Family to Family in Cuyahoga County

The following article was published in the Columbus Dispatch:

COUNTY LEADS CHILD-WELFARE REFORM
Cuyahoga County becomes national model for treatment of abuse cases
Wednesday, July 26, 2006 NEWS 03B
Associated Press

A program that is changing how child-welfare workers handle cases of abuse and neglect has found success in Cuyahoga County and has become a model for children services departments across the country.

For years, social workers would decide if a child was in danger, then send him to a foster family in another neighborhood or another city.

The process angered parents and while it protected children, it cut them off from school, friends and family.

The Cuyahoga County children services is utilizing a program called Family to Family that gives parents input in helping to determine what's best for the child.

The program was started in 1992 by the nonprofit Annie E. Casey Foundation, which has been helping disadvantaged children, especially those in foster care, since 1948. Casey wanted to reverse the trend of more children going into foster care while fewer adults signed up to serve as foster parents.

The foundation chose six child-welfare agencies, including Cuyahoga County's, in five states to test new ideas. It took years for the county to phase in Family to Family and work out flaws. During that time, the other original agencies dropped out or politics slowed their progress.
Fourteen years later, it's still a work in progress. Jim McCafferty, director of Children & Family Services, is quick to say that it's not perfect.

"You did not enter Oz," he told visitors to Cuyahoga's child-welfare offices last week. "We have child fatalities. We have budget issues. We have the same problems you have wherever you've come from."

Family to Family is based on principles of keeping foster children as close to home as possible, so they can go to their own schools, maintain friendships and spend time with their birth parents when it's appropriate.

Parents who are about to lose custody are invited to a meeting and can bring along their ministers, relatives or friends. The child may attend too if he or she is old enough.

The county brings in social workers, supervisors and a facilitator, trained to make sure the meeting stays focused on what's best for the child. Each issue is discussed openly and everyone sits in while the decision is made.

Numbers show the results. The county had custody of 6,237 children in 2001. That dropped to 2,876 by June 30 this year. It happened while the number of abuse and neglect complaints remained steady.

In 1992, 39 percent of teenagers who came into the county's care were placed in group homes or other institutions instead of with relatives or foster parents. That figure was 14 percent in 2005. Children sent out of state for treatment plummeted from 98 in 2001 to four this year.

Cuyahoga County officials have expanded the approach to help children with serious emotional disorders. They have plans to extend it further by the end of the year with help from a $9.6 million federal grant to include children who are in trouble with the law and those with drug and alcohol problems.

"You have a model there in Cleveland that you can be proud of. And it's revolutionizing how people are treating children and families," said Matt Bennett, director of community-based services at Denver Children's Home in Colorado, during a recent visit to Cuyahoga County's children services.

Caption: Dale Omori The (Cleveland) Plain DealerAfter a year and a half apart, Jeffrey and Rhonda May, seated, were reunited with their children thanks to the help of Cuyahoga County's Family to Family Program. Daughter Barbara, left, and son Jeffrey, standing second from right, lived in foster care for 18 months before the program, hailed as one of the nation's finest, brought the family back under one roof. Barbara holds her daughter, Amari.