Service Goal 4.1: Implement on-going parent education, mentoring and support programs for families with identified problems that are obstacles to family preservation Service Goal 4.4: Expand resources available to address allegations of physical and sexual
abuse and neglect.
Issue: DCF Dashboard Statistics
Budget Impact: None; for information purposes only.
Background: One of the Council’s first priorities in 2001 was to fund Family Strengthening Programs. The Council sought to fund programming for families at risk for child abuse and neglect and families in crisis that would 1) reduce risk factors related to child abuse and neglect through best practice intervention programs and 2) strengthen protective factors by helping at risk families develop and maintain supportive parent–child relationships. Over the years, the Council has continued its commitment to reduce child abuse and neglect and promote the adoption of children out of the dependency system.
Current Status: The Department of Children and Families Dashboard indicates that District 10, Broward County, has one of the lowest per capita abuse rates in the state. Key indicators on the Dashboard reflect the positive impact prevention programs have had on the system.
Performance Measures
July 2004-June 2005 Jacksonville Palm
Beach Broward Statewide Child Abuse per capita
rates per 1000
32.4 27.4 21.6 29.6
% of victims or verified or indicated maltreatment who were subjects of subsequent reports w/in 6 months
10.10% 8.8% 8.4% 10.8%
% of children reunified who were reunified within 12 months of the latest removal
62.55% 53.43% 72.69% 71.07%
% of children not abuse or neglected during services
95.5% 96.5% 95.1% 93.41%
Recommended Action: None; for information purposes only.
Budget Action: N/A
E:\CSC Council Packets PDF Archive\FY05-06\PPC 12_7_05\ELC Annual Report.doc
For Program Planning Committee December 7, 2005
Service Goal 5: Work with Broward’s Early Learning Coalition to improve children’s readiness to enter school.
Objective 1: Increase availability of subsidized pre-school child care.
Issue: 2004/05 Annual Report Update.
Budget Impact: None; for information purposes only.
Background: The Early Learning Coalition is designated by the State as the entity responsible for overseeing a seamless system of child care. Since its inception, the Council has worked closely with the Coalition to increase the quantity and quality of subsidized care child care in Broward County. Council funding for subsidized “slots” has primarily targeted working poor families who are outside the narrow priority client categories mandated by the State. Subsidized child care for the working poor allows parents to remain employed and ensures that young children are safe, supervised and exposed to the information they will need to succeed in school.
Current Status: In the Fiscal Year of July 2004 through June 2005, 17,572 unduplicated children received subsidized care in Broward with state and federal funds through the State Office for Early Learning; of those children 3,259 were served with state match funding made possible by funding provided by the Council, Broward County and local businesses. An additional 1,728 children were served with Council funds; The following information, summarized from the ELC Annual Report for 2005, demonstrates effective management of Broward’s system of subsidized child care and the positive impact of local quality initiatives.
(1) Developmental Screening: The target population for developmental screening is children ages birth to Pre-Kindergarten who are receiving school readiness financial assistance, waiting for school readiness financial assistance or enrolled in home instruction programs who have not been screened elsewhere. In Broward County, these screenings are conducted by Family Central and the School Board and that process and achievement are summarized below:
Measure ( # of Children) # Served Goal % Actual %
# enrolled whose parents were offered developmental screening 9,603 100% 100%
# whose parents consented to the screening 7,559 85% 79%
# who received a screening with parental consent 6,248 75% 83%
Measure ( # of Children) # Served Goal % Actual %
# on Unified Wait List whose parents were offered screening 10,997 100% 100%
# on Unified Wait List whose parents consented to the screenings 259 50% 2%
# on Unified Wait List who received a screening with parental consent 259 60% 100%
Measure ( # of Children) # Served Goal % Actual %
# enrolled in School Board program whose parents were offered a screening 1598 100% 100%
# enrolled in School Board program whose parents consented to screening 1455 85% 92%
# enrolled in School Board program who received a screening with parental consent
1455 75% 100%
Measure ( # of Children) # Served Goal % Actual %
# enrolled in First Start whose parents were offered a screening 365 100% 100%
# enrolled in First Start whose parents consented to the screening 293 85% 80%
# enrolled in First Start who received a screening with parental consent 293 75% 100%
E:\CSC Council Packets PDF Archive\FY05-06\PPC 12_7_05\ELC Annual Report.doc
(2) School Readiness: Assessments of child readiness to enter school is required by Florida law for all children entering public school kindergarten for the first time, using the Early Screening Inventory-Kindergarten (ESI-K). Although the results for the 2004/05 school year have not yet been released, the following reflects Broward County’s performance for the 2003/04 school year.
