Forum

Cheryl Stephani

Assistant Secretary

Children’s Administration MAY 12,2006

Dear Cheryl,

We, the Board of the Foster Parents Association of Washington State, are writing to inform you that we are taking an important and historic step for our organization and for the Foster Parents and Children of Washington State. We are seeking to organize a collective voice in our relationship with the state. We will work toward a foster care system in which Foster Parents are supported and valued for the important work they do, and in which Foster Children have a future of positive outcomes and productive lives.

The Foster Parents Association of Washington State (FPAWS) has been the principal advocate and support group for foster care providers statewide since 1973. The Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) is the largest and strongest union representing state agency employees in our state, with a proud history of advocating effectively in government, organizing for positive change and representing its members’ interests as employees and citizens. In 2006, our two organizations are coming together – establishing joint membership, coordinating our efforts and combining our strengths.

Why do we feel this is necessary?

Like many Foster Care systems around the country, Washington State’s is in crisis. Children placed in the Foster Care system have increasingly serious behavioral issues and turnover among frontline Social Workers and Foster Parents is too high.

Recruitment and retention of Foster Parents has been a focus of state funded programs, but it has remained difficult, at best. Foster Parents leave the system in Washington every day because they feel unprepared and unsupported. A tremendous amount of funding has been put into finding new Foster Parents, and while the system has been able to function and keep its head above water, it is not sustainable. Each year, the state loses almost 50% of its Foster Parents.

The situation has become critical. Without a sufficiently large, stable base of Foster Parents, foster children continue to suffer multiple placements (leading to severe mental health issues), separation from their siblings, and inappropriate placements. If the system does not soon effect positive change, we are concerned that Washington State will suffer the fate of other failed Foster Care systems, including privatization, loss of accountability, and resultant decline of quality care for the state’s most vulnerable children.

We feel there is hope if we can change the basic relationship between the State and Foster Parents. There are many highly skilled and highly trained Foster Parents in Washington State who have dedicated their lives to raising the state’s most at-risk children. These Foster Parents have been able to improve outcomes for youth whose futures at one time looked bleak. As you likely know, our state’s current system of funding for foster children actually offers disincentives for children to learn positive and functional behavior. We feel the state needs to work with Foster Parents to establish a substantial core of highly trained, highly skilled Foster Parents to care for children with serious behavioral issues. Foster Parents must be compensated appropriately and rewarded, not punished, for the positive outcomes of the children in their care.

Furthermore, many important mandates of the Braam Lawsuit settlement which could improve the state system and life for Foster Parents and Foster Children, remain unfulfilled. While we have seen some progress in systemic changes, including current promised increases in staffing levels for frontline social workers, we also see the need to further integrate Foster Parents into the state system. The experience and wisdom Foster Parents could bring to the ongoing reforms would be sure to bring increased possibility for success.

The Foster Children of the State of Washington cannot wait. Foster children quickly grow up to be citizens of our state. Their lives are in all of our hands.

Foster Parents are choosing to work collectively and actively toward a new day for Foster Families in the State of Washington. We hope you will understand our choice and work with us toward a better future.

Sincerely,

The FPAWS Board of Directors

Steve Baxter

Daniele Baxter

Beth Canfield

Mike Canfield

Tess Thomas

Ginger Schutt

Mary McGauhey

Daryl Daugs

Susan Moore

Tim Znamenacek

Shelley Znamenacek

Dear FPAWS Members and friends,

    We are writing to report on some big changes that have happened within our organization in the past few months. In November, DSHS awarded the service contract for Foster Parent Retention to another organization through a process of bids. Since this was the major source of funding for our Liaison Program and the Foster Intervention Retention Support Team (FIRST), we have discontinued those services. While these changes are difficult, they also provide an enormous opportunity for FPAWS to refocus and reinvent our organization.

    As you know, this organization is widely respected for our advocacy for foster families and children. We have been assigned a seat on the new eight-member Commission on Children in Foster Care established by the Supreme Court of Washington. The commission is “to monitor and report on the extent to which child welfare programs and courts are responsive to the needs of the children in their joint care; to make recommendations for systemic improvements; and to broaden public awareness of and support for meeting the needs of vulnerable children and families.” Your input is critical to the representation and recommendations needed to affect any implementation.

    Darlene Flowers has left FPAWS. Darlene has started her own business as a foster care consultant. FPAWS would certainly not be where it is today without Darlene’s vision and leadership. We wish her the best in her new endeavors.

    We will continue to provide support and assistance to foster parents through our 24-hr FPAWS Line 800-391-Care or 1-800-391-2273. As always, this FPAWS Line will continue to be answered by the friendly, supportive and informative voice of Ruth Graham or a member of her team. #5-12-2006

    We have developed a Five Year Strategic Plan and are working to recruit additional Directors with specific skills; Fundraising/Grant writing; Community Leaders; Legal Background; Experience as Adoptive or Foster Parents; who have concern for the Foster and Adoptive families of Washington State. The Board welcomes new Directors, Tony Collis, Melissa Hertel, Christin Kundert, Mary McGauhey, Beth Canfield, Mike Canfield and Daryl Daugs.

    For more information on the Board of Directors and how to self-nominate or nominate a Board member see our Web Site. Or call Steve and Daniele Baxter, Co-Presidents. 1-360-754-3953.

    This is a time of growth for FPAWS and the voice of Foster and Adoptive families. With our tremendous amount of collective knowledge and experience we will continue to advocate for Foster and Adoptive families. Please support your local and state foster parent associations. We ask you to renew your membership, send donations, and support us by communicating your needs; help us effectively represent foster and adoptive families.

    Thank you for your continuing support of FPAWS and for all you are doing for the children in your care.

