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Jul

10

Coverage of county foster children: loss of McCafferty, improved SACWIS


Last month, Rachel Dissell at The Plain Dealer, profiled three foster kids.  Dissell excels at this type of coverage (having won awards for her work covering Johanna Orozco).

With Jim McCafferty leaving CCDCFS, I’m shocked at the paucity of discussion around who will replace him, especially given the fact that just three days after the PD published news of the announcement that he would become the next county administrator (replacing Dennis Madden who is moving on to Med Mart challenges), they published this news that details DCFS’s struggles with coming into compliance with requirements related to upgrading computer tracking of children in foster care:

Earlier this year, crashes, glitches and access problems with the SACWIS system had some county officials resorting to using spreadsheets to keep track of kids placed in foster care because of inaccurate and incomplete data. But the county officials who were spitting mad are now singing the state’s praises.

“The state has really turned this around,” said Eric Fenner, director of Franklin County Job and Family Services, a vocal critic of the SACWIS effort this spring. “I’m really impressed with what they have done.”

Fenner said he credits the improved relationship between county and state officials to Gov. Ted Strickland’s support of an extended deadline, as well as a reshuffling of the SACWIS leadership team.

Fenner’s experience is being echoed by county agencies across the state, according to the head of an umbrella group representing Ohio’s child welfare agencies.

“I used to get daily calls on SACWIS,” said Crystal Allen Ward, head of Public Children Services Association of Ohio. “Now, the calls I get on it are few and far between.”

The idea that DCFS doesn’t know how many wards they have or where they are is an old one, and it plagues pretty much all systems that are responsible for children in county or state custody, in every state of the nation.  If PCSAO is implying that things are improving, then hopefully tracking really is improving.

But back to the issue: Who is going to replace McCafferty, an award-winning, nationally recognized head there?  Please, do not let it be someone without a background in child welfare, the mental heath profession or law.  Sincerely, that job is a perfect one for someone with a joint degree and years of public service to kids and families. I would also guess it’s pretty thankless and very stressful, but when the stories are good, they are really good.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:31 pm July 10th, 2008 in Cleveland+, Courts, Government, Health Care, Law, leadership, Ohio, Parenting, Social Issues, Youth 

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