THE
DIVISION OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
The
Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
DCFS is
committed to protecting children and preserving families. Every child deserves to grow up in a
permanent family. The primary and
preferred way of achieving this goal is to provide families experiencing
turmoil with services to prevent the need to place children outside their
home. When a child must be separated
from his family, DCFS will provide a safe environment and will make efforts to
provide services to reunite the family or to find the child a permanent
home.
DCFS
has an administrative agreement with the Arkansas State Police to provide an
around-the-clock statewide intake process for accepting reports of alleged
child maltreatment. In State Fiscal
Year (SFY) 2000, 16,759 reports of abuse and neglect were accepted for
investigation. A uniform protocol is
used for screening and prioritizing all allegations of child maltreatment. Of these 16,759 reports of abuse and
neglect, 523 could not be completed because the family could not be located,
one report was exempt due to religious reasons and 60 were still pending at the
end of the fiscal year. Of the 16,699
assessments completed, 5,639 were determined to be true and 10,536 were
unsubstantiated.
This unit
serves as the repository of all child maltreatment reports. The Child Maltreatment Reporting Act
requires that a statewide central registry be established within the Department
of Human Services (DHS) for the collection of information relative to the child
maltreatment reports. The registry
contains identifying data, dates and circumstances of any persons requesting or
receiving information from the registry. There were over 30,093 registry checks made in SFY 2000.
Arkansas
State Police Family Protection Unit
In 1997, DHS and the Arkansas State Police entered into a contractual
agreement. This agreement formed the
Family Protection Unit (FPU). The FPU
is composed of three sections: 1) the Child Abuse Hotline, 2) civilian
employees who assess child maltreatment reports, and 3) a law enforcement unit
which conducts criminal child maltreatment investigations. The FPU maintains an around-the-clock
statewide intake process (The Child Abuse Hotline) for accepting reports of
alleged child maltreatment. A uniform
protocol is used for screening and prioritizing all allegations of child
maltreatment. The FPU’s civilian
employees assumed the investigative responsibility for any allegations
involving placements managed, approved or licensed by DHS for the care of
children that include day care homes, DHS foster homes, residential facilities
and pre-adoptive homes and any allegations of maltreatment involving schools or
DHS employees. The investigative
responsibilities also include child maltreatment allegations on the following
Priority I reports: abuse with a deadly weapon, bone fractures, brain
damage/skull fracture, burns, scalding, death, immersion/suffocation, internal
injuries, oral sex, poison/noxious substances, sexual contact, sexual
exploitation, sexual penetration and subdural hematoma.
DCFS
County Staff
Staff housed in DHS county offices assesses allegations of child maltreatment in which the perpetrator is in the home and not the specific responsibility of FPU. DCFS staff in the county office has primary responsibility for assessing an allegation of child maltreatment and seeks to ascertain the existence, cause, nature and extent of child maltreatment, the existence of previous injuries and the names and conditions of other children in the home. DCFS remains primarily responsible for ensuring the health and safety of the children, even if the primary responsibility for the investigation belongs to the Family Protection Unit. DCFS has the responsibility for the assessment of Priority II reports. In addition, DCFS investigates Priority I reports of abandonment, failure to protect, medical neglect of disabled infants, non-organic failure to thrive, non-organic malnutrition and substantial possibility of severe maltreatment.
The purpose of services is to provide the child with a continuous, safe and stable living environment, promote family autonomy, strengthen family life where possible and promote the reunification of the child with the parent, guardian or custodian, when applicable.
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AR DHS Statistical Report SFY 2000 |
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THE DIVISION OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
(continued)
DCFS does this by opening up services case files. When there is no abuse or neglect present, but a family requests services, DCFS opens a Supportive Services case. In SFY 2000, DCFS served 948 children and their families.
When an
investigation is determined to be true, DCFS opens a protective service case
and works with the child(ren) and family in the home or, if the abuse is
severe, DCFS places the child in a safe and home-like setting. In SFY 2000, DCFS served 9,301 children and
their families. Of those, DCFS placed
5,486 in substitute care settings: Kinship Care, Foster Care, Therapeutic
Foster Care, Residential Care, Shelters, etc.
All children deserve a permanent home. One option is to terminate parental rights to free a child for adoptive placement when it has been determined to be in the best interest of the child. In SFY 2000, there were 352 children placed in adoptive homes and 26 adoption disruptions.
When a child
has been removed and needs a foster home replacement, DCFS places the child in
an approved foster home. The approval
process ensures that a potential foster parent attends training and meets
health, safety, and physical requirements and satisfies other standards
outlined in the Standards for Approval of Foster Family Homes. In SFY 2000, there were 391 new foster homes
approved, resulting in a total of 1,031 foster homes in Arkansas.
Children’s
Reporting and Information System (CHRIS)
CHRIS was
implemented in December 1997 as DCFS’ worker-based information system and
source of data for state, federal and management reports.
Ethnicity Reporting
In
August of 1999, the CHRIS information system was enhanced to meet the new
federal race and ethnicity guidelines.
These guidelines allow the selection of more than one Ethnicity per child.
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AR DHS Statistical Report SFY 2000 |
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