Independent Living Services Advisory Council

2/13/2009

Meeting Minutes

Independent Living Services Advisory Council

DCF Suncoast Region Office

9393 North Florida Ave, TampaFlorida

33612

Phone 813-558-5500

February 13, 2009

9:30 to 4:00

Tampa, Florida

Handouts: 2008 Annual Report, DCF Response and DCF letters regarding the report; 2008 Independent Living Transitional Services Critical Checklist; Florida’s Children First Education Recommendations for Inter-Agency Actions to Improve Educational Opportunities for Florida’s Foster Youth; Social Policy Report Brief

1. Call to Order

Meeting called to order at 9:37 am. Please see attachment of members in attendance at the meeting.

2. Welcome and Introductions

Jane Soltis, Chair, welcomed the new members and asked each person to introduce themselves, their organization and what specifically they would like to see changed in the year ahead.

  • Magistrate Howard Friedman, Magistrate in the Orlando family court-educational attainment
  • Sandra Neidert ,Florida Office of State Courts- youth voice in court
  • David Hall,Foster parent since 2000 of teen boys- Placement of 18 year olds and those in group homes and what happens afterwards
  • Jack Ahearn , DJJ, Probation-transition services for delinquent children
  • Amy Guinan, Children’s Legal Services -health care and access to health care services
  • Onchantho Am, Connected by 25 Initiative-youth informed in the court and dependency process
  • Kent Berkley,Jim Casey Youth OpportunitiesInitiative( JCYOI) -guest
  • Shannon Nazworth,Ability First - homeless former foster youth
  • Diane Zambito, Connected by25 Initiative - translating policy into practice and to ensure statewide services for all youth regardless of where the youth is from
  • Cecy Glenn,United Way-children transitioning out at 18 and where they go
  • Gay Frizzell, DCF- turning policy into practice
  • Mary Cagle ,Children’s Legal Services-education, ensure that DCF lawyers move the policy into practice
  • Eleese Davis, DCF- Quality Assurance -gaps in quality assurance and how to address them
  • Denise Arnold, Agency for Persons with Disabilities-how to improve the transition for youth 18-25, and Medicaid buy-in projects
  • Linda Jewel Morgan, Casey Family Programs based in Seattle. guest
  • Bonnie Marmor Vice-Chancellor for the Department of Education for K-12 technical centers, and the educational sector program. (Retired)- to ensure self-sufficiency
  • Kele Williams,University of Miami -provides legal services to current and former foster youth-education and how the school system operates for youth in foster care
  • Glen Casel, CEO of CBC Seminole.- “get out of the independent living business” by making sure that all youth have a family
  • Anna Baznik, Intervention Services- housing
  • Chris Card, Providence Management Corporation of Florida
  • Charlie Nelson, GAL program-mentors and adult connections after the age of 18 for those youth who have special needs, attorney representation
  • Tammy Workman, DCF -employment services and in working with the youth and bringing their voices to the table
  • Tracy Heller ,FCC- create opportunities for this population and the development of effective policy
  • Lillian Lima, DCF - Operation Full Employment, employability, life skills seminars which have a focus on achieving personal best
  • Mike Dunlavy, Chair of Florida Youth SHINE-changein culture about foster care
  • Jane Soltis, Eckerd Family Foundation- improvement of post secondary education outcomes for youth
  • Helen Lancashire, Florida Dept of Education-education

3. Overview of the ILSAC; Role, Responsibilities; Overview of previous work; Meeting Process and Logistics

Jane Soltis provided an overview of the Council for new and returning members and guests so that everyone is starting out on the same page for the year ahead.

The Council has been in existence since the legislature created this body in 2004. The Council was created by the legislature and tasked with reviewing and making recommendations concerning the implementation and operation of independent living transition services.

The ILSAC is to:

  • Assess the implementation and operation of the services
  • Advise the Department on actions that would improve those serves
  • Keep the department informed of problems being experienced with services
  • Barriers to the effective and efficient integrations of services and support across systems and
  • To identify success achieved.

We are required to submit a report to the legislature which is accompanied by a report from the department that details the actions they will take to implement our recommendations or rational for not implementing the recommendations.

The 2008 report was distributed and all members can be provided access to previous year’s reports in hard copy or on line.

Membership in the ILSAC is at the request of the DCF Secretary.

The ILSAC is a non funded and voluntary group, however if there is an identified need for and work that we consider necessary to inform our recommendations we have the ability to request that work from DCF or through an outside consultant. (Given the availability of funding).

Jane Soltis noted that for 2009 the ILSAC includes a broader array of stakeholders with a range of expertise and knowledge.