Category Number of Children Served
# Assessed 18,021
“Ready Now” 87%
“Getting Ready” 10%
“Not ready yet” 3%
(3) Demographic Data for Families and Children Served in Subsidized Care:
Category Category Description Number of
Children Served TANF – Work Force One Children of parents receiving job training or newly
employed through WorkForce1
7,237 Protective Services Children Children under DCF Supervision 2,656
• Ages 3-5 DCF Referral/ required by Rilya Wilson Act for this age group
1,351
Working Poor Less than 200% of Federal Poverty Level 8,704
School Age Children in K through 12yrs. Old and Special Needs 6,220 Children served during disaster Daily Population served during FY 04/05 Hurricanes
Frances & Jean
8,049
(4) Voluntary Pre-K: In January 2005, the Florida Legislature passed the Voluntary Pre-kindergarten law which changed the names of the School Readiness Coalitions to Early Learning Coalitions. Coalitions were tasked with the implementation and oversight responsibilities of Voluntary Pre-kindergarten programs for four year olds. There are no eligibility requirements other than age and a willingness to participate.
Provider Forums were held throughout the county during January and February 2005, to inform providers of the VPK legislation signed into law by the Governor in December 2004. The Coalition also collaborated with Family Central and Nova Southeastern University to provide a conference for 180 provisionally eligible VPK providers.
(5) Customer Satisfaction: The Coalitions tracks customer satisfaction extensively, and on a variety of levels. Some pertinent domains are summarized below:
90% of families will report satisfaction with services.
Measure # Responded # Satisfied Percentage
Customer friendliness for clients receiving child care referrals 1,028 1,001 97%
Accessibility of service for clients receiving child care referrals 1,018 952 93.5%
Cultural Sensitivity for clients receiving child care referrals 1.012 985 97%
Customer friendliness for clients on the wait list 392 371 95%
85% of providers will report over all satisfaction with services.
Measure # Responded # Satisfied Percentage
Cultural sensitivity 365 347 95%
Customer friendliness 369 333 90%
A full copy of the ELC’s Annual Report is available upon request. Family Central’s Annual Report is available on their website at: www.familycentral.org/annualreport.html.
Recommended Action: None; for information purposes only.
Budget Action: N/A
E:\CSC Council Packets PDF Archive\FY05-06\PPC 12_7_05\Wilma Coordinated Response.doc
For Program Planning Committee December 7, 2005
Service Goal 8:1: Work with major funders to ensure that the full continuum of physical health services is available and accessible to children & their families.
Issue: Support collaborative efforts to provide Hurricane Wilma Disaster Relief.
Action: Recommend participation in the United Way Hurricane Relief and Recovery Fund Collaborative
Budget Impact: N/A
Background: In response to Hurricane Wilma’s devastating effect in Broward County, the United Way convened major human services funders (including CSC) to help coordinate our approach to funding local relief and recovery efforts. At the first meeting it was agreed that we would all collaborate on a single survey of providers that would help capture the needs of the community now that the immediate crisis had passed. The Community Foundation’s Non-Profit Resource Center coordinated this effort. CSC staff provided input to the survey and it was emailed to all CSC provider agencies. A summary of the responses is attached
In addition, the United Way of Palm Beach County’s Hurricane Relief and Recovery Fund was explored as a model for use in Broward County. As a result of last year’s series of hurricanes impacting Palm Beach County, PBC funders came together and developed a common grant application and a process for all funders to use to sort and track all funding request in order to avoid duplication and maximize effectiveness. That effort, which was led by the United Way, has now been institutionalized as the Hurricane Relief and Recovery Fund. A copy of their Funding Application is attached for reference.
At the November 17th Council meeting, an allocation of $150,000 to the Sun Sentinel’s hurricane relief efforts was approved, with an additional $75,000 to be matched by the McCormick Foundation, for a total commitment of $225,000. All administrative costs are paid by the Sun-Sentinel and the Foundation so that 100% of funds are distributed directly to organizations to provide short and long term assistance. At the time of this award the Council agreed that any requests for additional funding would be brought to the CSC’s Program Planning Committee.
Current Status: Based on the survey results, it is anticipated that further requests for assistance from CSC funded agencies will be forthcoming. It is recommended that such requests be submitted using the common grant application and the common process prior to submission to the PPC. It is expected that the money already allocated to the Sun Sentinel Hurricane Relief Fund will funnel through this process.
