1 / 13

Families With Service Needs: Policy and Practice Changes for Connecticut

Families With Service Needs: Policy and Practice Changes for Connecticut. May 10, 2007 Leading Change. Preston Britner, UConn HDFS Sara Mogulescu, Vera Institute Martha Stone, Center for Children’s Advocacy. Agenda. Introduction (Preston Britner)

tyler-mejia
Download Presentation

Families With Service Needs: Policy and Practice Changes for Connecticut

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Families With Service Needs:Policy and Practice Changes for Connecticut May 10, 2007 Leading Change Preston Britner, UConn HDFSSara Mogulescu, Vera InstituteMartha Stone, Center for Children’s Advocacy

  2. Agenda • Introduction (Preston Britner) - History, Statutory Changes, Board, Statistics • National Models and Lessons (Sara Mogulescu) • The Connecticut Plan (Martha Stone) - Family Support Centers & the “High End” FWSN - Truancy Prevention • Evaluation Issues (Preston Britner) • Open-Ended Questions (Martha Stone) • Discussion

  3. “FWSN” Defined Family With Service Needs (FWSN) means a family that includes a child who: • Has runaway • Is beyond control • Has engaged in indecent or immoral conduct • Is a truant or habitual truant or defiant of school rules • Is 13 to 15 years old and has engaged in sexual intercourse with a person not more than 2 years older or younger

  4. History & Statutory Changes (Part I) • Public Act 05-250 (grey handout) eliminates – as of October 1, 2007 – the possibility of detention of a FWSN based solely on the violation of a FWSN order. • Public Act 06-188, Section 42 (blue handout) establishes the FWSN Advisory Board http://www.cga.ct.gov/kid/FWSN/FWSN.asp to: • Monitor DCF progress on programs for girls • Monitor Judicial progress on implementing 05-250 • Provide advice to Judicial & General Assembly • Make written recommendations to Judicial & General Assembly by Dec. 31, 2007

  5. The FWSN Board • Consists of key • legislators • judges • agency heads and personnel • citizens • Met 9 times since August 2006 • Not including meetings of sub-committees on Evaluation, High End Needs, and Truancy Prevention or other working groups • Reviewed: state data, programs, & service gaps, and national models; crafted proposed models and legislation

  6. History & Statutory Changes (Part II) • Substitute House Bill No. 5676 (white handout, labeled File No. 636) would implement the prohibition against incarcerating children solely for violating court orders regulating future conduct by establishes front-end procedures to assess and refer youth (and families) immediately to appropriate services.

  7. Connecticut Statistics on FWSNs

  8. Annual FWSN Referrals (N=3600) by Court

  9. FWSNs by Race/Ethnicity and Sex(FY 2006) Girls: 2039 FWSN Referrals Disposed • 763 White (37%) • 317 Black (16%) • 441 Latino (22%) • 9 Other • 509 Unknown (25%) Boys: 2344 FWSN Referrals Disposed • 859 White (37%) • 490 Black (21%) • 509 Latino (22%) • 10 Other • 481 Unknown (18%)

  10. FWSN Charges by Category

  11. FWSN Violations By Court • Of the 3600 FWSN referred juveniles each year, ~15% violate a court order • 52% of violators are girls • There is variability across courts (e.g., Waterbury has a disproportionately high number of violators)

  12. Detention and FWSN Referred Juveniles • 1989 juveniles were admitted to Detention in 2005 • 28% were girls • 72% were boys • 52% (1036) had a prior FWSN referral in their court history • 67% of girls who went to detention had a prior FWSN • 46% of boys who went to detention had a prior FWSN

  13. What can be learned from national models of diversion?

More Related