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New DCYF commissioner nominee emphasizes keeping children local, expanding prevention
Summary
Nicole Ward told the personnel committee she plans to keep more children in-county through an agency-operated boarding home at Saint Rose and to expand prevention programs; she cited prevention services serving hundreds of children and said outcomes are tracked, though committee members asked for clearer success metrics.
During her remarks to the personnel committee, Nicole Ward outlined two central priorities if confirmed as commissioner: keeping more children local and expanding prevention services to reduce entries into foster care and juvenile justice.
Ward told the committee the department is "working with the executive's office on a piece of property at Saint Rose" to create an agency-operated boarding home that would also serve as a family resource center. "Keep the kids local," she said, describing the effort as a way to maintain family and community ties rather than sending children out of county or out of state.
On prevention, Ward said programs are evidence-based and tracked; she cited that "the latest number is 457 children that went through our prevention services" and said only a very small number from that cohort required foster care, recalling that around four children entered foster care. Committee members asked for clearer measures of success. One member queried an alternate figure (157) and asked for an explicit success rate; Ward said the department keeps detailed records and that prevention aims to keep children with family and in the community.
The exchange highlighted both concrete proposals (the Saint Rose site for a boarding/home family resource center) and a standing request from committee members for clearer, year-to-year performance metrics.
