The monumental task of creating a new agency is well underway, and I am eager to share with you our progress thus far. We’re trying to take a thoughtful and inclusive approach to this work, one that brings to bear the immense expertise from staff and the field as we make critical decisions for the new agency. By doing so, we will ensure improved outcomes for children and youth across our state.
Internal efforts:
In collaboration with the Office of Financial Management and the Department of Social and Health Services, we’ve formed interagency work groups to tackle the operational functions of getting the agencies of origin together by July 1, 2018. These teams will inventory the current tools, policies, and practices in each agency and recommend how the new agency should operate.
A large part of my time, and that of the team working on this effort, has been spent listening to staff and community members, as their input will help us build the best department possible. The team is looking for answers to two main questions:
- What initiatives or efforts that are underway do you see value in?
- What current practice in the system is most frustrating and you’d like to see changed?
The responses we’ve been getting are often consistent, and generally very solution-oriented. We are doing our best to assure staff that this work is not a cost cutting measure, that racial equity is at the forefront of our minds in all the work we are undertaking, and that as Secretary, I am really and truly hearing what they are bringing to me.
Here are some of the main themes we’ve been hearing as we meet with staff across the state:
- All three agencies of origin (Children’s Administration, Juvenile Rehabilitation, and Department of Early Learning) want to have a say and a role in the forming of the new agency.
- Staff are still concerned about losing their jobs because of this merger.
- Everyone wants to know how the new agency will be organized, from the composition of teams to the location of offices.
- Equity, diversity, and inclusion are of great concern to many people.
- Caseload and staff support are top of the list for many people as issues for us to address.
These are all reasonable concerns and ones that many people in these agencies share. A lot of our work over the next year will be in addressing these, so I’m grateful for the solutions and ideas we’re already getting.
Meeting with stakeholders and the community:
I’ve also had some very illuminating experiences out in communities, speaking with clients and providers of the services DCYF will administer. In Grays Harbor I listened as the foster care community told me of an ongoing catch-22 they find themselves in. Generous people volunteer to be foster parents for infants in need, but there isn’t enough infant child care in the region, and without identified child care they find it often impossible to foster and hold a job.* The catch is that if these volunteers could get signed up to care for an infant, there might be mechanisms to create child care slots from them, but the uncertainty keeps many away.
This problem causes the state to place children far away from their birth family and community, which does not engender good outcomes for any child. Knowing that, we’re exploring funding options to create some reserved child care slots, particularly for infants and toddlers. We’ll prioritize allocation of these special slots to communities that are facing shortages of foster families.
I’ve also met with advocates for families of youths who are leaving the juvenile rehabilitation system or are aging out of foster care, and end up living on the streets. We are trying to come up with efficient housing solutions for these youth so that they have a shot at recovering from their trauma and getting into a position to succeed in life.
What to expect next:
So far my listening tour has consisted of one-off meetings and a lot of jumping around the state. We’re working to streamline that some, and will soon have dates and locations posted to our website so that you’ll know how to find me and my team during the transition. Keep sending us your ideas for people/organizations that I should meet with — slowly but surely we’re working our way through those recommendations. Your input will allow us to hear from and connect with as many stakeholders as possible.
There were a number of deliverables required of the new agency in HB 1661. You can read through the list on our website. In the next month, expect to see drafts of each piece of those deliverables. I’ll be seeking your feedback on those, and asking for your grace given the extremely tight timelines the legislature has given us.
Vickie Ybarra joined the nascent DCYF team this week as the Director of Research and Policy. She has been the Director of Research at DEL and has done an outstanding job building a framework to analyze the current performance of programs DEL runs. This job is part of the initial surge that DCYF will be doing in the interim year and, like all the other jobs we have right now, will morph into something somewhat different next year when the initial restructuring happens.
For this year her responsibilities are largely centered around building the analytical framework for the new agency, including leading the effort to complete one of our key year one requirements — establishing the top outcome goals for children and youth in our system.
Her teams’ policy work will be a complement to the policy teams inside the agencies who have deep experience with and knowledge of the content specific to their agency. We’re going to spend much of the rest of the year reviewing how all three agencies go about their work with children and how it fits together. I see the Research and Policy team bringing together all three agencies (and many external stakeholders) to develop a framework for how we make policy that’s informed both by the analytics and by clearly articulated goals for children and youth.
She’ll be hiring a few additional people to staff the team over the next few months. More on that as positions get posted. As you can imagine, this is a crucial role for DCYF and Vickie is the right person to be leading it. Her expertise will help us build a great team with a relentless focus on improving outcomes for children and youth.
Ross Hunter, Secretary
*Correction: we previously stated that without identified child care families would be denied applications to foster. That was incorrect; the absence of child care is not a consideration for licensing.