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A Long Road Ahead: An Update of the Arkansas Child Welfare System

In August 2005 Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) released a report on the Arkansas child welfare system entitled “More Than a Decade of Change – Yet Many Things Remain the Same.” The report examined performance data from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) from 2000 to 2004 on child safety indicators and performance measures related to family preservation and reunification. A key finding of the report was that many indicators worsened considerably in 2004 as the percentage of unfilled family service worker positions (the “vacancy rate”) climbed to a record 24 percent. DHHS began an intensive recruitment effort in 2005 to fill these positions, and as of March 2006 the vacancy rate had improved to 16 percent. This report reviews data from January 2005 through March 2006 to determine if the performance indicators have improved as new workers have been hired. The conclusion, as detailed below, is that some indicators have shown slight improvement, while others are no longer declining. Significant improvements still need to be made. A long road lies ahead.