Department of Family Services

Wyoming Department of Family Services
Strategic Plan
Plan Period: FY 20152016 (July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2016)
Wyoming Quality of Life Result:
Wyoming families and individuals live in a stable, safe, supportive, nurturing, healthy environment.
Contribution to Wyoming Quality of Life:
The Department of Family Services (DFS) helps families in crisis, children and adults atrisk of abuse or
neglect and juveniles in trouble through the following six programs:
1. Assistance Determining eligibility for public benefits and timelimited economic assistance programs in
order to help families meet their basic needs
2. Investigation – Investigating reports of child or adult abuse, neglect or exploitation with the goals of
early intervention and prevention
3. Service planning and delivery working with families, children in family foster care or juveniles in crisis
to assess needs and provide assistance or needed interventions
4. Monitoring – auditing, control and compliance efforts to ensure DFS and citizens receive quality and
value for contracted services
5. Certification developing rules and processes to ensure quality outofhome care for children
6. Collections and Recovery assisting families with obtaining a livable income and maintaining the
integrity of public assistance programs within the DFS
Basic Facts:
The Department of Family Services consists of 733 employees in three main areas that provide services
and assistance to communities and individuals: the Family Assistance Division (228), Social Services
Division (482), and Child Support Enforcement (23). In addition, DFS has two divisions that provide
internal support or technical assistance to DFS divisions and/or workers: the Financial Services Division
and the Clinical Services Division. DFS staffs 27 field offices located in all 23 counties. Funding: The total operating budget for the department for FY 1314 was $270,826,660. Of this amount
$154,162,364 are general funds and $105,898,721 and $ 10,765,575 are other funds (central registry fees,
Children’s Trust Fund, heating assistance, welfare fraud and overpayment recovery, etc).
Division Budgets: Child Support: $20,632,531 Social Services: $143,654,677
Family Assistance: $110,006,430 Director’s Office: $497,313
(Includes Clinical Services)
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PERFORMANCE GOALS, NARRATIVES AND DATA CHARTS.
Performance: Performance measures that are important to the work of DFS include the following:
● Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Penetration Rates
● Absence of Repeat Maltreatment for Child Abuse or Neglect
● Foster Care Placement with Relatives
● Point in Time Placements by Child Welfare Program
● Number of OutofHome Child Care Slots/Child Care Capacity
● Percentage of Child Support Collections
● Adult Protective Services: Accepted Reports Statewide
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Penetration Rates: 100% of Federal Poverty Level
SFY 20102012
Story behind the last year of performance:
SNAP Penetration Rates: From June, 2011 to June, 2013, SNAP participation in Wyoming has been
approximately 70 percent, though SFY 2013 has been showing signs of a decrease in participation by
eligible households. The actual increase in SNAP households from SFY 2011 to SFY 2012 period was
5.89 percent, and the increase in the number of participants was 9.47 percent. The SNAP participation
rate is a federal performance measure showing a State’s effectiveness at reaching the program goal of
reducing hunger and improving nutrition among lowincome households.
What is being done to improve performance?
Program access is critical to the success of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The
measure looks at the number of people receiving SNAP benefits compared to the number of people living
below 100 percent of the poverty level. Decreasing barriers and increasing participation in SNAP can
ultimately lead to increased food security among lowincome families.
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Economic conditions and rising unemployment contribute to the need for public assistance, and as a result,
caseloads have risen. In response to these rising numbers, DFS is addressing workload and policy
simplification to maintain or improve timely and accurate eligibility determination.
Over the next year, DFS will also reassess its eligibility policies and processes in order to consider
streamlining and IT initiatives that can improve efficiency and customer service and reduce workloads.
Absence of Repeat Maltreatment for Children Substantiated for Abuse or Neglect, 20042013
The Wyoming Department of Social Services is taking a family centered approach to adult protection,
child welfare and juvenile justice. In April 2012, the Protective and Juvenile Services merged into the
Social Services Division to strengthen and improve services to Wyoming families. The division’s focus is
to promote safety, permanency and wellbeing to vulnerable adults, children and families through
community partnerships.
DFS is always focusing on practice to ensure children do not experience repeat child abuse or neglect.
DFS has identified quality safety and risk assessments to utilize in CPS cases, and continues to implement
a family centered approach to these assessments. DFS has established a transparent process for
evaluating and determining safety and risk in each home and includes every family member in developing a
written safety plan. This strategy has helped the family find their own supports and resources to develop a
plan to keep their children safe and reduce repeat maltreatment.
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Foster Care Placement with Relatives, 20032013
DFS is learning more about the trauma a child endures when removed from his or her home, therefore, is
working to increase placements with relatives to reduce the effects of trauma for children caused by the
removal. DFS has instituted training and supports to perform diligent searches to identify suitable relatives
and/or kin when outofhome placement is necessary as well as to notify them of a child’s outofhome
placement within 30 days. This process allows DFS to engage biological or extended family in identifying
service options or other ways the relatives can provide support to the child and his/her family from the
very beginning of the case. DFS will continue to work with the Children’s Justice Project and the
Guardian AdLitem (GAL) Program to provide ongoing education to DFS staff, GALs, courts and other
professionals on the importance of placing children with relatives and how communities can help children
succeed when placed with relatives.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
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Wyoming Children in OutofHome Care, 20032013
The categories noted to the right of the chart, above, include CP=child protection; PB=juvenile probation;
and YF=youth and family (CHINS, et al.)
DFS and community partners have identified best practices to help keep more children safely in their own
homes and communities whenever it is safe to do so, to decrease lengths of stay in outofhome care and
shorten times to achieve permanency. Those practices include but not limited to:
1.
