The writer is the national executive director of Boys Town.
Nebraska has reached a watershed moment in its efforts to reform the state's child welfare system. Decisions made in the next few weeks and months on this critical issue will determine the quality of care children and families receive in the future and how efficiently and effectively it is delivered.
Key Nebraska legislators and stakeholders, through the state's Health and Human Services Committee, have brought to the surface key issues that impact the success of system reform in Nebraska.
However, their recommendations for legislation would return us to an old system that has produced some of the poorest outcomes for children and families of any state system in the nation. For example, Nebraska unnecessarily removes children from their homes and families at twice the national average.
We all understand that change is difficult. Boys Town has been involved in multiple system reform efforts in multiple states. In every case, states faced a crisis like the one Nebraska is now facing as they tried to make the necessary culture changes for system reform to succeed.
But not one state that successfully accomplished system reform reversed course, and we don't think Nebraska should, either.
Nebraska has shown its willingness to fix its broken child welfare system. Progress is being made. The state and all stakeholders must now build on that progress and give the reform effort the time and support it needs to succeed.
A culture change must take place in the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services — and with judges, county attorneys, law enforcement, legislators and other stakeholders — if system reform is to succeed. That culture change is to recognize that children can be safely and effectively cared for in their own homes and families, or be provided with permanent homes through their extended families or adoption.
Over the past six years, Boys Town has struggled through its own internal culture change as we redirected our focus to serving more children in their own families. For example, in 2011 alone, Boys Town served 29,000 young people across the nation, and 75 percent of those children safely and effectively received care while living in their own homes.
What has been conspicuously absent from comments by key stakeholders is that thousands more Nebraska children have received needed services while in their own homes because of system reform. Because they were helped early, these kids are much less likely to become part of the child welfare system (residential care, foster care) and are more likely to become positive role models for their siblings.
It also means fewer children are being removed from their homes, taxpayers are paying for fewer kids in foster care and more children are experiencing better long-term results (regular school attendance, low rates of arrest).
It is beneficial for the Health and Human Services Committee to continue to review and monitor system reform. But the committee and other key stakeholders should support the reform of a system that has been broken for decades.
Reforming the child welfare system is what is right for Nebraska's kids. The eventual result will be a better system for kids and families, where both receive the right care at the right time. Doing what is right is always better than doing what is convenient.
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