          Your FPAWS Board of Directors

STATE OF WASHINGTON

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

P.O. Box 40002 l Olympia, Washington 98504-0002 l (360) 753-6780 l TTY/TDD (360) 753-6466

December 19, 2006

Steve and Daniele Baxter, Co-Presidents

Foster Parent Association of Washington State

P.O. Box 1638

Olympia, WA 98507

Dear Steve and Daniele:

Today I released my proposed budget for the 2007-09 Biennium. I visited every part of our state, and I believe this budget reflects the values I heard from people from all walks of life and all corners of Washington. They want a budget and programs that create opportunities for all people, hold government accountable, ensure more predictability from government, and strategically invest state dollars.

I also believe this budget advances the work you and I have done to build a future Washington families can count on. In particular, this budget is intended to provide:

Health care families can afford;

An economy that offers opportunity for family wage jobs;

An education system families can rely on;

An environment where families can thrive;

Communities where families feel safe; and

A government that is accountable and financially responsible.

Because of your interest and hard work on behalf of vulnerable children and their families, I wanted to personally share with you my priorities in the areas of children’s health, child welfare, and economic assistance to low income families.

Children’s health care has been one of my top priorities since assuming the governorship. As you know, in the first month of my Administration, I directed the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to both revert from 6-month to 12-month eligibility reviews for children’s access to state purchased health care and stave off the imposition of premiums on children’s health care for families living below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. It was also in my first session that I challenged myself, the Legislature, and you to ensure that all children have access to coverage by 2010.

Removing identifiable barriers to health care coverage is vital to ensure greater access to health care for our young people – and these steps taken in January of 2005 had the effect of keeping nearly 40,000 children on the health care rolls. In the 2006 session, with all of us working together, we took an additional step in keeping the premium barrier down when the Legislature passed, at my request, legislation prohibiting the imposition of premiums for children below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

In just two years, we have made great strides and my budget lays the groundwork to make even greater strides over the course of the next two years. Specifically, funding is provided to increase the state’s outreach and marketing efforts to support health care coverage for additional children. To more adequately assure access to providers, I am also increasing reimbursement rates for pediatricians.

Ensuring health care coverage is one thing; but making sure that children have access to health care is wholly another issue and a vital one if we are to have healthy children. As such, my budget also maintains Washington’s designation as a “universal vaccination” state by the Centers for Disease Control, protecting all our children from preventable disease. Anywhere a child goes, he or she will have immediate access to vaccines. My budget also provides children with access to the newer vaccines and supports routine immunizations for rotovirus (childhood diarrhea), human papilloma virus (associated with cervical cancer), and varicella (chickenpox).

Helping parents help their children is the goal of a Washington State pilot that is also included in my budget. In a true public-private partnership, the state will work with Johnson & Johnson and the Johnson & Johnson/UCLA Health Care Institute and local community organizations to give families the tools and training they need to make informed decisions about their children’s health, such as when to go to the emergency room and how to take care of common childhood illnesses.

The more vulnerable children in Washington State – our foster children – will benefit through the creation of a “Center of Foster Care Health Services.” The goal of the Center is to strengthen the link between children in foster care and the provision of health services by emphasizing the following: providing medical evaluations within 72 hours of a child’s entry into foster care, providing timely access to medically necessary primary and specialty medical health services, establishing a medical home, and developing the capacity to provide essential and timely consultative services to physicians staffing the program’s medical home.

Reforming and strengthening our state’s child welfare system remains a very high priority for me. I am pleased that recent data indicates that our sate’s focus in the past two years on faster investigation timeframes has resulted in fewer instances of repeat maltreatment. I remain committed to seeking funding to continue to reduce state social worker caseload sizes so that social workers are able to visit all dependent children at least every 30 days to ensure their well-being and to ensure that services are being provided as outlined in the case plan.

I am proposing the replacement of the state’s archaic child welfare data information system, as I believe it is important that field staff have ready access to the information they need to do their work, that managers can easily track field staff performance, and that policymakers are able to access aggregate data to better track trends and evaluate program effectiveness.

I am also proposing new investments be made in developing training and ongoing mentoring programs to assist field social workers in incorporating evidence-based practices into their work with families. Quality social work practices are a critical component in engaging and motivating families to adopt sometimes difficult changes to assure safe living conditions for their children. As a former case worker myself, I know that no amount of pre-training fully prepares individuals for child welfare case work and I strongly support making ongoing training and support available to workers in the field.

My budget proposal includes a number of additional suggested enhancements to our state’s child welfare system. However, I believe that continuing to reduce caseload sizes to assure 30-day visits, replacing the child welfare data system, and developing an ongoing mentoring system for field social work staff are all essential for improving both the quality and accountability of our state’s child welfare system. I hope you will join me in advocating for these specific system changes.

Finally, my budget funds two changes to promote economic self-sufficiency for low-income families. First, changes to Work First will establish a post-TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Family) program to help families transition off of welfare. This program will help families retain employment, move into higher paying jobs, increase family stability, and improve child outcomes. Secondly, more child support dollars collected by the DSHS Division of Child Support will go directly to families via a child support “pass through.” These additional funds will increase household resources and provide additional support for families as they move toward self-sufficiency.

You can review the full details of my proposed budget on-line at www.ofm.wa.gov.

I look forward to working with you during the legislative session. The people of Washington are vitally concerned about protecting vulnerable children and their families. I commend you for your tireless commitment to the children of Washington State and their families. I know I can count on your advocacy for funding and implementation of the priorities I have discussed above.

Sincerely,

Christine O. Gregoire

Governor

P.O.Box 1638,Olympia Wa 98507
Telephone: 800.391.2273 Fax: 360-786-9248
E-mail: captain46@comcast.net

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