SMETHPORT – No one from the public attended the hearing Friday
for receiving input for the needs-based budgets for 2006-07 and
2007-08 for the McKean County Children and Youth Services.

CYS Director Duane Wolfe said the Department of Public Welfare
requires a public hearing be scheduled for these plans. The county
commissioners will review the final plans to determine if the
county agency is addressing the correct issues before the documents
are sent to DPW by Aug. 15.

The two-year plan will identify the changes in caseloads,
placements, and negligence and abuse issues. “Trying to project out
from our 2005-06 numbers can be tricky and complicated,” Wolfe
noted.

The goals of the plan, Wolfe said, are to address the number of
an types of referrals and attempt to determine why they occur and
how to better respond to them. Wolfe said, “For children in
placement, we try to find the best possible, shortest, and most
permanent placement. If one placement achieves all three of these,
then it’s the best placement we can get.”

Last year’s budget totaled $4.4 million, which covered
placements, salaries and benefits, and payments to providers. While
this year’s spending plan is $200,000 less, it has not had a
detrimental effect, because the office is operating more
efficiently. “Since our staff is better trained and experienced,
turnover has been reduced, thus reducing the need for more training
and travel,” Wolfe said.

More cost savings have been realized since CYS shares the
expenses for the building that houses its offices with the
Department of Human Services.

In a brief interview with The Era Friday morning, Wolfe
explained that in order to deal more effectively with referrals
concerning children, CYS has three internal departments: Intake,
Ongoing, and Foster Parents.

The Intake section receives the initial calls to the agency –
which can involve abuse and neglect, and assesses the risk to
children. Depending on the level of urgency, CYS’s response time
ranges from immediate to within one week. McKean County’s rate of
child abuse cases has been rising. In 2002, there were 230 reports
received by ChildLine, the state’s monitoring service. After
falling to 185 a year later, the number rose to 207 for 2004 and
2005.

Typical cases reported to ChildLine involve serious physical
injury and sexual abuse.

During the Intake procedure, CYS can secure additional services
for the families through various area agencies.

If this pace continues, McKean County could see the number of
these cases increase by 18 percent.

In an effort to reduce these figures, CYS has taken a stronger
stand against truancies. Also, CYS has implemented a very detailed
case tracking process.

CYS is increasingly looking at parents’ issues. When a family
has been accepted for services through the Outgoing Department, the
members actually participate in developing their own plan that
covers the particular issues and what they plan to do to continue
progress for six months.

Wolfe said that CYS attempts to use the foster care program as
often as possible since this is considered one of the least
restrictive options. Currently, there are 107 children enrolled in
foster care.