Shouldn’t we know where the children are? – Las Vegas Sun

By Patricia Farley and Tiffany Tyler-Garner

Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021 | 2 a.m.

When a child is in your care, you should know certain basic things like where the child is, for example. But Nevada has more than 3,000 children in its care, and it doesnt know where all of them are.

United Nevada Information Technology for Youth (UNITY) is Nevadas statewide child welfare case management tool. It is supposed to track a foster childs placement, services, medical needs, care and educational needs. But in 2015, foster care service providers openly expressed that on any given day, the state could provide a report that had an accuracy of only 50% as to where children were placed, their school attendance and the services provided to them, because the system was never designed for this type of tracking and reporting. Today, the problem is just as bad even with the Band-Aids our child welfare system has implemented.

For more than two decades, advocates have called for basic investments in the child welfare system, to no avail. Nevada fails our most vulnerable children in two of the most basic functions meant to help them: tracking children in the states care and tracking the money spent within the child care system. But Nevada has a pattern of disinvestment in its children.

In 2017, Senate Bill 662 was introduced and attempted to fix the problem. It would have required a study of the funding of the child welfare system and called attention to how Nevada was failing its children. The bill failed to pass while many other pet political projects were funded. In 2019, a similar bill, Assembly Bill 111, also failed to pass. Because Nevada has failed to act, it:

Lacks the ability to effectively track and monitor youth placements, care, services and education

Has a mental health system ranked 51st in the country and 51st in youth mental health, and children are being placed in out-of-state facilities because the state could not adequately identify available beds and services, and has a woefully inadequate child welfare funding structure that could not identify service or providers meeting or exceeding the expectations of the funding received.

We can no longer stand by and watch Nevadas children be lost. These children are removed from inhumane conditions such as starvation, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, violence and addiction, then taken into custody by child welfare. They now are dependent upon the state for health care, safety, education, food and mental health services.

While some have long argued that our lack of progress is a resource issue, thats never been the case. The cost of implementing an enterprise system to track children in Nevadas care and track the money spent within the child care system is feasible. The state has funded many one-off pet political projects that are more expensive than the cost of fixing our child welfare system.

Today, the state has $2 billion in federal aid available and our most vulnerable children are once again at the mercy of more such important political projects. We must seize this opportunity to make lasting change for Nevadas children.

Now that funding is available, let us have the courage to act. Call or email your elected officials to let them know you want $2 billion in federal funding to be used to find Nevadas children.

Tiffany Tyler-Garner is the executive director of Childrens Advocacy Alliance, and Patricia Farley is a board member of the organization.

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Shouldn't we know where the children are? - Las Vegas Sun