The past several years we have seen a disturbing and growing pattern of children in the foster care system having to stay overnight in a hotel with their caseworker, in a Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) office or a one-night “emergency” placement in a foster home. Each of these situations is a problem. Children who have experienced the level of trauma these young people have experienced need a safe and stable place to live, with a safe and stable caregiver who can provide the level of care they need. They also need a level of therapy that is not typically available in hotels.
Additionally, the stays are expensive and disruptive to the normal functioning of DCYF offices and result in increased turnover of caseworkers – all negative factors. In 2017, the agency estimated the cost of a hotel or office stay at about $2,100 per night, which includes the cost of the hotel room ($150) and staff and security overtime ($1,950).
An occasional hotel stay is not a particular issue, as it is sometimes more disruptive to the child to organize a foster home placement in the middle of the night, but repeated one-night placements are dysfunctional. The number we have today is a systemic problem we are working to fix. All of our efforts include eliminating disparities in outcome by race in how the system works.
Read the full article on the DCYF website.
Gov. Inslee announced that most students in Washington should resume remote learning this fall, which means that the majority of parents will need to continue balancing work and child care. The work of our agency is focused on children, youth and families impacted by these decisions, but it also touches home for many of you as parents or caregivers. Parent or not, we are all concerned about what will happen this September to our families and children. Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers at this point.
Existing Child Care Market
There are about 1.2 million kids in Washington between birth and 12 years old, the typical age when kids need child care. About 64% of those kids are in households where all the adults work. That means more than 700,000 kids potentially need care. The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) licenses roughly 187,000 child care slots, and 46,000 of those are currently closed due to the pandemic. The reality is that there are going to be a whole lot of kids needing care, and it won’t be possible to make the system five times larger in the next month.
Read the full article on the DCYF website.
DCYF's Juvenile Rehabilitation (JR) strives to make communities safer and help youth and young adults returning from confinement to become productive citizens. Successful reentry is based on a strong, culturally-responsive continuum of care and support, effective treatment services, comprehensive education, vocation and employment programs and more.
In accordance with House Bill 2116, a task force was recently established by the Legislature to improve institutional education programs and outcomes in Washington State.
The goal of the Education Task Force is to design a program of education that gives students the opportunity to graduate with a meaningful diploma. I serve on the task force alongside staff from JR facilities. Read my letter to the task force.
TVW recently hosted a virtual work session for the Improving Institutional Education Programs & Outcomes Task Force. The task force heard experiences from youth in institutional settings, provided an overview of ESHB 2116, selected co-chairs, discussed the role of school districts in supporting institutional education and more.
Watch the video. |
