THE
DIVISION OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
The
Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
DCFS is committed to protecting
children and preserving families. Every
child deserves to grow up in a permanent family. The primary and preferred way of achieving this goal is to
provide families experiencing turmoil with services to prevent the need to
place children outside their home. When
a child must be separated from his family, DCFS will provide a safe environment
and will make efforts to provide services to reunite the family or to find the
child a permanent home.
DCFS has an administrative
agreement with the Arkansas State Police to provide an around-the-clock
statewide intake process for accepting reports of alleged child
maltreatment. In State Fiscal Year
(SFY) 1999, 18,657 reports of abuse and neglect were accepted for
investigation. A uniform protocol is
used for screening and prioritizing all allegations of child maltreatment. Of these 18,657 reports of abuse and
neglect, 564 could not be completed because the family could not be located and
305 were still pending at the end of the fiscal year. Of the 17,788 assessments completed, 5,775 were determined to be
true and 12,013 were unsubstantiated.
This unit serves as the repository of
all child maltreatment reports. The
Child Maltreatment Reporting Act requires that a statewide central registry be
established within the Department of Human Services (DHS) for the collection of
information relative to the child maltreatment reports. The registry contains identifying data,
dates and circumstances of any persons requesting or receiving information from
the registry. There were over 30,097 registry checks made in SFY 1999.
Arkansas
State Police Family Protection Unit
In 1997, DHS and
the Arkansas State Police entered into a contractual agreement. This agreement formed the Family Protection
Unit (FPU). The FPU is composed of
three sections: 1) the Child Abuse Hotline, 2) civilian employees who assess
child maltreatment reports, and 3) a law enforcement unit which conducts
criminal child maltreatment investigations.
The FPU maintains an around-the-clock statewide intake process (The
Child Abuse Hotline) for accepting reports of alleged child maltreatment. A uniform protocol is used for screening and
prioritizing all allegations of child maltreatment. The FPU’s civilian employees assumed the investigative
responsibility for any allegations involving placements managed, approved or
licensed by DHS for the care of children that include day care homes, DHS
foster homes, residential facilities and pre-adoptive homes and any allegations
of maltreatment involving schools or DHS employees. The investigative responsibilities also include child
maltreatment allegations on the following Priority I reports: abuse with a
deadly weapon, bone fractures, brain damage/skull fracture, burns, scalding,
death, immersion/suffocation, internal injuries, oral sex, poison/noxious
substances, sexual contact, sexual exploitation, sexual penetration and
subdural hematoma.
DCFS
County Staff
Staff housed in DHS county offices assesses allegations of child maltreatment in which the perpetrator is in the home and not the specific responsibility of FPU. DCFS staff in the county office has primary responsibility for assessing an allegation of child maltreatment and seeks to ascertain the existence, cause, nature and extent of child maltreatment, the existence of previous injuries and the names and conditions of other children in the home. DCFS remains primarily responsible for ensuring the health and safety of the children, even if the primary responsibility for the investigation belongs to the Family Protection Unit. DCFS has the responsibility for the assessment of Priority II reports. In addition, DCFS investigates Priority I reports of abandonment, failure to protect, medical neglect of disabled infants, non-organic failure to thrive, non-organic malnutrition and substantial possibility of severe maltreatment.
The purpose of services is to provide the child with a continuous, safe and stable living environment, promote family autonomy, strengthen family life where possible and promote the reunification of the child with the parent, guardian or custodian, when applicable.
THE DIVISION OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
(continued)
DCFS does this by opening up services
case files. When there is no abuse or
neglect present, but a family requests services, DCFS opens a Supportive Services
case. In SFY 1999, DCFS served 1,387
children and their families.
When an investigation is determined to
be true, DCFS opens a protective service case and works with the child(ren) and
family in the home or, if the abuse is severe, DCFS places the child in a safe
and home-like setting. In SFY 1999,
DCFS served 6,757 children and their families.
Of those, DCFS placed 5,129 in substitute care settings: Kinship Care, Foster Care, Therapeutic Foster Care,
Residential Care, Shelters, etc.
All children deserve a permanent home. One option is to terminate parental rights to free a child for adoptive placement when it has been determined to be in the best interest of the child. In SFY 1999, there were 305 children placed in adoptive homes. Of those placed, 275 were determined to be special needs. In SFY 1999, there were 9 adoption disruptions.
When a child has been removed and needs
a foster home replacement, DCFS places the child in an approved foster
home. The approval process ensures that
a potential foster parent attends training and meets health, safety, and
physical requirements and satisfies other standards outlined in the Standards
for Approval of Foster Family Homes. In SFY 1999, there were 271 new foster homes approved, resulting
in a total of 961 foster homes in Arkansas.
Children’s
Reporting and Information System (CHRIS)
CHRIS was implemented in December 1997
as DCFS’ worker-based information system and source of data for state, federal
and management reports.