Matt Denn’s Plan For Improving Delaware’s Services To Abused And Neglected Children:

Implement a Visiting Nurses Program for At-Risk, First-Time Parents. Cities and counties in 22 different states have adopted a comprehensive visiting nurse program, which involves the identification of potentially at-risk first time parents followed by regular pre-natal and post-natal visits from registered nurses to those parents. Empirical testing has demonstrated that these programs (a) reduce child abuse and child neglect against very young children, (b) reduce infant mortality, and (c) reduce hospitalizations for injuries and ingestions among very young children. They also have an impact on infant mortality: they reduce cigarette smoking among pregnant women and reduce pre-term pregnancies. Finally, those benefits persist over the long run. By the time children reach age 15, those who have been in this type of visiting nurse program have only suffered abuse half as many times, have only 40% as many arrests, and only 10% as many delinquency adjudications as their peers. Matt Denn will make establishment of a nurse family partnership program in Delaware a priority. More information on these programs can be found at www.nursefamilypartnership.org.

Reduce the Caseloads Carried by The Caseworkers Who Monitor Non-Urgent Cases. The state’s Child Protection Accountability Commission has repeatedly cited the caseloads carried by DFS “treatment” caseworkers—those who monitor families that are not classified as new or urgent cases—as a serious problem for Delaware. Caseworkers are unable to spend as much time as they should learning about families and detecting possible signs of abuse or neglect. In addition, too many caseworkers are becoming frustrated with their caseloads and moving into jobs that do not involve direct interaction with at-risk families, causing less experienced caseworkers to move into those jobs. Matt Denn will help the state improve the quality of its abuse/neglect investigations and ensure that its most experienced caseworkers stay on the job by working to reduce the caseloads of treatment caseworkers.

Implement the Recommendations of the 2001 Foster Care Task Force to Recruit and Retain Quality Foster Parents. In 2001, a state task force made a series of recommendations designed to make foster parenting, and in particular the most challenging foster parenting of children with emotional or other problems, more attractive to Delawareans. The goal was to increase the number of foster families so that children who needed to be in foster care could be placed in the most appropriate homes and receive the best possible care. The recommendations included enhancing the financial subsidies we pay foster parents who take on the most difficult children, enhancing the day to day support services that the state provides to foster families, and creating more of a community among foster families. Seven years later, some of those recommendations have not been implemented. Matt Denn will ensure that the recommendations are implemented, and will make it a personal mission to recruit more foster families for Delaware. The 2001 task force report can be found at http://courts.delaware.gov/childadvocate/pdf/fostercare.pdf.