June 16, 1997General
The SRS Commission of Children and Family Services, with direct assistance from the KU School of Social Welfare, has fully privatized the state's adoption, foster-care and family-preservation services. In the process, Kansas has become a model for the rest of the nation, as local and state governments wrestle with the best methods of fixing what many consider a broken system.
"No state agency has all the talent and manpower to do what needs to be done. The university doesn't have it all, either," said Charles A. Rapp, associate dean for the School of Social Welfare. "The talents of the university, when blended with the state agency, make for a very good marriage."
Two of the primary roles for the university have been to provide training for the contracting private agencies and assisting SRS officials in measuring the outcomes development procedure - or how well the system works.
According to Rapp, the collaboration between the state agency and the university benefits Kansas far better than anything the two could do themselves. In this case, he said, families needing support will directly benefit.
"Our goal is permanency for the child," said Terry D. Moore, director of child welfare training and support services at the KU School of Social Welfare. "Privatization has been a trend around the country on a local level, but Kansas was the first state to implement this program on a statewide level."
One of the long-term goals, Moore said, has been to develop a system to strengthen the families and children needing support. The changes, he said, are based on a new vision of partnership between the public and private sector.
For example, family preservation services that had been provided by the social and rehabilitation services department are now contracted to private agencies on an individual-case basis. These contractors in turn have established subcontracts with other community agencies to provide a comprehensive network of services for families and children.
"In the early stages of this initiative, it was feared that large private, for-profit, managed-care companies would come in and take over child care in Kansas," Moore said. "What has happened is that the major private nonprofit child welfare agencies are the major contractors."
Federal and state funds have been combined to provide a single one-time fixed rate per child paid to the contractors.
This method of funding "eliminates the traditional barriers and restrictions presented by multiple funding sources and is expected to lead to more creative, effective and efficient program services and approaches," Moore said. "It's our hope that local partnerships and community ownership will be strengthened in this initiative."
Under the previous system, services were contracted on a fee-for-service basis with no real incentive for moving a child out of the system. Now, Moore said, services are contracted on a regional basis at a fixed rate.
By using the new format, children who remain in the system for long periods will end up costing the private agency money. So it is in the agency's best interest to work with individual families and children and focus on the end result - permanency for the children.
"This frees the contractor to create new and more effective approaches to serving families and children without many constraints," Moore said. "SRS staff will continue to play a central role in the child welfare system, but this streamlined approach strives to have a single SRS social worker for the life of each individual case."
The privatization program was implemented July 1, 1996, with all new family preservation cases referred to the individual contractor on regional basis. On Oct. 1, 1996, adoption services were taken over by Lutheran Social Services of Oklahoma and Kansas Inc., which assumed responsibility for serving all children in SRS custody whose parents have lost parental rights to them.
The foster care program was implemented in February 1997, with three contractors - Kaw Valley Center Inc., Kansas Children Service League and United Methodist Youthville Inc. - responsible for the state's five regions.
"This is a major system change, and it's going to take a year or so to see if it is really working," Moore said. "Foster care has just gotten started and that's the big one. But indicators look very good."
Story by Dann Hayes, (785) 864-8855