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CWLA/Tennessee DCS: Partners in Permanency
Beginning in January 1999, consultants for CWLA's National Center for
Consultation and Professional Development began an exciting collaborative
project with the Tennessee Department of Children's Services (DCS) to
assess the agency’s foster care and adoption programs and develop plans
for strengthening the state’s service delivery system to improve outcomes
for children and families.
The project began with a comprehensive needs assessment process during
which CWLA consultants met with a total of 1,180 individuals, either
in individual interviews or focus groups, in every region of the state
to identify strengths and areas needing improvement. In addition to
interviews with departmental staff at all levels, participants included
children in care, birth parents, foster and adoptive parents, CASA volunteers,
foster care review board members, judges, guardians ad litem, parents'
attorneys, and staff from provider agencies, community service agencies,
among others.
The needs assessment process resulted in identification of the seven
highest priority areas for change, including the need to expand and
strengthen adoption services for waiting, children, the need to expand
legal services throughout the child welfare system, and the need for
comprehensive training for staff at all levels, among others. Adoption
recommendations focused on strategies consistent with goals TN DCS had
already identified:
- to decrease the average length of stay
in foster care for all children, to be achieved in part through adoption;
and
- to increase the number and timeliness of adoptions.
A team of Tennesseans assisted the Department and CWLA consultants
in crafting the action steps to implement the strategies identified.
These actions are part of a three-year plan developed by the Department
with CWLA's assistance to address the highest priority areas. The adoption
activities include:
- strengthening the capacity of both public and
private sectors to provide adoption services through contracts with
qualified, licensed child-placing agencies,
- designation of additional staff within
DCS to focus specifically on adoption
- contracting with the Center for Adoption, a
collaborative project between Family and Children's Services in Nashville.
and the Department, to train both private and public agency staff
throughout the state,
- sponsoring a statewide adoption conference
in March, 2000 to highlight "best adoption practices" from around
the country
- strengthening its advocacy for funds to support
the adoption subsidy program for children with special needs,
- developing guidelines under which private
agencies can contract with adoption agencies in other states when
Tennessee agencies have not been successful in developing an adoptive
home for a specific child.
Specific targeted increases in the number of adoptions have been set
for each of the coming three years based on the children already waiting
and those expected to be impacted by ASFA.
Legislative Support for Change
The 1999 Legislature provided $15 million dollars in new funding for
the Tennessee Department of Children's Services highest priority strategies
for the 1999-2000 fiscal year, including the adoption strategies identified
above. This was the result of collaborative efforts between the Executive
and Legislative branches of government in a time of fiscal hardship
for the State of Tennessee. A special Adhoc Committee on Foster Care
appointed by the Speaker of the House maintained a legislative focus
on the issues in foster care and adoption. The advocacy efforts of the
Tennessee Foster Parent Association, the Tennessee Association for Child
Care and many others helped ensure understanding of the needs of children
and families and the issues confronting the child welfare system.
For information about the services of CWLA’s National Center for Consultation
and Professional Development, please call Kathy Bryant at 202/942-0287.
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