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County officials outline child welfare gains, kinship strategy and youth safety plans
Summary
DHHS leaders told the committee they're expanding kinship placements, reported adoptions and guardianships finalized in FY25, and proposed a Youth Safety Initiative with an interagency coordination dashboard; Treehouse Child Advocacy Center reported reduced wait lists and increased forensic interviews.
At the committee's CYF session, DHHS leaders described FY24–25 progress and FY26 proposals across child welfare, school- and community-based services, and eligibility and support services.
Dr. James Bridgers, DHHS director, and Lori Garabe Aquino (acting chief, Children Youth & Families) said the county has focused on kinship placement and permanency. Child Welfare staff reported 33 finalized adoptions in FY25 and an increase in approved kinship homes (the presentation cited growth from 10 to 51 approved kinship providers). The department described a fellowship partnership with University of Shady Grove that offered stipends and two-year service commitments to recent graduates as a pipeline to fill vacancies.
On the Youth Safety Initiative, DHHS described four initial priorities: create a unified data source, improve interoperability across partner systems, publish a user-friendly dashboard of resources and outcomes, and convene a youth resiliency steering committee to coordinate services. "There's a lack of, unified data source," Dr. Bridgers said, noting work with school and behavioral-health partners and plans for joint work sessions with MCPS and other agencies.
Charlie Regan, executive director of the Treehouse Child Advocacy Center, said Treehouse has virtually eliminated the wait list for trauma therapy, now conducts more than 90% of county forensic interviews, and is expanding family advocacy and transitional trauma therapy. Regan said Treehouse also broadened referral criteria to include children who experienced assault or other trauma-inducing circumstances.
Council members pressed DHHS for more granular metrics — for example, counts of medical evaluations completed, wait-list numbers for mental-health services and breakdowns of caseloads by program. DHHS and Treehouse representatives committed to provide missing figures and to return with follow-up reports. The committee did not identify budget reductions for the CYF package and staff recommended concurrence with the executive's FY26 proposal for the service area.
