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CASS LAKE - Community-based services, community networks and involvement of extended family may be among the factors helping to lower out of Cass County home child placement costs in recent years, Michele Piprude, Social Services manager, said. She warned, however, that number of children in out of home placement and costs for those placements historically have varied a lot without a clear cause for variation. The last year, numbers are down significantly.

"The vast majority of children in out of home placement are place due to their parents' actions rather than their own conduct," she said. Court ordered placements are most common, she noted.

Police officers may temporarily place a child in detention or shelter care. Courts may order placement of children found delinquent or in need of protection or services. Parents or guardians may enter an agreement with social services to voluntarily place a child, she explained.

County social services and corrections agencies play key roles in selecting placement options, assessing child needs and advising the juvenile court, she added.

One factor that began shifting Cass County's numbers lower in 2008 was implementing the federal Child Welfare Act, which enabled Leech Lake Reservation to assume management of some cases previously managed by the county.[[In-content Ad]]

The more recent improvement in child placements more likely is the result of a concentrated county effort to connect families with community based services and outreach of social workers to help families stay united.

The county has a juvenile screening team with representatives from probation, law enforcement, courts and social services to help coordinate care options for children and to recommend assistance for parents.

Service plans also are aimed at after-care services for families of children who have been in placement, Piprude explained.

The first six months this year, 59 children were place outside their own home, with 42.2 percent placed in non-relative foster care and 20.5 percent in residential treatment centers. Only three were placed in a correctional facility, which tend to cost the most.

Costs are down this year, primarily because more children are in less costly placements than prior years. Foster care runs much less than a group home or correctional facility.

In general, counties like Cass that have lower average family incomes tend to have higher out of home child placement costs, Piprude said.

Dan Wenner, executive director of Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program (CEP) services, reported to the county board Tuesday the program designed to move people from welfare programs to work is succeeding.

The program is designed to help people get the training they need to get and retain jobs, Wenner explained. Rural Minnesota CEP serves 19 counties from Morrison to Lake of the Woods and west to the North Dakota border.

They work with individuals in the Minnesota Family Investment Program to help them transition from the program to self-supporting jobs, he said. They can continue to receive partial benefits while transitioning off the program.

He cited some individual cases where CEP works with people to convince them of their capabilities to hold jobs and helps them improve their skills. As a result, over 75 percent of those CEP placed in jobs for Cass have continued their employment for three years after exiting the program, he said. Judge John P. Smith addressed the board on the success of the joint wellness court program with Leech Lake Reservation, which recently won a national award for innovation in creating the county-tribal service.

Wellness court, a voluntary option for repeat alcohol and drug offenders as an option to court-ordered incarceration, has been successfully completed by a high percentage of participants, Smith said.

The goal of wellness court is to promote accountability, self-sufficiency and to enhance public safety. Intensive counseling in the program helps chronic alcohol and drug dependent persons not only break the repeat cycle of drunk driving charges, but also straighten out their personal lives, Smith has said.

The county board approved reorganization of Health, Human and Veterans Services Department, calling for creation of six team leader positions in health and human services and elimination of five prior worker positions. One position would just be renamed.

The team leaders would be exempt from the union and will have partially supervisory and partially worker assignments. They will oversee other social workers and public health nurses.

Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.

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