Recommended Action: Recommend participation in the United Way Hurricane Relief and Recovery Fund Collaborative
Budget Impact: N/A
E:\CSC Council Packets PDF Archive\FY05-06\PPC 12_7_05\Childnet FTC Update.doc
For Program Planning Committee December 7, 2005
Service Goal 2.2: Provide technical support on process and service delivery improvement to provider agencies.
Issue: Update on ChildNet’s Family Team Conferencing Pilot Action: None; for Informational Purposes Only.
Budget Impact: N/A
Background: In September 2004, Council approved funding for a one-year pilot project to implement Family Team Conferencing in the ChildNet system of care. Funding provided for two staff positions to provide on-site training and coaching to child welfare staff. Child Welfare professionals viewed the on-site training/coaching as a “best practice” to engage families in the decision-making processes that are critical if reunification is to successfully occur. ChildNet planned to use the trainers/coaches as an enhancement to established child welfare training.
The Family Team Conferencing model was also cited as one of the recommendations in The Child Welfare and Policy Group’s external evaluation of ChildNet’s System of Care. ChildNet agreed to evaluate the program at nine months using the quality service review methodology to determine effectiveness as it relates to federal outcome measures of safety, permanency and well-being.
Current Status: The pilot began in January 2005. There was an initial group of 20 staff trained in the model. Intensive classroom and follow-up field training continued through February. Due to staff turnover, ChildNet trained five more staff using a “fast-track” process.
ChildNet experienced many challenges in the roll-out of this model and terminated the pilot in August. Some of the challenges reported by ChildNet were (1) staff found the model very time consuming, (2) some staff lacked the level of sophistication necessary to facilitate a family conference and (3) not all cases were appropriate for this type of engagement.
The lessons learned from this pilot were that (1) families were appreciative of the time and efforts spent in engaging them in a solution-focused, strength based process (2) engage families at the “front door” and (3) apply this type of engagement with families whose goal is
“reunification” or maintain & strengthen. Due to the early termination and an emphasis on children awaiting termination of parental rights (TPR), there was no impact seen on the families who participated in this pilot. A final report submitted by ChildNet is attached for reference.
Recommended Action: None; for informational purposes only.
Budget Impact: N/A
E:\CSC Council Packets PDF Archive\FY05-06\PPC 12_7_05\ChildNet Independent Eval Report.doc
For Program Planning Committee December 7, 2005
Service Goal 6.3: Help ensure quality of service delivery for privatized dependency services through external annual review and evaluation.
Issue: Additional detail from Second year Independent Evaluation of ChildNet, Inc. by the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group and Florida Atlantic University
Action: None; for Informational Purposes Only.
Budget Impact: N/A
Background: In 2003, the Council approved funding for a seven year Independent Third Party Evaluation of ChildNet’s community-based system of care and allocated $169,620 annually for the project.
In close collaboration with the Children and Families Leadership Association (CFLA), the Council approved a scope of work and competitively procured an external evaluator. The Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group (CWPPG) was selected in that process and reported their initial findings of ChildNet’s performance in December 2004. In this second year of the evaluation, funding was increased to $189,620 to expand Quality Services Reviews (QSR) from 24 to 36 cases, and included an analysis by Florida Atlantic University of ChildNet’s outcome reporting requirements and data systems.
Current Status: At the August 18, 2005 Council meeting, CWPPG’s power point presentation to the community was provided for review by the Council. Council members requested additional detail and executive summaries from both CWPPG and Florida Atlantic University on the first phase of their findings for this second year of the evaluation were provided at the September 14, 2005 Council meeting. The two organizations are working collaboratively to develop an integrated final report that will address issues regarding both quality and data. At the September meeting, Council members questioned why some key indicators, including one involving Resource Availability, had dropped in performance. Resource Availability scores declined from 83% in 2004 to 60% in 2005.
The report from CWPPG explains that the second year evaluation in 2005 was able to assess a more representative sample of child welfare cases than those reviewed in 2004. The cases from 2004 consisted mainly of cases where the child remained “in-home” while the cases from 2005 represented more cases where the child was in “out-of-home” care. There is an expectation that these cases would be more complex and require multiple services to assist the family. The insufficiency/unavailability of resources appeared to be related to a lack of attention and creativity at the team level rather than an absolute absence of a social service or support.
Peter Balitsaris, President and CEO of ChildNet, is scheduled to attend the PPC meeting to address any questions. A copy of the Executive Summary is attached for your reference.
Recommended Action: None, for Informational Purposes Only Budget Impact: N/A