February 12, 2007
Dear Fellow Nebraskans:
This week I want to take this opportunity to provide an update on progress made during the past several months to improve the state’s management of cases involving state wards and children in our foster care system.
I issued several directives to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last summer with the intent of reducing the amount of time children spend in state care and improving the management of child welfare cases in Nebraska, and I am pleased to report that we started seeing progress almost immediately.
The reform I announced last June directed HHS to put an immediate priority on resolving the cases of young children, children who have already spent a significant amount time away from home, and children who are living safely at home but whose cases remain active.
As a result, 1,184 cases were identified as high-priority cases by HHS, and during the past several months we’ve monitored these priority cases in two groups, the first being children between the ages of zero and five who have spent 15 or more of the last 22 months in state care. Of the 566 cases in this category, 30 percent were closed by the end of 2006.
The second group involved 618 children who had never been removed from their homes or had been living safely at home for more than six months, but who had not yet been released from state care by a juvenile court. By the end of December, HHS had resolved 55 percent of these cases.
Between these two groups of high-priority cases, more than 500 children have been reunited with their families, 135 were adopted and others were placed with guardians. Identifying the high-stakes cases involving young children in particular and working to resolve those cases has helped reduce the total number of state wards.
The number of state wards had declined from an all-time high of 7,803 children last April to 7,212 children by the end of December, and the fact that the high-priority cases represent 85 percent of all the cases closed since May 2006 tells me we identified some key areas on which to focus our attention. It also is an indication to me that the ability to resolve some of the challenges we face can be found in working more closely with our partners in the child welfare system.
In addition, since last summer there have been more children were leaving Nebraska’s child welfare system than entering it. It has been three years since HHS closed more cases than it received, and such a sustained period has not been seen in at least the last five years.
This is one of the most important things we can do as a state, and I want to recognize the hard work of our protection and safety workers in communities across the state. The success we’ve seen during the last several months is a reflection of their hard work and commitment to children in need in our state. In addition, this kind of progress would not have been possible without the reforms already begun under my predecessor, Gov. Mike Johanns, and the work taking place in our courts system under the leadership of Chief Justice John Hendry and now Chief Justice Michael Heavican.
I want to emphasize that we are far from finished. I am determined that we can do a better job of achieving a permanent resolution for the children entrusted to our care, and the positive results we’ve seen so far should provide encouragement as we continue making improvements to Nebraska’s child welfare system.
The bottom line is that I believe better performance is within our reach, and this is just the start of what I hope will be lasting reforms here in Nebraska.
