The North Platte Telegraph

The Department of Health and Human Services is struggling to recover from the decision to contract many of their child welfare in-home services out to various providers.

Since the decision to contract those services out, a June report from the Foster Care Review Board signaled some unfortunate trends in child services within the contracted private agencies, including a lack of documentation, a 30-percent loss of staff, staff on the job without adequate training, the loss of qualified therapists, foster parents who have not been paid in months and most recently the contract termination with the Boys and Girls Home of Nebraska.

The report indicated serious issues that could lead to HHS court battles. Members of the legislature are reviewing HHS issues and Gov. Dave Heineman said Thursday that the reform effort is still needed.

"I still support the reform effort because there is a real need, especially with in-home care," he said. "Any time you make a change to a system like this one, it's going to take some time to get to where you need to be. There are going to be some bumps in the road as we move forward, but we have to give HHS time to be more effective with the reform."