LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska lawmakers are looking to expand a pilot program that was designed to keep more neglected children with their families, as long as steps can be taken to keep them safe.
Two bills presented to a legislative committee on Wednesday would continue the state’s alternative response program, which is slated to end July 1.
The program in 57 counties is aimed at parents deemed a low risk to hurt their children, allowing them to avoid law enforcement and the courts. Some neglect cases are tied to poverty or a parent’s workload rather than intentional mistreatment, and can be addressed by providing food, transportation, temporary child care and other services.
The alternative response program stems from a 2013 law that allowed social workers to take a different approach when responding to abuse and neglect allegations if factors such as poverty are at play.
In the past, state officials treated a mother who refused to feed her child the same as a mother who simply couldn’t afford food. Children in both cases were often removed from their homes.
State workers are still required to call law enforcement in more extreme cases, such as when children have been seriously injured, sexually assaulted or exposed to illegal drugs.
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services CEO Courtney Phillips said the new process helps build trust between at-risk families and her agency. She pointed to a case involving a woman who left her child in a car for 20 minutes because of work obligations. State officials learned the woman was going through a divorce and didn’t have immediate access to child care.
“It was just basic necessities she needed,” Phillips said.
Nebraska currently has 240 families enrolled in the alternative response program and has served a total of 770 since it was launched in October 2014, said Russ Reno, a department spokesman.
Advocates for children and low-income families said they support the concept but objected to one of the bills introduced on the department’s behalf that would have reduced oversight of the program. Others expressed concerns about county attorneys being kept out of the loop on cases they may want to follow.
The bill “removes transparency and accountability in the child welfare system,” said Sarah Helvey, a staff attorney for the group Nebraska Appleseed.
Helvey pointed to the state’s failed effort to privatize child welfare services, which led lawmakers to conclude that the Legislature needed stronger oversight of child welfare services. She said her group has concerns about families in the program understanding their rights and receiving the services they need, rather than just referrals to other assistance programs.
Julia Tse, a policy associate for Voices for Children in Nebraska, said her group hasn’t seen hard evidence that the program works as intended.
“We’re not quite ready to say whether this should be a permanent part of our system,” she said. “The jury’s still out.”
Advocates say keeping the children at home if they’re considered safe is less traumatic than removing them from their families.
The alternative response program was allowed through a five-year federal waiver that gives the department more flexibility in how it spends federal and state money on child welfare services.
The second bill would expand the program to all 93 Nebraska counties and extend its expiration date to December 2020. Sen. Sue Crawford of Bellevue said she introduced the bill to give the department and lawmakers more time to evaluate the program.
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