Contact:
Mara Powell
mpowell@kyyouth.org
Statement from Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates
LOUISVILLE, KY – The child welfare system, and specifically the process of substantiation of abuse and neglect, is complex, involves multiple departments, and can be subjective. When people feel the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) did not take appropriate steps or make the right decisions in child abuse cases, they may contact the Ombudsman’s office to file a complaint. However, currently the Ombudsman’s office that takes complaints for child abuse cases is housed within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), meaning that people are filing a complaint within the same Cabinet that made the decision in a case.
Senate Bill 48, sponsored by Senator Stephen Meredith and passed today by the Senate Families & Children Committee, aims to create more efficiency within many of the important functions of CHFS, as well as improve organization of those functions and workforce issues to create better outcomes for children and families. This bill emanated from the CHFS Organizational Structure, Operations, and Administrations Task Force that met over the interim. SB 48 extends that Task Force to continue meeting through the interim of 2023. The most integral component of this bill addresses an ongoing challenge concerning child maltreatment reports and investigations: the functioning and transparency of the Ombudsman’s Office.
The other efficiencies include reorganizing departments and offices to create more linear means of communication within CHFS, for example stationing the work of the Office for Children with Special Health Care Needs to the Department for Public Health. It requires the Department for Medicaid Services, Aging and Independent Living and Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (DBHDID) to work together to identify and eliminate redundancies and barriers to administering Medicaid waivers. It also moves some functions of CHFS outside of CHFS, including moving the function of addressing delinquent child support payments to the Office of Attorney General.
We applaud Senator Meredith for championing this bill and leading collaboration with CHFS, advocates, and those impacted by the proposed changes. We also applaud the Senator and the Senate Families & Children Committee for adopting the committee substitute to create an even more independent option for the Ombudsman’s Office to be relocated to the State Auditor’s Office. We thank the Committee for taking this first step to increase transparency and accountability with child welfare cases with today’s passage of SB 48.
Stay up-to-date on Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children priorities and other bills that are good for kids on our Kentucky General Assembly Bill Tracker.
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About Kentucky Youth Advocates
Kentucky Youth Advocates believes all children deserve to be safe, healthy, and secure. As THE independent voice for Kentucky’s children, we work to ensure policymakers create investments and policies that are good for children. Learn more at www.kyyouth.org.
It is my understanding from reading the bill that the Ombudsman office will remain under the authority and direction of CHFS, but no longer be housed within the Secretary’s Office. While I guess this is somewhat of an improvement, is this truly anything more than “moving them across the hall”? They will still answer to the CHFS Secretary. Or am I misunderstanding something?
I’m also very concerned about the dissolving of the department for family resource centers and that obligation being moved under DCBS jurisdiction. Oftentimes when DCBS fails children, the family resource centers are their only hope and support. We cannot move this resource to be governed by the most broken/corrupt system in our state! There will be no backup to catch these children when they fall through the DCBS cracks.
Mrs. Mortensen, thanks so much for your comment.
In the Senate Committee Substitute (https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/23RS/SB48/SCS1.pdf) that passed in the Senate Families and Children Committee on February 15th, the Ombudsman’s Office is being proposed to move to the Auditor’s Office and not to remain within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The Ombudsman will not be under the purview of the CHFS Secretary, but the State Auditor.
Also in the Senate Committee Substitute, the Division of Family Resource and Youth Service Centers is to remain in the Department for Family Resource Centers and Volunteer Services, which is separate from the Department for Community Based Services.
Please let us know if you have any further questions.