Maine released its annual Child Welfare Report for 2024 last month, which details changes the state asserts it has achieved with the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS) over the course of the past year and the impact they’ve had on the system.
A 2023 study showed that Maine led the nation in terms of the mistreatment of children in the state’s custody – a superlative that has been a blight on the system. Groups like Walk a Mile in their Shoes have been sharply critical of the agency that has been so poorly run that it has cost some of the children under its care their lives, the non-profit’s founder, Bill Diamond, said last year.
Some of the major changes made by the state agency in 2024 included redesigning several elements of OCFS and taking steps to improve recruitment and retention of staff. Roughly two dozen trainings were updated last year to address specific needs, as well as broader statewide gaps.
OCFS also increased their efforts to help reduce the risk of children needing to be removed from their homes. In addition to this, the agency began employing new and expanded strategies to address caregiver substance abuse and children’s exposure to these substances.
As of September 2024, there were 2,436 children under state care. The average child spent 682 days — or just shy of two years — in the system. The median length of time spent in state care was 416 days, roughly equating to a little more than a year.
458 children have been permanently separated from their parents by the state and are awaiting adoption.
The availability and accessibility of other services that are tangentially related to child welfare, such as CradleME and Help Maine Grow, were also improved over the past year, the report claims.
Katahdin, the digital system used to manage Maine’s child welfare system, received several updates in 2024 that were intended to help improve the program’s efficacy.
A number of changes were made to the policies surrounding and support available to “resource parents” — or individuals who look after children while they await reunification with their families — in hopes of making their jobs easier.
Pursuant to a division pursuant to a comprehensive management review completed by Public Consulting Group (PCG), OCFS restructured several positions within the agency and added some new ones in hopes of streamlining and clarifying their operations.
To increase staffing and reduce turnover, OCFS launched financial incentives, including $3,000 stipends, and introduced pay raises for caseworkers and supervisors.
By the end of 2024, caseworker vacancies had decreased by 40 percent.
Among the initiatives undertaken to help reduce the likelihood of children needing to be removed from their families were several programs, including the Homebuilders Intensive Family Preservation and Reunification Program, which operates through a contract with Bethany Christian Services of Northern New England (BCSNNE).
Homebuilders is described as being “an evidenced based intensive, in-home counseling, skill building and support service for families who have children at imminent risk of out-of-home placement or who are in placement and cannot be reunified without intensive in-home services.”
OCFS has also entered into partnerships for the implementation of several key initiatives intended to “promote supportive communities” and strengthen supports for families, including Be There for ME — which aims to ‘reduce the stigma of asking for help and provide a judgement-free place for parents and caregivers to find support” — as well as funding a one-year initiative on community spaces where families can connect and receive help.
The report went on to detail 2024 expenditures from the contingency fund, a pot of money allocated by the Legislature that is used to “bridge a financial gap for families” when a lack of money may be impacting the well-being of a child.
Throughout last year, between twenty and thirty families were being assisted by the fund each quarter, receiving an average of $848 to $1,748 each.
“Some examples of the use of these funds in 2024 include: housing, heating fuel, pest control, utilities, trash removal, appliances, home safety equipment, medical devices, safe sleep accommodations, car repair, transportation, furniture and child care,” the report explained.
The idea behind this fund is to avoid situations where children are separated from their parents “due solely to economic-based concerns.”
Analysis showed that substance abuse played a role in 50 percent of all instances where children where removed from their homes. In addition to this, the state was notified that 600 substance-exposed infants were born last year.
Due to the prevalence of these substance abuse concerns, OCFS explained in their report that they were prompted to “consider and implement new opportunities to strengthen training and support for child welfare staff related to these issues.”
Among the changes implemented to better address substance abuse as it relates to child welfare included better training for staff and the implementation of new tools for assessing substance abuse concerns.
OCFS also reported that they have taken steps to improve the accessibility of certain services by partnering with outside providers.
Although not all these endeavors are directly linked to child welfare, each one is said to be “intended to help families address issues and concerns, create stability, and ensure safety for children.”
Among the programs included under this umbrella are CradleME, which improves “statewide service delivery to children born substance exposed,” and Help Me Grow Maine, a “free information and referral service available to all pregnant individuals and families with children through age eight.”
To help support resource parents, OCFS finalized an updated version of the Resource Parent Bill of Rights to address concerns raised in recent years by those affiliated with the program. This document was later shared by the agency in February of this year.
Resource parents are also now able to use the Resource Parent Portal in Katahdin to more easily submit documentation, access information about the children in their care, and track their payment and transaction history.
Other changes made to the Katahdin system last year included adding prompts and reminders through the investigation process, requiring that all “critical” actions be taken, and ensuring that the “system outputs meet the needs of those who use the information.”
Click Here to Read the Full 2024 Child Welfare Report
Earlier this year, the Child Welfare Ombudsman released their 2024 report, which indicated that the state government’s long-understood shortcomings with regard to child welfare had continued.
Contracted with the Governor’s Office and overseen by the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, the Child Welfare Ombudsman is responsible for assisting Mainers in resolving “concerns and complaints” with Maine’s Child Protective Services Department of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
The Ombudsman reported that over the past year, there were continued “significant struggles” in the state’s “child welfare practice, especially during initial investigations and reunification of families, negatively impacting child safety.”
[RELATED: Maine DHHS “Struggles in Child Welfare Practices” Continue: 2024 Ombudsman’s Report]
The report also suggests that “child welfare staff continue to operate under enormous pressure.”
Additionally, the report highlights the shortcomings of Katahdin as the state’s child welfare database.
“Despite ongoing fixes and enhancements, the system is still inefficient both when reviewing a family’s history, and when entering information,” the report explains.
Similar issues with Katahdin were also raised in the 2023 Ombudsman’s report, mandated by the Maine Legislature, in which it was suggested that the software was impeding the ability of staff to keep Maine’s most vulnerable children safe.
The Ombudsman’s findings with respect to the Department’s investigation-related failures also mirrored those of 2023, as it was reported that the Department “has struggled with practice issues during initial investigations of child abuse and neglect.”
