AUDIT
______________________________
Verifying Information Provided
by the
Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services
on its
Compliance With the Terms
of the
Foster Care Lawsuit Settlement Agreement
______________________________
Monitoring Report #14
Covering July 1 to December 31, 2000______________________________
A Report to the
Legislative Post Audit Committee
by the
Legislative Division of Post AuditState of Kansas
November 2001
______________________________
Downloaded and formatted from website of the
Kansas Office of Legislative Post-Audit .
For the original, unformatted copy, directly from the Auditor's website, click here ,
or
to download or view the entire report, in .pdf form,
directly from the Auditor's website, click here ,
or
view the formatted summary below :
[NOTE: This audit reviews SRS compliance with the terms of the settlement of the "Foster Care Lawsuit," a class action brought against the SRS and the State of Kansas by the Children's Rights Div. of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (later Children's Rights, Inc. -- an independent organization). The suit alleged a wide range of failures, excesses and abuses by the Kansas child-protection system, including problems with investigations, case-management, family-preservation programs, foster care, adoption services, staff training and screening, and recordkeeping. In 1991, the case was settled out of court, and the Legislative Auditor's office was assigned to audit SRS's compliance with the terms of the lawsuit settlement agreement, in semi-annual audits.
The original audit requirements involved about 80 specific benchmarks in the areas mentioned above. If SRS came to within 80-90% of the goal of one these requirements, and kept that level of compliance for two consecutive 6-month periods, then -- by the terms of the settlement agreement -- that specific benchmark would no longer be audited.
After 7 years of audits, SRS has managed to get half of those benchmarks in compliance long enough to have them removed from the audit list. Others have been removed from the list by negotiation with the plaintiff (Children's Rights, Inc.).
However 25 items remained to be audited during this reporting period. In this report, references to "remaining" items refers to these remaining 25 benchmarks, which SRS -- prior to this 14th reporting period -- still had not gotten in compliance for two consecutive reporting periods.
No other benchmarks were audited, regardless of SRS performance or non-performance in those areas. ~RH]
______________________________
Is SRS Complying with the Requirements of the Settlement Agreement?
For the 6-month period generally covered by this audit (July-December 2000), only 25 requirements were monitored.
SRS was in compliance with 6 (24%),
and wasn't in compliance with 19 (76%).______________________________
Our findings are summarized below.
The matrix beginning on page 12 of the report summarizes SRS' compliance this period.SRS didn't meet compliance with any of the 5 remaining requirements related to investigating reports of child abuse or neglect. These requirements covered actions such as obtaining needed medical services and reviewing prior reports involving the same child or family.
SRS was in compliance with 6 of the 14 remaining case-management requirements we assessed. The family case plans we reviewed this period were complete, placements were appropriate, and children were placed only in foster homes that completed the required training. In addition, SRS regularly updated the courts about the progress of children in its custody. SRS didn't come into full compliance with the other 8 requirements, however. These covered such things as scheduling conferences to maximize participation and considering adoption for children that have been out of the home for a full year.
SRS staff entered into its Central Registry database on a timely basis only 4 of the 14 foster care providers whose abuse or neglect of a child had been validated. SRS' compliance rate this period was only 29%. Since our review, however, the Department has either entered the remaining providers or offered them a corrective action plan.
Proposed Corrective Action
for Entering Names in the Central Registry. To improve compliance, SRS reported that it continues to track the status of abuse and neglect reports and remind area offices to update information about these reports in its foster care information system-FACTS. SRS also reported it will consider delegating the tracking system to the area offices.SRS wasn't in compliance with 3 training requirements for foster parents and adoptive homes. All foster parents must complete annual training before a child in SRS' custody can be placed in their home, and SRS is required to track this training. SRS also must track the initial "MAPP" training completed by foster and adoptive parents.
SRS acknowledged that only 43% of the foster parents due for annual training this period had documentation that showed they completed it. In addition, it reported that none of the systems it uses to track [foster parent] training met the requirements for being accurate and up-to-date.
Proposed Corrective Action
for Annual Foster Parent Training and Training Databases. In the past, KDHE--the agency that licenses foster homes--sent SRS the information it needed to track training on a monthly basis. On January 25, 2001, SRS installed a link to KDHE's database so it could have direct access to that information.SRS wasn't in compliance with 2 foster care information system requirements. This period, SRS was required to maintain timely and accurate information about prior abuse and neglect allegations, screening decisions, risk assessments, and investigations in its new computer system (FACTS). SRS acknowledged that none of these requirements were met.
Proposed Corrective Action
for the Foster Care Information System. SRS will continue to notify area offices about problem cases. In addition, the newly created FACTS advisory group will meet quarterly to review the problem cases and to develop corrective actions plans for them.______________________________
For more details, see...
Appendix A: Compliance Summary for Monitoring Period #14
Appendix B: Agency Responses
______________________________
This audit was conducted by Jennifer Wagner. Barb Hinton was the audit manager. If you need any additional information about the audit’s findings, please contact Ms. Wagner at the Division’s offices. Our address is: Legislative Division of Post Audit, 800 SW Jackson Street, Suite 1200, Topeka, Kansas 66612. You also may call us at (785) 296-3792, or contact us via the Internet at LPA@lpa.state.ks.us.
___________________________________