RALEIGH — North Carolina legislators are seeking to completely overhaul social services, especially the foster care system.

As of late, the word “crisis” is being used to describe the foster-care situation, and rightly so, according to a recent report submitted to the 2017 North Carolina General Assembly. More than 12,000 children are wards of the state, a number that has seen a 25 percent spike in the last five years. The report revealed that 30,000 children enrolled in public schools are homeless and prompted action on the part of some lawmakers.

In April, House Bill 608 was introduced to the North Carolina House, with a companion bill being filed in the Senate. Entitled the Family/Child Protection & Accountability Act, its purpose is to completely restructure what its sponsors call a broken system, citing the report and saying it “identified troubling gaps and flaws in North Carolina’s child welfare system that are allowing too many … vulnerable children and fragile families to fall through the cracks.”

As for the cause behind the spike in numbers, neither legislators nor child protection advocates have a ready answer. While population increases could account for part of the rise, the numbers don’t support it being the sole — or even the primary — catalyst. The United State Census Bureau estimates North Carolina’s population to be growing at roughly 1 percent each year, or a 6.4 percent increase from 2010-2016 — hardly enough to justify a 25 percent increase, in about the same time frame, of children in foster care.

“Substance abuse is on the rise, and we also have mental health issues that cause neglect — those are some of our biggest issues,” said Bladen County Child Protective Services Supervisor Jill Sampson at last month’s Child Abuse Awareness Walk.

The Family/Child Protection Accountability Act would make sweeping changes to social services, beginning with the infrastructure. Currently, the state’s Department of Health and Human Services provides funding and oversight of the foster system, but each county operates independently.

The bill reads, in part: “… county social services agencies are facing significant resource and administration challenges in areas other than child welfare, such as public assistance and adult services.” It cites a recent audit by the North Carolina State Auditor of Medicaid eligibility that concluded most counties included in the audit did not meet timeliness and accuracy guidelines, saying “it has been challenging for the State to effectively supervise administration of complex social services programs in 100 counties …”

The solution, according to the bill’s authors, is to apply a practice Bladen County is currently in the midst of with education — consolidation. The 100 current county social services agencies, by the year 2022, would be consolidated into no more than 30 regionally-administered, state-supervised agencies determined by cultural similarities and differences across the state. The move would be an effort to promote consistency with regard to implementation of regulations and to provide accountability.

In addition to merging services, the bill would also gather all like services under one broad “children” umbrella.

“The General Assembly finds it is essential that a single body serve as a means for the coordination, collaboration, and communication among agencies and organizations involved in providing public services to children,” the bill reads.

The council that would oversee all publicly funded, child-related agencies would be comprised of 13 members ranging from state legislators to social services directors, mental health providers, and early education specialists.

To reform the working parts of the system, the bill proposes “critical changes” to the current plan. A working group would be assembled and a third party contracted to develop a plan to improve data collection and its use; improve state-level governance; change compensation and training of staff; and look at ways to eliminate unnecessary barriers to foster care, which would ultimately increase the number of families qualified to foster the state’s children. In the vein of the latter, the bill also proposes to do away with current regulation requiring full-time employment for those involved in therapeutic foster care.

Rep. David Lewis, one of the primary sponsors of the bill, told the Carolina Journal, “It’s high time we invest in key social services infrastructure to serve the needs of those who do not have a voice. We must not sit idly by while children suffer; instead, we must be proactive and tackle the issue head on with holistic reforms that solve the problem.”

Chrysta Carroll can be reached by calling 910-862-4163.

By Chrysta Carroll

ccarroll@civitasmedia.com