The Indiana Department of

Child Services: 101

Date

Presenter
Indiana Department of Child Services
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

What/Who is DCS?

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Indiana Department of
Child Services
Mission:
DCS protects children from abuse and
neglect, and works to ensure their
financial support

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Agency Structure

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Agency Divisions
Permanency and Practice Support
Policy development, and permanency support
Services and Outcomes
DCS and provider outcomes, and services offered to families
Juvenile Justice Initiatives and Support
Oversee all initiatives where child welfare and juvenile
justice systems intersect

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Agency Divisions
Staff Development
Training for staff, foster parents and adoptive parents
Placement Support and Compliance
Licensing of foster homes and residential facilities, and
foster care and relative support services
Legal Operations
Local Office attorneys, contracts, and administrative
appeals
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Agency Divisions
Information Technology
Maintenance of DCS computer systems
Finance
Human Resources
Communications
Legislation
Child Support Bureau
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Field Operations

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

DCS Field Operations

Strategic Director
overseeing Field
Operations

Provide oversight and

support to 18 regional
managers
Support local office
directors in administering
child welfare/ensuring
consistency

Field Operations
Deputy Director

North Assistant
Deputy Director

South Assistant
Deputy Director

Regional
Managers

Regional
Managers

(9)

(9)

Local Office
Directors

Local Office
Directors

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Field Operations: Local Offices

Local
Office
Directors

FCM Supervisors

Family Case Managers

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Family Case Manager Role

Receive reports of child abuse and neglect
Complete assessments on reports of child abuse
and neglect
Ongoing case management to guide a family
through services, placement, permanency and case
closure

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Serving Vulnerable Youth

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Serving Vulnerable Youth

Prevention

Preservation

Placement
and Reunification

Permanency
& Supports
After Case
Closure

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Serving Vulnerable Youth

Prevention: services to prevent a family from formal
involvement with DCS due to child abuse or neglect

Preservation: services to keep families in-home to

keep the family together

Placement: out-of-home placement to protect the

safety and welfare of the child

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Serving Vulnerable Youth

Reunification: reuniting a child and family in-home

Permanency and Supports After Case Closure:

supporting the child and family after DCS has closed its
case

Child Support: Ensuring child support orders are

established and enforced by providing tools and guidance
for county partners, and efficiently processing child
support payments for disbursement to families
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Child Support Bureau

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Child Support
Core Functions:
Responsible for administering the Title IV-D child
support program in Indiana
Child support is state administered and county
operated
Federally required child support functions:
- Locate

- Payment Processing

- Paternity Establishment

- Disbursement

- Support Order Establishment

- ISETS /INvest

-Enforcement

- Medical Support
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Child Support
Indianas IV-D caseload (FFY 15): 279,327
4% Current Assistance (TANF, IV-E Foster Care)
45% Former Assistance
51% Never Assistance

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Child Support
Building Relationships County collaboration
is key:
Cooperation with local elected officials:
- County Prosecuting Attorneys

- County Auditors

- County Clerks of Courts

- County Councils

- Judges and Magistrates

- County Sheriffs

Statewide Associations
- Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council - Clerks Association
- Association of Indiana Counties

- Sheriffs Association

Over 1,500 county staff

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Child Support
Federal Performance
FFY 2015 overall ranking is 9th
Up from 34th in SFY 2005

Other Performance Measures

Measure

DCS Performance

National Average

Support Order
Establishment

93.21%

84.69%

Current Support Collections

64.78%

64.21%

Cases Paying on Arrears

71.85%

62.69%

Paternity Establishment

104.41%

99.64%

$5.69

$5.25

Cost Effectiveness

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Child Support
KIDSLine
Indianas statewide customer service call
center 24/7 Integrated Voice Response
(IVR) gives automated payment
information, with an option to speak to a
Customer Service Representative (CSR)
during the business week
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Child Support
2014 KIDSLine Statistics
4,916,443 calls
409,704 per month (average)
13,470 per day (average)

219,552 callers opted to speak to a CSR

18,296 per month (average)
882 per day (average)
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Collaborative Care

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Collaborative Care
Extension of Foster Care until the day before the youth
turns 20 years of age
- Continuation
- Re-entry

Services designed to foster independence

-Program Approach:
Voice
Social Capital
Youth Adult Partnerships
Adolescent Brain
Relational Permanency
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Collaborative Care
Placement
- Traditional foster care
- Supervised Independent Living

Specialized Family Case Managers

- Called Collaborative Care Case Managers (3CMs).
- Receive specialized training and handle a caseload of
youth 17.5 years of age and older only

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Childrens Mental Health

Initiative

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

CMHI
Some children struggle with significant mental health
issues
Their families have difficulty accessing services
(generally due to inability to pay)
Some families get bounced from agency to agency
trying to access services
Other families end up in the child welfare system as a
way to access services when parents have not abused
or neglected their child
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

CMHI
Finding a solution:
DCS and FSSA began meeting to brainstorm solutions.
A child should not have to be a CHINS for the sole purpose
of accessing services
What is best for families?
Need to:
Remove agency silos
Keep it simple
Multiagency solution

If this were your family, what would you want?

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

CMHI
Target Group Eligibility
Child or adolescent age 6 through the age of 17
Youth who is experiencing significant emotional
and/or functional impairments that impact their level
of functioning at home or in the community (e.g.,
Seriously Emotionally Disturbed classification)

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

CMHI

Not eligible for BDDS services

Not eligible for Medicaid

Meet needs based criteria: DSM-IV-TR Diagnosis,

Dysfunctional Behavior, or Family Functioning
Support

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CMHI
Rolled out Statewide (all 92 counties) in March 2014
1,636 Referrals to Access Sites
1,057 Family Evaluations
433 youth served
289 youth currently in CMHI
Residential Placement as a result of CMHI
63 Placements
34 Current Active Placements
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Indiana Child Abuse and

Neglect Hotline
800.800.5556

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Hotline: 800.800.5556
Central point of contact for all child abuse and neglect reports
throughout Indiana
Five locations across the state:

Marion County
Saint Joseph County
Blackford County
Lawrence County
Vanderburgh County

Staffed 24/7/365 by 105 specially trained Intake Specialists:

12 weeks of training before taking reports
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Hotline: 800.800.5556
Impact in Helping Children:
More than 198,000 reports of child abuse or neglect
received in 2014
Calls answered promptly:
Law enforcement answered in 12 seconds (on average)
General calls answered in 23 seconds (on average)
68 percent of all calls answered in less than 8 seconds

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Hotline: 800.800.5556
Indiana is a mandatory reporting state
Any person who has reason to believe a child is being
abused or neglected shall make a report

Medical professionals, teachers and law

enforcement officials have a higher duty to report
abuse or neglect

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Hotline: 800.800.5556
To Report Child Abuse or Neglect:
Call the Indiana Child Abuse and Neglect
Hotline

800.800.5556
Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Online Reporting Training Tool

Public Online Training and Information Course
Learn the meaning of child abuse and neglect in Indiana.
Recognize and report child abuse and neglect in Indiana.
Learn who is required to report child abuse and neglect in
Indiana.
Learn what happens once DCS receives a report of child abuse
or neglect.

Children are never protected by adult silence!

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Online Reporting Training Tool

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities

Thank You.
Any Questions?

Children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities