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First Posted: 7/12/2013
Luzerne County Children and Youth Director Frank Castano identified parental drug and alcohol addiction as a major driver forcing removal of county children from their homes.
“It is pervasive. It’s a struggle we encounter on a daily basis,” Castano told county council Tuesday night during a budget work session focusing on human service branches.
The county contributes about $7.9 million toward the combined $95 million budget of human service branches, which also include mental health, drug-and-alcohol, aging and veteran affairs. The budget session started at 7 p.m. and was scheduled for an hour, but ran nearly three because human service managers presented council with a large number of reports and briefings on their budgets and programs.
Castano said his department, which receives about $6.2 million from the county’s general fund operating budget, is attempting to provide immediate, intense therapy for parents battling addiction because federal law says the agency must seek termination of parental rights if the family doesn’t show progress within a reasonable time period.
Most of the children involved in parental addiction cases are under age 5, Castano said.
“It’s the young kids.”
The county had a low of 416 children placed outside their homes in September 2011, and the number has increased since then and hovered around 500 in March, April and May, Castano’s report shows.
The state has praised the county in the past for its attempts to reduce the number of children in outside placement.
The county had 704 children lodged outside their homes at the end of 2008 due to alleged abuse and/or neglect.
Castano said a delay filling vacant caseworker positions in his office has contributed to the gradual increase in outside placements since the fall of 2011.
A large number of court cases involving dependent children also were continued because county-funded lawyers weren’t available to represent indigent parents, he said.
There were more than 900 continuances in court cases in 2012 and 715 continuances this year to date, he said. The problem should be rectified with the county’s recent contracting of six attorneys to handle these cases, he said.
Children can be placed in foster homes, group homes or with other family members.
The number of children in non-relative foster care has steadily declined since 2008, while the number placed with relatives is rising — a trend Castano views as a plus.
“We are finding family members to care for these children rather than contracted providers,” Castano said.
In other business Tuesday, council members who convened for a real estate committee meeting instead saw a demonstration of the county’s new $1.28 million financial software system purchased from Michigan-based New World Systems Corp. County Interim Budget/Finance Division Head Brian Swetz said the basic components of the new system are now operational and accessible to workers.
The system, when fully implemented, will allow employees to instantly view and track contracts and reports on payments and receipts.
Councilman Stephen J. Urban asked if employees will be scanning in copies of bills to provide supporting information on services and goods purchased. County Manager Robert Lawton said employees will enter that information.