Children's Services
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PRACTICE NOTES
III II
For North Carolina's Child Welfare Workers
From the NC Division of Social Services and the Family and Children's Resource Program
Volume 25, Number 2
April 2020
This publication for child
welfare professionals is
produced by the North
Carolina Division of Social
Services and the Family
and Children's Resource
Program, part of the
University of North Carolina
School of Social Work.
In summarizing research, we
try to give you new ideas for
refining your practice. How¬
ever, this publication is not
intended to replace child
welfare training, regular su¬
pervision, or peer consulta¬
tion — only to enhance them.
Let us hear from you!
To comment about some¬
thing that appears in Prac¬
tice Notes, please contact:
John McMahon
UNC School of Social Work
100 Europa Dr.
Suite 571 -CB# 5220
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
jdmcmaho@unc.edu
Newsletter Staff
Tonia Deese
Krista Kindley-Martin
John McMahon
Ashton Williams
Visit Our Website
www.practicenotes.org
NC Is Working to Improve Permanency Outcomes
Foster care can be a lifeline for children and
families, but when it goes on too long it can
have negative effects. That's why federal law
tells courts and child welfare agencies they
must help youth achieve permanence within
1 2 months of entering foster care.
Yet as the figure at right shows, over the
past four years, the time it takes NC children
to exit foster care has grown. As the figure
also shows, time to adoption in particular is
an issue. In SFY 201 8-1 9, children who exited
to adoption spent far longer in foster care — a
median of 912 days — than those who exited
to reunification, guardianship, or custody.
North Carolina is determined to decrease
length of stay and increase the rate of safe,
permanent exits from foster care. No single
strategy will achieve this, but as this issue of
Practice Notes describes, our state is pursuing
a number of proven methods to improve our
performance. Despite their differences, a com¬
mon theme of these approaches is the need
Exits from Foster Care in North Carolina:
Median Days in Care by Exit Type
□ Custody □Guardianship □Reunification ■ Adoption
Source : NCDHHS Client Services Dafa Warehouse, Child
Placement and Payment System, and NC FAST Child Services
for strong partnerships in which our judicial
and child welfare systems hold each other
accountable and work together to improve
results for children and families. ♦
North Carolina Holds Permanency Leadership Summit
On Nov. 20, 2019, North Carolina held a
summit in Raleigh on achieving timely per¬
manence for children and youth in foster
care. Titled "Partnership for Permanence:
Working Together, Family Forever," the event
drew more than 200 leaders and stakehold¬
ers from across the state. Attendees repre¬
sented the courts, child welfare agencies,
guardians ad litem, the general assembly,
private agencies, and other stakeholders.
Highlights included remarks from Cheri Bea¬
sley, Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court,
and Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the NC
Department of Health and Human Services, as
well as workshops on community stakeholder
engagement, including the youth voice, post¬
permanency services, safe and timely reunifica¬
tion, and NC's Early Childhood Action Plan.
North
Carolina is
serious about
improving
permanency
outcomes.
We Can Do Better
Dr. Ralph Bayard of
Casey Family Programs
opened the event by cel¬
ebrating the fact our state
has seen a decrease in
youth entering foster
care. "Unfortunately," he
noted, "we have also seen a decrease in
exits from foster care."
"North Carolina's performance in terms
of length of stay in foster care is 36th in the
nation," Bayard said. "We can and must do
better. For this to happen, the courts and
child welfare must work together."
Balancing Competing Principles
Next, summit participants heard from social
work scholar Dr. Jill Berrick, who continued next page