Fiscal Year 2005-06
The San Mateo County CRP continued to monitor TDM implementation and progress in reducing the rate of re-entry into the system. The following recommendations were developed and submitted to the State Office of Child Abuse Prevention in the CRP annual report:
I. Team Decision Making
The San Mateo County Human Services Agency (HSA) should continue to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the Team Decision Making model and promote its use in all appropriate situations.
CRP encourages HSA to continue to provide opportunities for regular community input regarding the implementation of the TDM model and inform CRP as the opportunities are scheduled.
II. Re-entry
HSA should continue efforts to address the relatively high re-entry rate and report on its progress quarterly. CRP will receive and discuss these reports.
III. CRP recommends that HSA undertake the following actions to reduce the high rate of re-entry:
1) Study the possibility of implementing a parent mentor program to assist parents to navigate the child welfare system.
2) Review and update the parent education curriculum, ensuring that it is accessible for parents who may have language, reading or learning challenges.
3) Encourage Children and Family Services staff to take appropriate actions to ensure that parents who may have language barriers, communication challenges or learning difficulties understand the information they are receiving.
4) Pursue funding for enhanced services for families (for family maintenance after reunification - after care).
IV. Closely monitor the implementation of differential response to ascertain its impact on keeping families out of the child welfare system.
Fiscal Year 2003-04
The CRP recommended that the Children and Family Services Division of the Human Services Agency make Team Decision Making (TDM) meetings mandatory each time a child is removed from their home, every time a child has a placement change and when a child is reunified with their family. TDM meetings provide a “strengths-based” approach that aims to develop comprehensive placement plans with input from families, community partners, resource parents, child welfare staff and other stakeholders that support families with children in out of home placement. Through regular updates and reports by the Human Services Agency (HSA), CRP continues to monitor the implementation of TDMs.
Fiscal Year 2004-05
The CRP reviewed re-entry cases to identify the factors associated with cases in which children and youth re-enter foster care after they have been returned to the their homes and reunited with their families. The Panel identified several themes and factors that contribute to re-entry. This report was made available to HSA and the agency has reviewed the CRP report as well as two other reports that addressed re-entry, a research study developed by SPHERE Institute and Peer Quality Case Review conducted in February 2006. A number of changes have been implemented as the result of these reports
San Mateo County
Citizen Review Panel
