Contact Us    |         

Home > State Executive Council / State & Local Advisory Team >SEC

State Executive Council / State & Local Advisory Team

DRAFT MINUTES

STATE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (SEC)
COMPREHENSIVE SERVICES FOR AT RISK YOUTH AND FAMILIES
Dining Hall, United Methodist Family Services
3900 W. Broad Street, Richmond, VA
Thursday, September 24, 2009

SEC Members Present:
Secretary Marilyn Tavenner, Office of Health and Human Resources
Raymond Ratke, Special Advisor for Children’s Services
Senator John Edwards, Virginia Senate
Trudy Ellis, Parent Representative
Sherrin Alsop, Member King and Queen County Board of Supervisors
Mary Bunting, Hampton Assistant City Manager
Joseph Paxton, Rockingham County Administrator
Tony Conyers, Commissioner, Department of Social Services
Lelia Hopper, Office of the Executive Secretary of the Virginia Supreme Court
Barry Green, Director, Department of Juvenile Justice
Tim Howard, Deputy Director for Community Programs, Department of Juvenile Justice
Janet Lung for James Reinhard, Commissioner, Department of Behavioral Health and
Developmental Services
Mike Gilmore, Executive Director, Alexandria CSB
Jeff Lake for Karen Remley, Commissioner, Department of Health
Catherine Hancock for Pat Finnerty, Director, Department of Medical Assistance Services
Susan Cumbia Clare for Superintendent Patricia Wright, Department of Education
Michael Farley, Executive Director, Elk Hill, Inc.
Christina Hawkins, VP of Business Development, Psychiatric Solutions, Inc.
Randy Blevins, Chair, State and Local Advisory Team

SEC Members Absent:
Delegate Phillip Hamilton, Virginia House of Delegates

Office of Comprehensive Services Staff Present:
Charlotte McNulty, Executive Director
Alan Saunders, Chief Operating Officer
Carol Wilson, Program Policy Analyst
Jane Hickey, Senior Assistant Attorney General
Marsha Mucha, Executive Assistant

Call to Order
Secretary Tavenner called the meeting to order at 9:35 a.m. A quorum was present. She welcomed the new members and asked everyone to introduce themselves.

Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the July 9, 2009 meeting were approved on a motion from Lelia Hopper, seconded by Barry Green and carried.

Transformation Initiative and CORE
Ray reported that he has been speaking on the Transformation Initiative at Best Practices Courts trainings being held around the state. The latest presentation was held this week in Alexandria with over 100 people in attendance. He noted that he was pleased to have worked with Lelia Hopper on this effort and that these presentations provide an excellent opportunity to spread the word about Transformation to judges across the state.

Data from the 13 CORE localities reflects a decrease of children in group care from 26% at the end of 2007 to a current rate of 16%. (The national average is 18%. Best practice average is 10 %). Statewide (outside the CORE localities) the percentage of children in group care is approximately 18.4%. Data also reflects an increase in the number of children discharged to permanency.

Ray further reported that localities are also doing an amazing amount of work in changing practices and managing by data. CORE met last week and a tremendous effort is underway to engage in collaborative processes. VDSS is making great progress on the Transformation Building Blocks in the areas of resource family development and family engagement.

Ray reported on the following upcoming Transformation activities:

• A Governor’s Conference on Children’s Services Transformation will be held December 16 and 17 in Richmond. The Governor and First Lady will be in attendance to help celebrate the success of the Children’s Services System Transformation. The Conference will provide an opportunity to learn proven methods for transforming communities and to learn techniques for collaborating in new ways to achieve better outcomes.
• The Annie E. Casey Foundation will sponsor a retreat in mid-October to explore ways to sustain the Transformation Initiative into the future.
• The Virginia Agents of Change Program will target leadership development for current and emerging leaders in the field of children’s services. Letters have been sent to county administrators and city managers soliciting nominations for the Program. Ten attendees for each region will be selected to commit to attending a variety of sessions to build their capacity as collaborative leaders to accelerate progress towards the multi-agency Transformation Outcomes.
• A team from Virginia (Ray Ratke, Paul McWhinney, Lelia Hopper, Senator Edwards and Delegate Peace) has been selected to participate in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices Policy Institute on Changing the Outcome: Achieving and Sustaining a Safe Reduction in Foster Care.
• A team from Virginia traveled to New Hampshire in June to discuss Virginia’s Transformation experience with New Hampshire officials. New Hampshire is beginning a Transformation Initiative. Ray Ratke and Marcy Johnson (UMFS) will be making a return visit in November at New Hampshire’s invitation. Ray and Marcy will also spend a day in Boston with Massachusetts officials to discuss Virginia’s Transformation experience.

Child Outcome Data
Ray reminded members as of October 1, 2009 reporting will begin on a selected group of outcome measures. The first phase of the work involves reviewing data currently available from each of the child serving agencies in the selected group of outcomes. Each agency will not have data available in every area but will report on data they currently collect in the selected measures.

