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SUMMARY
Pursuant to Laws 2000, Chapter 183, §2 and Chapter 285,
§14, the Office of the Auditor General has completed an evaluation of two
areas within the Department of Economic Security: kinship foster care and
kinship care. These two areas, which both
relate to parental care provided by relatives, were identified by the
Legislature in 2000 as areas in which existing state efforts should be
enhanced. As a result of the legislation, the Department established and began
implementing new kinship foster care policies in the fall of 2000, while a
kinship care pilot program was initiated January 1, 2001, in two locations—one
in Phoenix and one in Tucson. Within the Department, the Division of Children,
Youth, and Families oversees kinship foster care, while the Division of
Benefits and Medical Eligibility administers the kinship care pilot program.
The legislation included no additional funding or staff. The evaluation
focuses primarily on the kinship foster care and kinship care processes
implemented. However, to the extent possible, the evaluation also looks at the
impact and effectiveness of the changes.
Program Characteristics
Both kinship foster care and the kinship care pilot program
encourage kinship placements and support relative caregivers through
coordination of available financial benefits and nonfinancial services.
Kinship foster care and kinship care are important options for providing care,
because parenting done by relatives helps preserve the integrity of families
and can ease the trauma children may experience; however, the programs differ
in a number of ways. Specifically:
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In kinship foster care, a
relative provides parenting when a court determines that, because of child
abuse or neglect, a child should be separated from his or her parents and
placed in the custody and control of the State’s child welfare agency. The
relative caregiver can choose to become licensed or remain unlicensed.
Licensed kinship foster caregivers are eligible to receive foster care
maintenance payments ranging between $11.94 and $27.81 per child per day
based on the child’s age and special needs. Unlicensed providers are not
eligible for foster care maintenance payments but may be eligible for
monthly cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) grant program. These monthly grants provide $204 for the first child
and approximately $71 for each additional child. All kinship foster care
children, whether placed with a licensed or unlicensed relative, are
eligible for a variety of nonfinancial services including medical and dental
care, counseling services, and childcare.
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In kinship care, a relative
also provides the parenting but does so without a court’s or child welfare
agency’s involvement. The kinship care pilot program is primarily a
financial program. Through this program, caregivers may apply to receive the
TANF child-only grant for their relative children. In addition, the
Department will provide information on other services that may be available
through the community or state agencies. In both programs, the majority of
children live with grandparents or great-grandparents.
Need To Improve
Compliance with Requirements
(See pages 13 through 18)
The Department needs to take additional steps to implement
legislative requirements for kinship foster care. These requirements are
intended to promote foster care placements with relatives and to support these
caregivers through better coordination of available services and benefits.
Although the Department developed appropriate policies to address these new
requirements, it cannot demonstrate that personnel have fully and consistently
implemented them. For example, the Department developed new forms to help case
managers assess a prospective caregiver’s ability to provide a secure and safe
environment and to inform the caregiver about financial support and other
services. However, these forms were used in less than one-third of the cases
evaluators reviewed. In addition, other concerns with compliance were
identified during interviews with Department personnel. For example, seven
case managers indicated that they verbally inform relatives when they have
been denied as a relative placement, and do not use the Department’s form
letter. However, this form letter is important because it requires the case
manager to list the reasons for the denial and provide the relative with the
opportunity to appeal the Department’s decision. The Department needs to focus
additional effort in three areas to ensure compliance with kinship foster care
policies and requirements.
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First, it needs to develop and provide additional
training and ensure staff attendance at such training. The training should
focus on the legislation’s intent and specific policy requirements,
including the use of required forms and letters.
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Second, the Department should monitor case managers
compliance with program requirements. For example, the Department could
modify its automated child protective services information system to do
this.
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Third, the Department should use, where appropriate, its
current goals, objectives, and performance measures to assess the outcomes
of kinship foster care placements.
Additional Steps Needed To
Meet Legislative Intent
(See pages 35 through 42)
The Department likewise needs to take additional steps to
ensure that the kinship care pilot program achieves its intended outcomes. The
Legislature called for the Department to establish a pilot program that would
enhance the Department’s assistance to Arizona’s kinship care families.
Although families applying for cash assistance are receiving the maximum
benefit amount in a timely manner, the program’s success in increasing
community awareness and participation is unclear because the Department does
not have a plan to direct outreach activities or a mechanism to assess its
success. Under the program, the Department also prepared resource guides for
helping caregivers find services they need, but these guides are limited.
Finally, policies designed to make it more convenient for families to apply
for cash assistance, such as requiring that only the relative child’s income
be reported when applying for the TANF child-only grant and waiving the
face-to-face interview requirement in lieu of a phone interview, are not being
consistently implemented. Eligibility workers are processing applications for
cash assistance much the same as they did prior to the kinship care
legislation. Relatives are often still required to provide unnecessary
personal financial information and to undergo a face-to-face interview.
Improvements are needed in four areas to ensure the pilot program meets
legislative intent.
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First, a more systematic approach would enhance the
Department’s outreach efforts; for example, developing a written plan which
targets community agencies and organizations to ensure they are aware of the
kinship care program and also determine if they can help the Department
outreach to the community. In addition, the Department should establish a
mechanism for collecting information on how relative caregivers hear about
the program to help it assess the success of its outreach efforts.
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Second, the Department should identify and implement a
more effective referral system for assisting kinship care families obtain
other needed services. For example, it could update its current resource
guides or help families learn how to use existing community referral and
information networks.
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Third, to ensure workers at the pilot offices are
appropriately implementing the streamlined application procedures, the
Department should ensure the workers undergo additional training on the
purpose and requirements of the streamlined processes, and also revise its
current cash assistance application instructions to reflect the new
processes.
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