Los Angeles County Self-Assessment Report

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espond to their need for additional support due to their high caseload and/or lack of responsiveness from some social workers. • Stakeholders report that many resource parents are unaware of Wraparound Services, Kinship Support Services, and other current resources that may be available to them to help provide consistent, stable care for the children. Measure 2B: Timely Responses to Immediate and 10 Day Referrals: How effective is DCFS in responding to incoming reports of child maltreatment in a timely manner? DCFS has maintained a 97% compliance rate for responding to those child protection referrals that require an immediate response and a 96% compliance rate for responding to referrals that require a 10-day response. While there has been a very slight decrease in performance on both of these measures (-0.3% and -0.7%, respectively), L.A. County still performs above the statewide level. DCFS Supervisors, managers, and staff are able to track and monitor compliance with responding to referrals via the availability of this real time data on the DCFS intranet website, The Site. Having this data posted online serves as a mechanism for quality assurance and is utilized as a management tool. In addition, the implementation of SDM is believed to promote a uniform practice of assessing safety, risk, and needs which allows DCFS to improve response timeliness. The implementation of Alternative Response (a.k.a. Differential Response) Services assists families by providing services without the involvement of the Department. This focus on early intervention and community partnerships strengthens families and reduces the likelihood of future referrals, which, in turn, decreases the number of repeat referrals that social workers must respond to, allowing for faster response times. Stakeholders noted that a promising practice is that non-emergency calls directed to the Child Protection Hotline are forwarded to the County’s warm line for advice and possible resource referral. Referrals that warrant face-to-face investigations, based on the SDM results, are assigned geographically so that timely investigations are conducted and referrals for preventative and rehabilitative services within the local community are utilized. In addition, child abuse referrals are investigated by front line ER workers who specialize in handling such investigations and understand the needs and resource issues of the clientele in the particular community One of the challenges to responding to referrals in a timely manner is caused by social worker turnover, which affects the workload of the remaining social workers, which then in turn affects their ability to respond to referrals within the expected timeframe. Also, 64
during the past three fiscal periods, referral rates have increased by 3.7%. Further, L.A. County is a very large county, and it can be difficult at times to locate families, especially when new housing developments are not mapped. Also, it is a challenge to manage the travel time due to heavily congested traffic and long distances. Measure 4A: Sibling Placement: How effective is DCFS in placing sibling groups together? DCFS has made significant improvement in placing sibling groups together in foster care. DCFS showed continuous improvement with placing some or all siblings together, going from 66.2% of some or all siblings placed together to 69.7% of some or all siblings placed together during the past three fiscal periods. There was also steady increase in the percent of sibling groups that were ALL placed together, going from 41.2% in FY 2004-2005 to 46.6% in FY 2006-2007. The larger the sibling group, the less likely they are to be placed all together due to lack of placement resources that can accommodate larger sibling groups. Below is a chart that shows the percent of siblings placed together by the size of the sibling group: Number of Siblings in Family Placements with All Siblings Placements with All or Some Siblings July 04 05 06 07 04 05 06 07 Two 58 59.9 60.7 62.4 58 59.9 60.7 62.4 Three 43.3 44.9 46.4 47.9 67.6 68.9 70 71.6 Four 32.2 32.2 33.8 37.3 71.6 73.5 74.2 76.2 Five 21.5 25.3 25.6 20.9 74.1 75.5 76.3 77.8 Six 10.6 14.1 13.3 12.8 73.6 76.4 76.1 73.9 2+ 41.2 43.4 44.8 46.6 66.2 67.8 68.5 69.7 DCFS takes diligent efforts to place siblings together in out-of-home care, unless it has been determined that such placement is not in the best interests of one or more siblings. DCFS policy states that whenever a sibling group is in jeopardy of being placed in out-of-home care, asking the parent(s) whether (s)he wants to involve his or her faith-based practitioner or other community-support person to assess whether community supports and/or resources can be used to either ameliorate the need for the out-of-home placement or to assist in locating a community-based placement. 65
Page 1 and 2:
The Los Angeles County Department o
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Table of Contents SECTION III: Chil
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SECTION I INTRODUCTION 5
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the CDSS - facilitated Focus Groups
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English Learning students’ academ
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DCFS Caseload by Age: - 15 years 11
Page 13 and 14: · Lastly, the South Bay/Harbor are
Page 15 and 16: SECTION II KEY INITIATIVES AND PROG
Page 17 and 18: identified in Probation’s overall
Page 19 and 20: factor reported by study participan
Page 21 and 22: (Appendix I shows a detailed TDM Ou
Page 23 and 24: Initial FSNA 37.1% n = 5,516 The Pe
Page 25 and 26: Concurrent Planning Redesign (CPR).
Page 27 and 28: In a DCFS research study conducted
Page 29 and 30: extensive improvements in family fu
Page 31 and 32: SECTION III CHILD WELFARE OUTCOMES
Page 33 and 34: Below is a summary chart of Los Ang
Page 35 and 36: Measure C1.1 Percent of Children Re
Page 37 and 38: Measure C2.3 Adoption Within 12 Mon
Page 39 and 40: Measure C4.1 Placement Stability (8
Page 41 and 42: Measure 4A Siblings - Some or All P
Page 43 and 44: Measure 4E (1) ICWA Placement Prefe
Page 45 and 46: Employed Youths Oct 03-Sep 04 Oct 0
Page 47 and 48: Caseload, Referrals, Substantiation
Page 49 and 50: DCFS currently implements various s
Page 51 and 52: Measure S2.1: No maltreatment in fo
Page 53 and 54: are terminated, the court is requir
Page 55 and 56: (including discussion on what would
Page 57 and 58: changes and progress that have been
Page 59 and 60: This consolidated approach to recru
Page 61 and 62: Placement Stability and Ethnicity:
Page 63: TDMs. The immediate outcomes for Pl
Page 67 and 68: groups. The recruitment division al
Page 69 and 70: have completed high school, 88 have
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Los Angeles County Self-Assessment
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Agency-Court Cooperation All Childr
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Children’s Deputies Monthly Meeti
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Countywide Criminal Justice Coordin
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Emancipation Program Partnership Fa
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Indian Child Welfare Task Force Int
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Liaison to Alliance for Children's
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National Trauma Network Norwood Hea
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South County Transitional Aged Yout
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SPA 8 Steering Committee Specialize
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Los Angeles County Self-Assessment Report

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