Other areas to be addressed over time will be how to share data across agencies and whether or not there are ways to develop a cross-agency data set. Charlotte explained that CANS went on-line July 1, 2009. So far, 1,566 individual on-line assessments have been completed. Charlotte will have some CANS data to report at the December SEC meeting.

Secretary Tavenner explained that these outcome reports would provide basic information to build upon. She asked SEC members to let her know if there are particular data elements they would like to have reported and/or not reported.

Taking the Next Step: The Family Perspective of the CSA Journey
Trudy Ellis provided background information on her son’s and family’s journey through CSA. Because he was able to receive the services he needed, he is thriving and is having great success in school.

During her presentation, Trudy reiterated the purpose of CSA, which is to provide high quality, child centered, family focused, cost effective, community-based services to high-risk you and their families. She noted that CSA should return to the roots of simplified access to services for children and their families. CSA should ensure localities, in cooperation with families, are empowered to serve Virginia’s children and the state taxpayers in a way that provides long-term value to everyone.

Trudy next presented recommendations that she had prepared in conjunction with some key stakeholders. Those recommendations were:
• Give families an equal voice by increasing family representatives to the SEC.
• Provide families with an advocate.
• Improve the family experience with FAPT: rights, self referral, meeting notice.
• Establish mechanism for Due Process.
• Improve family advocacy: interactive webpage, online chat, phone line, Due Process, self referral, clear options and outcomes.
• Help agencies serve families: outcome based incentives, empowered to use funds and allot services based on child’s needs.
• Keep agencies and families out of court by using alternative case management agencies for residential placements.
• Improve training: family dynamics, Children’s Mental Health Waiver, family value and perspective, transition planning.

At the close of her presentation, Trudy recommended that the SEC establish a work group to evaluate and implement these suggestions and provide periodic feedback to the SEC.

Secretary Tavenner thanked Trudy for her presentation and noted that the family representation on the SEC should be expanded. This will require legislation. Ray agreed that the culture needs to be changed in regards to engaging families. He noted that part of what Trudy was recommending is already being worked on. During further discussion, Charlotte explained that she would like to expand the focus of the Family Engagement Work Group to include recommendations from Trudy’s presentation. Secretary Tavenner asked that Charlotte provide feedback on how some of these recommendations are being met at the December meeting.

Public Comment
Denise Gallop, Hampton CSA Coordinator, provided a written comment on behalf of the Hampton CPMT. The written comments cited the core values and beliefs that guide the City of Hampton in its practices for working with children and families.

The comments also contained information about a transfer case for a special education student who had been placed in an out of state facility for a number of years. Based on this child’s case and based on Hampton’s core values and beliefs and the fact that the Hampton CPMT counts the SEC as their partner in the successful outcomes for youth and families, Hampton CPMT recommends a study that would provide further insight into the following:
• To review all residentially placed children and youth from the state of Virginia under an Individual Education Program (IEP) to determine that the spirit of the IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) law is being followed;
• To determine the feasibility of a more rigorous utilization review process in addition to the yearly IEP review requirement that currently exists, similarly, if not exactly, as the existing utilization review requirements for all other state pool funded residential placements;
• To determine how many children and youth are on an IEP in provisionally licensed facilities, what the provisional licenses are for, and each locality’s rationale for continued use of such facilities; and
• To determine the appropriate monitoring of out-of-state residential facilities for youth who have reached the age of 18 and are no longer monitored by the Office of the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children.

Susan Cumbia Clare explained that IDEA requires not only an annual review of the IEP, but specification within the IEP of periodic reporting on the child’s progress toward goals in the IEP. Virginia's regulation requires that this reporting occur at least as frequently as reporting of progress is provided for students without disabilities, e.g., in alignment with interim reports, report cards, etc. - typically every 6 to 9 weeks, perhaps even as frequently as every 4 1/2 weeks.

At the close of the public comment, Secretary Tavenner thanked Denise and noted that she would need to do some research on the issues involved. The Secretary also noted that an effort has been underway over the past year to review the circumstances of each child placed out of state in an effort to determine if these children can be served appropriately in Virginia.

State and Local Advisory Team (SLAT) Report
Randy Blevins, SLAT Chair, reported that SLAT had two policy considerations to bring before the SEC for approval.

Pool Funds Carve Out
Randy reported that SLAT would like to ask the SEC to develop a workgroup to study the possibility of developing a pool fund carve out option for localities to be able to develop new community-based services.

He noted that this was not a new concept but was done at one time and had been discussed by the SEC during 1995 and 1996. In October 1995, the State Management Team (now the SLAT) recommended to the SEC that it discontinue making contributions to the Trust Funds and make a limited amount of funds available through a “request for proposal” process. This funding would be considered a “carve-out” so that all localities could access pool funds as venture capital. The SEC required the State Management Team (now SLAT) to establish a workgroup to develop policies and procedures for the program operation.

