Michelle Conklin, community relations vice president with SSEU Local 371, the union that represents the city’s 5,400 child welfare and protective specialists, also notes an over-reliance on the use of foster care as a tool by ACS, but identifies a different cause: the elimination this September of 300 clerical child welfare specialist positions and the dismantling of the city’s Office of Contracted Agency Case Management (which was responsible for coordinating service plans between private foster care agencies and the city).
“ACS still has oversight of cases, but they’re doing it in a different way by using statistical analysis and giving the responsibility to private agencies,” says Conklin.
“If statistical analysis shows that a private agency doesn’t perform, they’ll sanction that agency, but they’re not following the individual child.”
As part of the One Year to Family Campaign, ACS said in an e-mail that “technical assistance/monitoring teams from Children’s Services will track progress on an ongoing basis with each of the foster care agencies and all results will be publicly tracked in a setting involving other stakeholders and advocates including Children’s Rights.”
