County child-welfare review: SIP targets permanency and timely investigations amid staffing gaps; public commenter urges stronger oversight

The Department of Children and Family Services presented its county self-assessment (CSA) and five-year System Improvement Plan (SIP) to the joint Social Services and Health committees on March 24, reporting baseline performance shortfalls and planned corrective steps.

Bud Seeley, management analyst for the department, told the committee that of 231 Alameda County children who had been in foster care at least 24 months as of April 1, 2023, 23.8% (55 children) had exited to permanency within 12 months; the department said 32 additional timely exits would have been required to meet the national standard. Seeley also flagged investigation timeliness: the department reported substantial shortfalls in the 10-day in-person response measure and closer performance on immediate (higher-risk) responses.

The SIP priorities include increasing staff, youth and family knowledge of permanency options; updating the department's permanency guide and producing a youth-friendly version; expanding family-finding engagement by partnering with Casey Family Programs; strengthening referral use to reduce missed service connections; and process-mapping to reduce barriers to timely investigations. Seeley said the department is piloting a dedicated 10-day investigation unit and that child-welfare worker vacancy rates were 32.8%, down from a high of about 40% after continuous hiring and expanded induction classes.

During public comment, Alexandra Kaye said errors in her son's child-welfare investigation were not discovered until she requested the narrative and pursued corrections; she listed six concerns including incomplete investigations, investigation narratives with multiple errors that supervisors did not catch, lack of an independent grievance mechanism, and no audit trail. "They literally had no clue any of this was happening until I told them," Kaye said, urging the committee to reject the SIP until the department commits to measuring and addressing these investigative failures.

Department officials said the California state auditors are auditing Emergency Response practice and noted changes to investigation practice following Kaye's case; officials also said families can request investigation narratives and that some policy and process updates have been made (the department stated investigations now follow applicable penal-code practices). Officials described the SIP as the child-welfare system's federal/state improvement plan that will include evaluation components for each strategy.

Separately, Michael Cole of the Center for the Helping Professions described the National Partnership for Child Safety, a peer-learning quality-improvement collaborative that applies safety science to mitigate fatalities and near-fatalities in child welfare and emphasizes cultural and workforce changes to reduce turnover and improve problem solving. County staff also reviewed the Interagency Leadership Team (ILT) established under AB 2083, the interagency coordinating council/executive leadership team, the Comprehensive Prevention Plan (approved Oct. 2023), and multiple cross-agency committees to coordinate placements, high-needs youth, and Medi-Cal/CalAIM funding leverage.

Supervisors asked for follow-up reporting and data-sharing (including a future presentation from the Area Agency on Aging and a request that DCFS provide statewide averages for comparison); department staff agreed to provide additional statewide context and to return with progress updates as hiring and pilot interventions proceed.

No formal board action or vote occurred at the meeting; supervisors requested further briefings and asked staff to return with the SIP-related performance data and mapping products for continued oversight.