HEART OF THE MATTER
advocating for at risk children
costs of not knowing the reality of
child abuse, trauma and child protection in Minnesota
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Metrics are the heart of the matter. Measuring the wrong things wastes money, makes failure likely and problems fester. It’s not an exaggeration to credit metrics based quality control and continuous improvement programs with making U.S. businesses world class.
Tracking, recording and making available meaningful information shines a light on what’s working and failing in both business and public institutions. When outcomes based metrics are available, policy makers will chose to fund strategies and programs that work over those that do not work.
Comparing the institutions of Law Enforcement, Education and Child Protective Services it is apparent that for many years, education and law enforcement have provided a higher level of meaningful outcomes based measurements than CPS.
The lack of meaningful metrics is becoming apparent in the GAL Program management’s current attempt to eliminate the CASA volunteer Guardian ad Litem program from Child Protective Services.
HIPAA laws are often used as to why we can’t report.
This is a request for data and program outcomes – not names and not HIPAA related.
Where the information is kept and how they can be accessed by the public / media and policy makers is an issue. Historically, Child Protection records have been destroyed after a few years. Today in MN it’s ten years. This makes longitudinal comparisons impossible and impedes long term understanding of conditions facing CPS and the child in a current report of abuse.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
do we;
Collect and report ACEs scores of children in the system – This is the most important metric of every child in the system. ACES scored compiled over time make mapping problem areas, program needs and strategy more accurate and timely.
This is a measurement tool for the amount of trauma suffered by children in the system. It gives a snapshot of the depth and scope of child abuse trauma in the State at any given time. This would provide guidance for future programs, staffing and funding.
How many;
- Families in the system represent generational child abuse
- Teen and preteen girls are pregnant and at what age
- Young girls in the system have multiple births while in and out of the system.
- CPS children and youth that have self-harmed
- Only recently has torture been forbidden in our State. Are Child Protection Workers trained to look for and advised to include the metrics of torture in their reporting
- What is the definition of torture in CPS (World Health Organization, “Extended exposure to violence and deprivation”
- How many CPS children / youth in juvenile justice system
- How many have JJ or Criminal Justice records
- How many State Ward children and youth have been charged in adult court for their crimes
- How many children have multiple placements and how many placements (a complete statistical breakdown would be the most helpful – certainly not an average)
- How many Legacy children are in the system (long term CPS involvement) What extra services are made available for legacy children (these are very needy children and youth).
- How many State Ward Children use psychotropic medications
- How many are on waiting lists for mental health services
- How many of MN’s aged out fostered children are leading productive lives – how many are leading are still in and out of State institutions
- How many children can a social worker or Guardian ad Litem safely care for? (there are 3.9 average number of children per case in Hennepin County today)
There are 1.3M children under 18 in MN.
There are 3.9 children per family
in Child Protection cases today
(3.9 * 75,000 calls to CPS = 295,000 children)
what are the projections for the number of cases
and number of children per case in 2030?
What metrics (if any) are kept on costs per child in the system?
Not knowing this makes for bad planning and
poor decision making.
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