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Q. How has the work at DHS changed in the last month due to Covid-19?

A. When I think about our recent work, ‘frantic’ comes to mind. We’ve had multi-layered challenges in making sure we can do the work and do it well. Our inability to work from home was an immediate obstacle to overcome — DHS has historically lacked the infrastructure that would’ve allowed people to work at a place other than their office. So how do you shift a massive workforce to working remotely in a short period of time? Beyond that transition, every area of the work we do started to change immediately once the crisis hit. It’s required multi-layered, varied approaches that focus on our core mission — to ensure the health and well-being of those we serve. And we’re serving more people, and serving them quite well, than ever before.

Q. We’ve been watching the various federal stimulus bills the government has made available to states. Can you talk about how Iowa is using these resources in the areas you oversee?

A. We’ve seen support come through legislation like the CARES Act, which provides Iowa with more than $30 million specifically for child care. And we are so excited for this opportunity to support child care in our state. The department has done an excellent job of quickly connecting with providers, gauging the grassroots needs and determining what challenges they’re facing. Based on the qualitative feedback received we’ve created a plan that offers support and flexibility to our child care providers. For example, if providers are open and plan to stay open they can receive a stipend; if they offer a discount to essential workers they get another stipend; and if they’re closed but want to reopen we can provide a grant to help them do that. It’s a pretty sophisticated plan that allows us to intentionally invest in providers — something to be proud of.

Q. Are there areas you weren’t able to address with that $30 million?

A. We can always use more financial resources to continue to support our child care providers, so I will never say we have enough. But I do feel really encouraged about what we will be supporting in Iowa with that money. We know our providers are absolutely essential to ensuring that our economy can run; they are frequently overlooked and underpaid. We respect them and want to ensure they have what they need.   

Q. Let’s transition to child welfare. There’s been a pretty worrisome drop recently in domestic child abuse cases in Iowa. That might sound like good news, but no one is looking at the drop as a good thing. Can you talk about that decline and what’s behind it?

A. We have seen a measurable drop in the number of calls our centralized unit has received. So we can compare that to right before the crisis hit or to a similar point in time in previous years. Our current circumstances with the pandemic are creating unprecedented challenges. We know the education community is one of the primary reporters for us as teachers are uniquely positioned to spot signs of abuse and report it. Of course, without in-person classes those teacher-student relationships are diminished. And with more people being isolated we’re finding many lack the knowledge or context to identify a bad situation. You’re absolutely right — we’re not interpreting this drop in cases as ‘wow, kids are really safe right now.’ In fact, most child welfare professionals would assume that in a crisis like this, pretty much anyone can be experiencing factors that potentially lead to abuse. All of us are experiencing grief, loss and anxiety right now. And the isolating response to this crisis only makes things more challenging.

Q. The Family First Prevention Services Act is closely connected to child welfare. Can you remind us what the legislation is and what it means for Iowa?   

A. The Family First Act is a new federal funding bill passed in 2018 that encourages states to invest in evidence-based services in foster care. The idea is that it’s possible to keep kids out of the foster care system without increasing the risk of danger, and it can be done effectively by using methods proven to work and by implementing them well. The federal government is encouraging this by providing robust funding to states that prioritize this front-end approach. On the flip side, federal funding for congregate and group care is becoming much more restricted. With both of these things happening simultaneously it’s a bit of a seesaw for us, but we’ve made some big decisions here in Iowa under the Family First framework. One exciting change is a complete reconstruction of the contracts we use for foster care, with a focus on evidence-based practices and methods. We’ll be able to provide every family in the state with a child under the age of six with parenting tools and resources through Safe Care. We’ll also offer crisis intervention — an intensive ten-day service for families at risk of child removal — where we’ll go into the home and focus on ensuring child safety.

Q. These changes are set to start in July. How has the department worked to ensure a smooth transition?

A. We’ve done some strategic engagement with the help of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, including a deep dive into data analysis that have informed our decisions around which methods to use. We’re also developing a support structure that will provide training and resources to staff as we make this shift. It’s been challenging with Covid-19 to get staff up to speed as most trainings are designed to be in person. But it won’t affect our efforts to successfully transition to Family First.