Kentucky can't ignore social services 'time bomb,' experts tell reform panel

FRANKFORT, Ky.-- Warning that the high workload of state social workers "is a time bomb waiting to go off," Bullitt Family Court Judge Elise Givhan Spainhour said Kentucky can't ignore the urgent need to better fund social services as it strives to improve adoption and foster care.

"I know money is not a happy subject," said Spainhour, speaking Tuesday at the first meeting of a legislative work group looking for reforms. "You have got to have more people in the trenches. You have got to have more social workers in the trenches."

Other speakers echoed those concerns in addressing the panel appointed this year by House Speaker Jeff Hoover, a Jamestown Republican. The panel was created to examine what lawmakers say are growing concerns about delays, complications and other problems in the foster care and adoption system, including finding the right home for some 8,400 children now in state care because of dependency, neglect and abuse.

"We're overworked — we don't have enough judges to look at the cases," said Marie Hellard, a family court judge for Anderson, Shelby and Spencer counties. "Social workers are overworked — they're stretched way too thin. That's why we see the turnover we have."

More:Adoption in Kentucky: No cheap or easy fixes to system beset by snags and delays

More:Gov. Matt Bevin appoints official to oversee adoptions, foster care in Kentucky

The state has long struggled to recruit and retain social workers, who start at about $33,600 a year. And caseloads, supposed to number no more than 18 per worker, have reached as high as 100 for some workers, say those involved in the social service system.

Years of budget cuts have led to the loss of vital programs for families amid a rising demand for social services, fueled in part by the state's drug epidemic, several speakers said. 

For example, Jefferson Family Court used to run a drug court for parents with drug problems whose children had been removed for abuse or neglect, said Susan Anderson Crull, an adoption lawyer from Louisville. It was canceled in 2010 because of budget cuts to the state court system despite the fact that it helped parents reunite with children.

"Yes, there were some failures but yes, there were some successes, too," Crull said.

More:'Grandma Underground' still fighting for Kentucky kinship care payments

More:Bevin initiative seeks to encourage adoption with breakfast series

Crull said she also regretted the state's decision in 2013 to suspend Kinship Care, a program that provided a stipend of $300 a month to relatives such as grandparents who took in children removed from homes because of abuse or neglect. That small monthly payment could make the difference in whether a relative can afford to take in and raise a child, Crull said.

"I'd like to see it come back," she said.

Apart from more resources for the system, several speakers had other ideas.

Hellard offered a suggestion from personal experience — give foster parents more rights.

The family court judge related the story of foster parents she knew who had raised a 3-year-old girl from birth and were planning to adopt her — only to be blocked by the courts when the child's father was identified after three years and gained custody. The foster parents were heartbroken but had no standing under Kentucky law to mount a legal challenge or fight for custody, said Hellard, who was not involved in the case as a judge.

"Give them the right to sue for permanent custody," Hellard said. "Give foster parents a voice — they deserve it."

More:Advocates call on Kentucky to stop child abuse

More:Kentucky case on foster pay headed to Supreme Court

Louisville family court lawyer Mitchell Charney urged the state to enact a "putative father" registry as 24 other states have done, including Indiana. Such a registry lists the man believed to be the father when the child is born if he is not married to the mother in order for him to claim paternity; it limits future claims of paternity should a dispute arise.

Rep. David Meade, R-Stanford, and co-chairman of the eight-member, bipartisan legislative panel, said he and Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a Hopkinsville Republican, have both filed bills for the past four years to enact such a registry in Kentucky.

Meade said the bills have not passed, likely because it would require additional money to establish and operate a registry.

He said any discussion about more resources for social services would come as lawmakers begin planning the next two-year state budget to come before the General Assembly in 2018.

Meanwhile, Meade said, the panel is looking for changes it can recommend sooner to ease the frustrations of foster and adoptive parents and get children eligible for adoption into permanent homes as fast as possible. Tuesday's meeting is a start, he said.

"We got a lot of good information today," he said.

The panel plans to meet monthly for the rest of the year before issuing recommendations in December. The next meeting is June 19.

Contact reporter Deborah Yetter at 502-582-4228 or at dyetter@courier-journal.com.