Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.LINCOLN — Conflicts over the structure, duties and even the existence of the Nebraska Foster Care Review Board have dogged the agency practically from the day it began.
But its mission was guaranteed to rub some people the wrong way.
The review board was born in 1982 out of Nebraska lawmakers' loss of confidence in the state child welfare agency.
At the time, administration officials could not account for all the children in their care and, when questioned, dragged their feet about giving information.
So lawmakers created a watchdog agency to keep track of foster children, monitor their care, collect information and make recommendations for change.
The new agency was put under the control of a citizens board with the goal of safeguarding its independence.
But now two of the lawmakers who pushed to create the agency are backing a bill to eliminate the 11-member board and make the review agency an arm of the Legislature.
Legislative Bill 998 would maintain local review boards to continue case-by-case reviews of children in foster care.
Former lawmakers David Landis and Loran Schmit say changes in the board makeup that put more child welfare professionals on the board have put the agency's independence at risk.
Some of the new members have ties to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services or the agencies it funds.
"This isn't Republican versus Democrat. This is Legislature versus the executive branch," Landis said.
Another original supporter of the review board argued that it should be independent of all three branches of government to be effective.
Kathy Bigsby Moore is a longtime child advocate who is now the review board's interim executive director. She was named to the interim job after the board ousted longtime executive director Carol Stitt in January.
"We wanted this agency to be able to speak objectively and without restraint and about all parties involved in the child welfare system," she said.
But State Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha said he introduced LB 998 out of concern that the agency no longer speaks without restraint.
He said lawmakers haven't been getting information they need from the review board.
"We're trying to eliminate any interference," Krist said.
It's not clear how much support the bill has in the Legislature. Several lawmakers signed on as co-sponsors following Stitt's removal.
Others have questions about how the proposal might work and whether it would free the agency from pressure.
"I think the Legislature's just as subject to arm-twising as the board members," said Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island, vice chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee. "We all have our biases and our axes to grind."
Gloor said he wants to know more about how the agency would function as part of the legislative branch.
Foster Care Review Board members have some of those same questions.
The board voted Friday to oppose LB 998, in part out of fear about unintended consequences.
"We're not against change. We just want to make sure change is being made for the right reasons," said Marcia Anderson, a board member from Omaha.
Among the major concerns is how the change would affect the reviews done of children in foster care.
The reviews occupy the bulk of the agency's time and fulfill the federal government mandate to look at foster cases every six months. The agency receives federal funds for the reviews.
The agency also collects data from those reviews, which become the basis for its annual report and recommendations.
Having an independent agency handle the reviews makes Nebraska a rarity among the states. Moore argued that distinction should continue.
Many other states handle the reviews through an arm of the same agency that provides child welfare services. Others put the review process under the courts.
Iowa, like Nebraska, uses citizen review panels but does not have panels throughout the state.
The Iowa Foster Care Review Board focuses most of its advocacy at the case level, rather than addressing system issues, said Richard Moore, administrator of the agency that oversees the review board.
Krist said his intention is to continue Nebraska's review process as is, as well as other duties of the agency.
"I have no intent of changing the mission of the foster care review process," he said.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
