DCF Child Welfare Act Report

Date:

09/01/09

Author:

Department of Children and Families

These reports are required by the Child Welfare Act of 2008 (See https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2008/Chapter176).

The following information is required to be reported annually with the clerks of the senate and the house, the senate and house committees on ways and means, the joint committee on children, families and persons with disabilities, the office of the child advocate, and the governor:

the number of children placed in residential care by region and the cost of care and treatment provided to those children. The information reported for each region shall include, but not be limited to: (i) the age and gender of the children; (ii) the reasons for placement; (iii) the intensity, frequency and type of services provided to each child; (iv) the length of each placement; and (v) the disposition of the child’s case at the end of the residential placement, including whether the child was returned to the child’s family or placed in other care within the community. The report shall also include the cost of residential placement by region and any other information necessary for the evaluation of the operation of state-funded residential homes.

The following information is required to be reported semi-annually with the clerks of the senate and the house, the senate and house committees on ways and means, the joint committee on children, families and persons with disabilities, the office of the child advocate, and the governor:

(i) the status of high-risk children and the department’s efforts to identify such children and address their needs for child protection; (ii) the status of racial disproportionality and disparity of the department’s client population and its efforts, including the use of culturally competent staffing, resources and practices, to reduce overrepresentation of children of color in the child welfare system; (iii) the status of the department’s procurement of services; and (iv) the status of children who, due to their age, are transitioning out of the child welfare system.