In May 1996 the SEC decided to table the issue until there was further discussion and decision about the Trust Funds and because of the new Virginia Juvenile Crime Control Act. Randy explained that the Trust Funds are no longer available and funding from the Virginia Juvenile Crime Control Act has been significantly depleted.

Family Engagement
Randy reported that SLAT felt it was important to revisit developing a family engagement model for CSA. He provided background information on the statutory requirements for family engagement in the CSA system. The statute provides guidance for the roles and responsibilities for the SEC, CPMT and FAPT. It also provides specific guidance on several other important aspects of the programs, such as who has access to pool funds, the purpose of the pool funds, court involvement, etc.

Randy further explained that the statute does not provide strong language that provides guidance related to youth and family engagement, one of the basic tenants of the law. Several family engagement models exist. Each uses a trained facilitator to work with the family, youth, appropriate providers and any person who the family identifies as important to them in a supportive capacity. The result is a plan for the child and family that has the agreement of all parties. VDSS has already undertaken a significant effort to require that every LDSS adopt a structured family engagement model.

Randy reported that SLAT would like to recommend to the SEC that a workgroup be developed to promulgate rules that further explain the intent of the CSA statute to require family engagement, and promote best practices in family engagement for any CSA child regardless of the referral agency. In addition, it is hoped that this process could decrease the burden on FAPTs. The promulgation of rules would not exceed the SEC’s statutory authority or intrude on local autonomy under the statute. The policy recommendations would be presented for the SEC’s consideration at their March 2010 meeting.

The two recommendations to convene workgroups (carve out and family engagement) were approved by the SEC on a motion by Trudy Ellis, seconded by Mike Gilmore and carried.

Other SLAT Items
Randy reported that a third workgroup for the development of an Individual and Family Services Plan (IFSP) to support transition services for children in settings due to IEP is unnecessary. After further review of historical information, this policy is already in place so this issue is a technical assistance issue for OCS.

Randy further reported that SLAT will convene a workgroup to revisit the process by with localities can request approval from the SEC for the use of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs). No locality has taken advantage of the request procedure since 2004. SLAT will then be in a position to make a recommendation to the SEC concerning the process that is currently in place and whether or not changes need to be made to that process.

OCS Executive Director’s Report
Charlotte explained that she had included a copy of her report to SLAT as part of the materials sent to the SEC. She also provided a copy of the model CSA coordinator job description for informational purposes. Charlotte noted that the development of the model job description was a 2009 legislative requirement.

Services Definition Project
Alan Saunders reported that recently during routine and normal collaboration processes with OCS’s partners, it became clear that OCS could further improve its ability to provide children and their families the services they need and work with service providers and policy makers by adopting uniform definitions for each of the services being purchased with CSA funds, while keeping in mind the flexibility required by statute.

In order to expedite the project, four Technical Teams will be formed to accomplish the work. Alan further reported that a letter had been sent to all SEC members soliciting nominations of individuals to participate on Technical Teams in the following definitions areas:
• Team 1 will be responsible for developing uniform definitions for all discrete services falling under the congregate care service category.
• Team 2 will be responsible for developing the uniform definitions for all discrete services under the community based service category.
• Team 3 will be responsible for developing the uniform definitions for all discrete services under the base rate service category.
• Team 4 will grapple with those services that cannot be defined but are considered to be important to the CSA service system.

The Technical Teams will report to a Leadership Team who will be responsible for overall project management. The Leadership Team hopes to present to the SEC their findings and recommendations at the December 2009 Council meeting.

In closing his report, Alan asked that names for inclusion on the Technical Teams be sent to him by the end of next week.

Training Calendar
Carol Wilson reported that Item 283 of the 2009 Appropriations Act requires a training plan be presented and approved by the SEC before the beginning of each fiscal year. The language also requires that OCS create and maintain a calendar of training events, which must be made available to local governments. Carol noted that she has been working along with Pat Hutchinson, the OCS IT contractor, on a draft web-based cross-system training calendar.

Carol walked SEC members through the draft on-line training calendar process. The calendar will be available through the CSA web site. Access to meeting or training information can be obtained by clicking on the name of the meeting or training which will then link to additional information about the meeting or training. A link on that page will take an individual directly to the registration information. Also, if an individual would like to learn more about the topic of the meeting or training, a link will be provided to take the individual to the proper agency information page.

Selected cross-system agency staff will have access to the calendar for posting of meetings and trainings. A letter will be sent to each of the child serving agencies asking that a staff person be assigned to serve on a small Training Committee that will meet quarterly to oversee the training calendar process.

Adjournment
The VCOPPA Fall Symposium will be held on October 8, 2009 at UMFS.

In closing the meeting, Secretary Tavenner thanked Senator Edwards for his participation and she thanked UMFS and Greg Peters for the use of their facility. The next meeting will be held on December 10, 2009.

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:20 a.m.

 

.