LWVK Study

From the February 2000 VOTER, LWV/L-DC

Background (Summarized by Ben Zimmerman, LWVK Study Chair)

The League of Women Voters of Kansas is conducting a
study of the privatization by the Kansas Department
of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) of three
child welfare services: family preservation, foster
care, and adoptions. Child abuse and neglect is the
only child welfare service that the Department
retained in-house. The following background should be
helpful as the study proceeds.

SRS was established in 1973 by consolidation of
county Welfare Boards into a centralized, statewide
system with 15 (later 12) area offices--now reduced
to 11 with the recent merger of the Salina and
Manhattan offices. For purposes of privatization,
these area offices are divided into 5 regions

     Region 1. Olathe, Chanute, Emporia, with
     area offices in Johnson, Neosho and Lyon
     counties.

     Region 2. Kansas City, Lawrence, with area
     offices in Wyandotte and Douglas counties.

     Region 3. Topeka, Manhattan-Salina, with
     area offices in Shawnee and Riley counties.

     Region 4. Hutchinson, Hays, Garden City,
     with area offices in Reno, Ellis and Finney
     counties.

     Region 5. Wichita, area office in Sedgwick
     County. (For more specific information,
     check your phone book under Kansas, State
     of and under that, Social and
     Rehabilitation Services.)

The first Secretary of the newly-created SRS in 1973
was Topeka League member Robert Harder, who held that
post for many years.

Like other departments, SRS develops a detailed
yearly budget that, once approved by the governor, is
submitted by him as part of a budget package to the
legislature, which frequently reworks it before final
approval. Once passed by the legislature, the package
is returned to the governor for his signature. By
law, the governor retains the right to veto line
items, leading to further negotiations. (Many
observers believe with good reason that the budget is
the chief policy document developed by state
government.)

The chief committees involved in these decisions are
the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Way
and Means Committee, though both Houses have standing
committees that deal with substantive issues falling
within their purview. (For additional information on
the budget and various departments go to www.ink.org
and www.da.state.jks.us/budget and follow the links.)

When Rochelle Chronister, former chair of the Senate
Ways and Means Committee, was named Secretary of SRS
(she resigned in October 1999 to be replaced by Janet
Schalansky), she made a number of fundamental
changes. She declared that the mission of the agency
was to protect children--thus the retention of
protective services for children--and to move adults
into the workforce--thus the welfare-to-work
initiative. Then in short order, she transferred
adult services to the Department on Aging, and by
law, transferred Youth Services to the newly created
Juvenile Justice Authority. That left the agency with
the so-called "money" programs, i.e., cash grants,
welfare to work, food stamps, and Medicaid, as well
as the three remaining child welfare services. In
1996, over a period of a few months with little or no
planning and no involvement of judges, foster
parents, or local communities, these three services
were privatized.

In 1997, LWVK initiated a two-year project to monitor
the changes in SRS and their impact on local
communities. The primary focus of the project was
foster care, about which there was enormous concern
all over the state. An executive summary of this
monitoring project was presented at the LWVK
Convention in 1999. It was also at that Convention
that the League decided to undertake a two-year
study--the monitoring project was not a study--and to
look at all three child welfare services that had
been privatized to develop criteria by which to judge
them.

Although all of the child welfare services are
closely linked, thus making it possible to refer to
them as a system, each plays a special role. The
easiest way to get a handle on them is by a brief and
simplified rundown of how the current system
(ideally) works.

     1. SRS involvement can be initiated only by
     a report of child abuse or neglect. An SRS
     social worker investigates the report. If
     the child appears to be imminent danger,
     the child is removed from its home and
     placed in a temporary foster home or other
     safe setting.

     2. Within three days, SRS has to decide
     whether to return a child to its home or to
     ask a judge to declare him/her as a Child
     in Need of Care and to place him/her in a
     more "permanent" foster home. In either
     case, Family Preservation (a short-term
     crisis intervention program) is supposed to
     be made available to the family and a plan
     worked out to assist the child with his/her
     problems.

     3. While the child is in foster care,
     permanency plans are developed either to
     reintegrate the child with his/her own
     family or to sever parental rights, usually
     within a year, and to put the child up for
     adoption. Each of these decisions, as well
     as treatment plans, has to be approved by a
     judge.

At the present time, except for the investigation of
reported child abuse, decisions about services are
made largely by private contractors and
subcontractors. SRS, who retains legal custody of the
child, enters the picture mainly when there are
disagreements between contractor staff and SRS staff.
SRS has declared that its role vis-à-vis the
contracts is to manage them and that its chief
concern is with outcomes.

Several terms have been used to describe the new
system, with "privatization" being the most common.
Another is "contracting out," which SRS has always
done but on a far more limited basis. Never has a
whole program area such as child welfare services
been contracted out or privatized. While several
states are considering various forms of
privatization, none has gone so far as Kansas.
"Managed care," a phrase derived from the health care
system, particularly the HMOs, is based on
capitation, i.e., providing a fixed amount of money
for each case. If a case costs less than the fixed or
capitated rate, the contractor can keep the money or
apply it to a case that is more expensive. Several
times during the course of privatization, SRS has
lowered requirements for outcomes and adjusted
capitation payments upward. As this is being written,
new contracts are being negotiated as a result of
Requests for Proposals or RFPs.

Recently SRS has undergone another reorganization.
There are no longer commissioners; instead, there are
three assistant secretaries. Joyce Allegrucci, who
replaced Teresa Markovitz as Commissioner of Children
and Family Services a year or so ago, is now
Assistant Secretary for Children and Family Policy, a
title that suggests she is no longer directly
responsible for services.

Is privatization working well? Is it better than the
previous system? Is a managed care approach
applicable to child welfare services? These are among
the questions that the LWVK study will try to answer.
So stay tuned. Local Leagues will be holding
discussion units in the spring and concurrence units
in the fall. Make sure you attend them.

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