As members of the ILSAC we certainly come representing organizations /departments or interests however we believe that the council has been effective and even sometimes fun because we have come to these meetings not with our organizational hats but with the individual concern and commitment that we can and should do better for youth in care who are transitioning to adulthood. As such we have an unwritten rule that we all want the same thing…that we treat each other with respect and that we give everyone the opportunity to talk and ask questions.

Jane Soltis also noted that she was the official timekeeper of the meetings and we have a reputation for keeping the meetings moving, on track and ending on time.

We also do not engage in “beating up” on DCF or any organization because of what they are doing or not doing but approach issues in a proactive and problem solving manner.

The ILSAC meets four to five times a year, usually either in Tampa or Orlando, but are certainly open to other locations that are easily accessible to the membership.

Over the 5 years we have made some notable accomplishments in partnership with other stakeholders including:

  • A number of publications –FAQ, Rights and Expectations, Hearing Your Voice
  • Youth planned and directed a convening in 2007 for DCF and CBC leadership and management on their issues
  • YouthLeadershipAcademy graduated their inaugural class last year
  • Critical Checklist was designed and implemented for 2007 and 2008.
  • Desired Youth outcomes were identified
  • National GovernorAssociationPolicyAcademy for youth transitioning out of foster care.
  • Transitioned from a DCF managed youth advisory group to an outside, independent Youth SHINE organization.
  • Increased the representation of youth on panels, conferences and task groups-featured trainings at Dependency Court Improvement Summit and Fl Coalition for Children Annual Meeting
  • Butterworth Scholarship established
  • Increased the visibility of teens on a broader scale with a resulting increase in private resources and collaborations coming to the table such as Junior League, 100 Black Men, private funders and businesses
  • Participating in the Supreme Court Steering Committee on Families and Children in the court
  • Supported legislation that:

Increased and expanded the legibility for Medicaid for youth to age 21

Formal evaluations for subsidized independent living

Fostered normalcy /age appropriate transition planning with the youth input and signature

Educational and career planning requirements with and signed by youth

Financial literacy skills training as a requirement

Removal on non age for banking and rental agreements

Headway on liability for driver’s license for under 18 year olds

Changed the title from RTI Scholarship to RTI program

  • Supported the Florida Housing Finance Corporation on an inclusion of youth aging out of foster care in private housing

Jane Soltis noted that while these are some of the issues we have advocated and supported we still have a lot of work to do.

Pages 7 and 8 of this year’s ILSAC report includes a matrix that identifies previous year’s recommendations and their status. The plan for the meeting is to go through this matrix and identify the strategies, work groups and priorities for the coming year.

Jane Soltis then introduced Kent Berkley who works with the Jim Casey Youth OpportunitiesInitiative based in St. Louiswhich is focused on and promotes issues regarding foster care on a national basis. As part of this work, JCYOI has established demonstration sites to create strategies to implement and improve outcomes. Their Floridasite is a co-investment site with the Eckerd Family Foundation. JCYOI is in a transition process having done this work for four years and is looking to expand and replicate their work through coinvestment sites. The Florida site is likely to be the model of co-investment. The focus is to engage youth and to create partnerships. JCYOI uses baseline data and tracks outcomes. They require a self-evaluation team that monitors progress. They strongly believe that young people arethe best advocates.

Ms. Soltisalso introduced Linda Jewel Morgan from Casey Family Programs. One of the current goals of the Casey Family Program is to reduce foster care safely by 2020.Another program is called “raise me up,” which are ads to raise awareness about foster care.They have been very effective in raising knowledge. Theyhave also been working on developing permanency round tables where people from the national levelsit with people from the local area and youth to determine how to best provide permanency for young people.

4.2008 ILSAC Report and DCF Response and Attachments

Jane Soltis then turned the group to the 2008 Annual Report and the Department’s response. New Recommendations are on page 4.

Gay Frizzell reviewed the DCF response to the 2008 Report. The recommendations fall into three major areas:

1- Medical issues and Medicaid. Some of this work has already begun. In September 2008, the Department and other agencies (APD, DJJ, DOH-CMS, and WIA) signed the interagency agreement that is the vehicle for theses problems to be solved. On February 5th, 2009 the work began on this issue with a presentation by Dr. Burgman to major stakeholders in the system. However, this is a difficult recommendation to implement in regards to funding and other issues regarding medical care.

2- Education- Mary Cagle from CLS has been named the DCF” champion” for the education issues for DCF.

3-Portability and accessibility ofservices across the state. Ms. Frizzell offered thatit might be more helpful for theCouncil to form a smaller group and work with DCF leadership to review this recommendation and how to movetowardimplementation.

