Advocates give a tentative thumbs up to a new program aimed at decreasing the number of children entering the foster care system.

"We've had cases in rural counties where children were reported as being hungry and found a single father who never had to fix nutritious meals and was doing whatever he could," said Mona Davis, planning manager for foster care for the Arkansas Department of Human Services. "We got him cooking classes and bought him a crock pot."

The new program allows the state to divert federal money meant to pay for foster care for other assistance such as family counseling, hiring an exterminator to treat household pests, or cooking lessons. The goal is to provide more services to families to solve problems that could lead to neglect or abuse. Children in danger still go to foster families.

Arkansas was one of 10 states to receive the waiver last year from the federal Health and Human Services Department, but is the only state making the changes statewide. The other nine states adopted more limited programs that focus on specific age groups or geographic areas.

"Ask me in a year. This is risky," Beverly Engle, executive director of the Children's Advocacy Center in Little Flock, said about the changes in February 2013. She and others worried the change might leave children in situations where abuse or neglect was suspected.

A year later, the situation looks good, Engle said. The state is still willing to place children in foster care if the need is clear, but appears better able to intervene in other cases to ease problems at home before they fester into abuse or neglect, she said.

Engle's guarded optimism was echoed by other local child abuse and neglect specialists and by a Little Rock-based advocacy group for children and families. However, those interviewed reserved final judgment until an ongoing review by the state and federal governments reports detailed results. There is no timeframe for when the evaluations are due.

They also said that it will take years for a final determination on the program's worth because young children are involved. Problems or successes will not be fully visible until those children are older.

"At this point in the game I think it's working out well," said Brenda Zedlitz, director of children's services for EOA Children's House in Springdale, a therapeutic child development and crisis intervention center. Taking a child from home, even an abusive one, is a wrenching act, she said. A program that eliminates the need for such a move when possible would be a boon, she said.

"I can hesitantly say that it appears to be doing that," Zedlitz said of the program.

That cautious optimism was shared by administrators at the state Human Services Department. There's an independent review process overseen by the federal department "and we don't have any of that data yet," said Kate Luck, spokeswoman for the state agency.

If there were severe problems, there should have been clear warning signs by now, said Jennifer Ferguson. Ferguson is deputy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a nonprofit group that tracks child welfare. She is also the staff member for the Arkansas Advocates responsible for tracking the state's waiver.

"The best guide we've got is whether kids are coming back into the system, cases in which a family received services but in which the state had to intervene again later," Ferguson said. "We're not seeing kids coming back."

So far, one of the program's advantages has been to give the state and communities a clearer, more detailed picture of the issues that lead to allegations of abuse and neglect and the local resources in communities to resolve those issues, the administrators said.

"If you have a case where a 9-year-old son is alone for a few hours until mom can come home from work, you can find out what after-school programs are available," said Lindsay McCoy, family service worker supervisor for the state department.

If it turns out that a community lacks such a program, the community is often willing to address that need once the state can show the need exists, she said. The approach should prevent larger problems, she said, such as kids being alone in a house and coming to harm, leading to a neglect case or incident in which charges are filed.

The reception of families being served is generally positive, but are not uniformly so, said both state department spokesmen and Zedlitz. Reactions range from relief and appreciation at getting some help to defensiveness about the state intervening. All cases arise from reports of suspected abuse and neglect to the state.

The underlying fact driving all decisions in this program and all aspects of protecting children is the state does not have enough foster families to hold every child who is the reported victim of abuse or neglect, Ferguson said.

The state needs to ensure the children going to those homes are the ones who really need it, she said.

NW News on 04/06/2014