child into foster care, can wear on a worker, making their job particularly stressful and therefore difficult to fill and retain."
The report also notes average caseloads in child welfare are very high, comparing it to a standard set by the Child Welfare League of America of 12 to 15 children per worker, which translates into a caseload of six to eight cases per worker.
The average caseload for Ჹɲʻ's CWS workers last March was 34. Caseloads were far higher in Maui County, which averaged 51 cases per worker, and in East Hawai'i with an average of 49, according to the report.
Ჹɲʻ's CWS system has no policy regarding a maximum number of cases that a worker may carry.
Hawai'i's hard-pressed assessment workers fared even worse, averaging 53 cases statewide, according to the report. Oahu assessment caseworkers had an average of 48, while the average for assessment workers in Maui County was 80 cases.
"These high average caseloads are due to an elevated vacancy rate among assessment positions," the report found, and challenges assessment workers have in "finding time to close inactive cases."
Hartsfield said Hawai'i CWS cannot continue to manage these levels of vacancies and caseloads indefinitely.
"No, we cannot," she said. "We need more workers, and that has been why what we've been focusing on is recruitment and retainment."
CWS was given about $1 million to pay "shortage differentials" to its social workers two years ago, money that runs out on June 30. The department will be asking lawmakers this year for $3 million to boost pay for social workers and support staff to help recruit and retain staff, she said.
"I believe the current workforce is able to maintain the safety of children," Hartsfield said, "but if we had a more stable and robust workforce, we would be able to do many other things to help support these families."