The additional recommendations by the Council are listed on pages 7 and 8 and can also be grouped into categories of:

4. Outcomes, Data, Accountability, the Critical Checklist,

5. Permanency Planning.

Glen Casel represented that while the Critical Checklist provides information on certain elements needed to understand how IL services are being provided in the state of Florida it does not represent how good the services are on an individual level. Mr. Casel recommended making a parking list of data elements that we need to add to the Critical Checklist. For example: changing schools of youth in care, adding elements to measure how good the support system is for that youth, etc.While the discussion was in 2008 to “tweak” the Checklist but to keep many of the data elements essentially the same, it may be time for a discussion of what needs to be added in order to get a better picture of thequality of services and status of the youth in Florida.

There was extensive discussion on the Critical Checklist and the need for individualized planning for each youth.

Diane Zambito -recommendations on page 7, which is an individual plan for each youth statewide to understand that all are receiving the same assessments. Ms. Zambito stated that the data from checklist is only a snapshot.

Magistrate Howard Friedman - schools having different ways of understanding the federal requirements and how that translates into what he sees in his courtroom on a daily basis.

Helen Lancashire–now required electronic individual plan for the education and career path and how that may be of benefit to education planning.

Mr. Casel-The checklist is never going to be the way to solve all issues that every child has. This must happen on an individual level and the evaluation is needed to be child by child. We should not make sure services are only determined by the next judicial review. Historically the system is far more gearedin trying to meet compliance issues.

Diane Zambito-communication with court is critical and the youth voice must be at the table and to ensure that the service planning enables the youth to deal with transitioning

Magistrate Friedman- how do we get those services that are needed for APD youth?

Chris Card - the system is composed of individual children.Need to pay attention to what you are measured by, including that weneed to measure by how well individual children are doing.

5.DCF Updates

Other activities and initiatives related to Independent living and transitioning youth

  • National Governor’s Association- Ms. Frizzell stated that Florida is participating in a second policy institute of NGA with the emphasis on safely reducing the number of children in foster care. At the beginning of the Title IV-E waiver there were 29,000 in foster care in Florida. Currently there are about 20,000. This is due to successes in adoption and permanent guardianship and permanency planning. The success is also keeping more children out of the foster care system and getting families for those in foster care.
  • 100 Longest Waiting Children-This project is to select youth who have been in foster care for a long period of time, who are available for adoption, and to find them an adoptive family. The first part of this process is to understand who is in foster care and available for adoption. The CBCs who are participating are volunteering and they receive technical assistance for the project. The youth are more often than not teens and thereare a disproportionate number of African American males.The project is also teaching caseworkers new skills in finding permanencyand how they use them for these teens.
  • The Foster Parent Retention and Recruitment Project is being coordinated through the YouthLawCenter with funding by DCF and the Eckerd Family Foundation. This project is providing intensive technical assistance to recruit quality foster families. The focus is on getting children in foster care family placements, connections, andpermanency. Pilot sites are Big Bend, HKI, and CBC Seminole.

Glen Casel shared some of their learnings from this pilotproject. The TA has been very helpful and has caused his agency to really focus on the issue. The project is not about just finding a placement, but includes the training and support for foster families, developing others resourcesand limiting placement moves for children. Glen related that this has been a significant process over 8 months with a focus on problem analysis to better understand and correct the issues.He provided a case example on radon testing that was interfering with a successful and stable placement for a pregnant teen girl as an illustration of how the system is in conflict with itself and not always focused on permanency or maintenance of successful placements. Ms. Glenn stated that there is also a retention issue with foster parents.

Glen also talked about the challenges of assigning one person –usually a social worker who is responsible for recruitment, retention and support.

Jane Soltis - this pilot has intentionally included the whole system: PI, foster care, case management, licensure, etc.

The longer term plan is to have the pilot sites present their process and learnings to all of the lead agencies within the next year.

ILSAC members questioned the emphasis on foster families and how that impacts group homes and shift care.

Glen Casel- a natural casual effect. Their desire is to increase the number of foster parents and create more supply. This changes the demand side of the equation. A good match for the child is the ultimate goal.The agency needs to “stop being a blood bank” and instead strive for 30- 40% excess capacity in foster home beds.

Ongoing engagement of foster parents in new and innovative ways is also a piece of the project and the continuum of care and options.

Foster parents must be treated as a professional partner and peer. Foster parents should also be able to support and mentor biological families.

The goal is the right child for the right placement and that the system should have multiple options and that children should have a voice in selecting their preferred option.