Protecting our children

CAPS holds annual child welfare legislative forum

Friday afternoon at the Marshalltown Public Library, representatives from various child welfare agencies, including the Community Partnership for Protecting Children (CPPC), gathered for the annual Child Abuse Prevention Services (CAPS) legislative forum, wherein these folks discussed child welfare issues before a panel consisting of elected officials: State Sen. Jeff Edler, R-State Center, State Rep. Dean Fisher, R-Montour, and State House Minority Leader Rep. Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown.

"We hold this forum every year right before the next [legislative] session starts to learn what our elected officials will be working on in the new year," said CAPS Executive Director Jana Enfield.

Various components of child welfare issues were discussed, including mental health, reporting sexual and physical abuse, broadening the definition of who can be a mandatory reporter, and how immigration status can affect these services.

The 2018 legislative priorities discussed by CAPS included: enacting legislation requiring homeschool parents to submit an annual notification of intent to the superintendent of the school district of residence, and/or enroll the child in at least one public school-sponsored activity, as ways of preventing homeschooled children from falling out of sight.

Offering such checks and balances was inspired by the 2017 cases of Sabrina Ray and Natalie Finn, teens in the DHS system who were both being homeschooled at the time they died from abuse and neglect.

"The recommendation of duel enrollment with a school is more appealing to me than just doing the notification," Smith said.

However, Fisher and Edler expressed concern that these extra measures with homeschooling families may place an unnecessary burden on them.

"You cannot legislate every person's actions," said Edler, who also disclosed his children are homeschooled. "The question becomes 'how many resources are you willing to put into this?"'

Fisher added, "I am reluctant to put any burden on [parents that homeschool] because of the small percentage that does anything bad. I don't know if one simple form of notification is enough, but everyone being forced to duel enroll would be met with resistance; there might be a happy medium."

Some attendees also echoed the hardship that may occur, especially for rural families, having to take children to public school functions that may be a distance away, causing family disruptions.

When budget cuts were brought up, attendees expressed various reasons for why slashing funding for child welfare programs would be detrimental.

Franklin Elementary School Principal Tim Holmgren said he has seen an increase in the need for pupils to be provided with mental health services, noting how when youth aren't provided with resources, it can lead to problems further down the road.

"We'll pay for that. I hope we can find a balance on paying on the front side -- prevention -- then on the backside when we have to deal with problems," he said.

Enfield echoed this sentiment.

"We can pay now or pay later. We need to invest in those early years for children," she said. "We have to have consistency with funding. We need somebody to invest in us because we [social welfare entities] are the baseline of the community."

Smith expressed frustration with the current Medicaid privatization policy, calling it a "mess."

Edler conceded that some of the concerns about privatization are warranted.

"The former program was working, but it was extremely expensive," Edler said. "If something was not done to the system, it was going to bankrupt the state. Some things about privatization are working."

When asked about cuts to social welfare agencies and programs, Fisher said, "It's going to be another tough budget year. We don't like to make cuts, but we look for places that are softer. We are spending more than what we have."

For more information on the CPPC, visit: dhs.iowa.gov/community-partnership-for-protecting-children

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Contact Sara Jordan-Heintz at 641-753-6611 or sjordan@timesrepublican.com