Community Juvenile Services Boards. Community Juvenile Services Boards have been a valuable
panel to help identify services and needs for youth and families in their counties. Community Juvenile
Services Boards have helped plan for better intake and diversion, better juvenile detention practices and
community service alternatives to detention and placement for children, youth and families. Wyoming also
began participation in the Annie E. Casey Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, which provides
education on best practices and alternative service development, of which five (5) counties are
participating.
2.
Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT). DFS started to use the Positive Achievement
Change Tool statewide for delinquent youth entering the legal system in 2008. The Positive Achievement
Change Tool is a risk and needs assessment which helps guide the most appropriate course of action and
case plan for each youth by examining levels of risk to reoffend based on risk and protective factors.
The underlying philosophy of the PACT Assessment is the reduction of recidivism and placement rates by
helping youth under supervision increase personal accountability and make positive changes in youth’s
attitudes and behaviors, thereby adding to community protection. Currently, the tool is being utilized by
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DFS as well as law enforcement at the municipal and county levels that serve or manage at risk youth.
3.
Signs of Safety. DFS has implemented Signs of Safety in two (2) communities which had high
placements and long lengths of stay. Signs of Safety is a familycentered approach to child welfare
casework which incorporates a set of skills and family centered values that enable a worker to engage the
family in safety planning at intake and throughout the life of the case. Also, DFS has worked with the
Children’s Justice Project and the Guardian AdLitem (GAL) Program to provide continuing education to
community stakeholders, DFS staff, GALs, courts and other professionals on the importance of conducting
timely permanency hearings for children and youth. DFS will implement Signs of Safety in two (2) other
communities in the next year.
4.
Attorney General’s Office Permanency Unit. Attorney General’s Office Permanency Unit
continues to assist DFS and prosecuting attorneys in resolving difficult cases, particularly where
terminations of parental rights become necessary.
Future initiatives will focus on prevention and involve continued improvement in child and family safety
assessments, inhome service delivery and coordination with community and state agencies. DFS will
continue to partner with the courts and judicial system, to include judges, Children’s Justice Project and the
Guardian AdLitem (GAL) Program, to coordinate efforts to decrease length of stay and ensure children
and youth have timely permanency hearings.
Adult Protective Services: Accepted Reports Statewide, 20072013
DFS has seen a steady growth in the number of intakes (cases accepted) in the interest of abuse and/or
neglect of vulnerable adults. The growth in the number of reports of abuse and neglect are attributable to
increased community involvement. Each county has an Adult Protection Team to network and locate
community based resources to assist victims and families to remediate the vulnerable adult’s
circumstances. The rise in reports coincides with DFS’ efforts to provide ongoing statewide training to
communities, including law enforcement, partners and other stakeholders about what constitutes adult
abuse and neglect, state reporting requirements, and the availability of local resources to assist with APS
cases. In addition, DFS now has identified additional workers who team with community leaders to
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improve awareness, support vulnerable adults, facilitate and participate in family partnerships to remediate
abuse and neglect issues. Increased reports also coincide with the growth in the aging population of
Wyoming. DFS also has an Adult Protection State Team which creates a venue to identify and support
changes in statute and policy as well as coordinate services with other state and community agencies.
Consistent with the types of communitycentered, statesupported initiatives described for child welfare
previously in this plan, DFS will focus on initiatives that seek to improve education, safety assessments,
community partnerships and prevention.
Number of OutofHome Child Care Slots: Wyoming Child Care Capacity
Story behind the last year of performance:
Number of OutofHome Child Care Slots: Wyoming continues to show increases in the number of child
care slots, however there are still shortages of infant and other slots in some areas of the state for
nontraditional hours.
What is being done to improve performance?
The demand for licensed child care slots is driven mostly by economic growth, but the increase in licensed
child care capacity can also be attributed to a multipronged approach that includes onsite technical
assistance from the Early Childhood Divisions’ licensing staff and business training from DFS and
Workforce Services to increase the sustainability of child care programs.
DFS will continue to work closely with child care providers by offering them technical assistance and
training, which helps reduce the number of providers that leave the field. DFS also works cooperatively
with others involved in the licensing process, such as local fire and sanitation inspectors, to reduce
duplication and make licensing processes less impactful. This interagency collaboration resulted in the
development of online training to help providers meet their annual training requirements for licensing.
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Additionally, DFS has funded the “Providers Empowering Providers” program to build networks of family
home providers which provide additional peer support, training and technical assistance. This strategy also
helps to reduce the number of providers leaving the field.
Percentage of Current Child Support Collections, 20042010
Story behind the last year performance:
Percentage of Current Support Collections: This graph represents the percentage measure of the amount
of current (monthly) child support collected by DFS’ Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Division, divided
by the total amount of current (monthly) child support owed in that same pool of cases. All funds collected
in this measure are distributed to clients in cases being enforced by the Child Support Enforcement
Division of DFS.
What is being done to improve performance?
Wyoming continues to exceed the national average for helping families achieve a livable income. The child
support office continues to use performancebased contracts and has increased communication between
state and county districts in order to increase child support dollars collected. In fact, $71.9 million in child
support payments were collected by the Wyoming CSE program from parents during State Fiscal Year
(SFY) 2013, an increase in collections from SFY 2012 ($71.5 million).
Collections for CSE have improved over the years as a result of increased use of state and federal
automated data sources, performancebased service contracts, and more sophisticated enforcement tools
such as new hire reporting by employers. Financial institution data matches for bank account seizure,
passport denial, and lump sum insurance settlement intercept have also been improved or initiated. DFS
continues its support of parental visitation services after recognizing an increase in the likelihood a
noncustodial parent will make support payments as ordered by the court. This is done by supporting
community efforts through grant funding used to help noncustodial parents understand child support and
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visitation issues better.
DFS 2013 Organizational Chart
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