The 2010 Salary & Fringe Benefit Survey Summary Report will reflect data current as of January 31, 2010, including a compilation of actual salaries of approximately 5,000 employees across 71 job classifications within 40 Michigan private, nonprofit child and family service agencies, presented geographically: statewide, SE Michigan counties and counties outside of SE Michigan.

This 120+ page report will include statewide aggregate data, plus four breakdowns of the General Information, Fringe Benefits, Staff Turnover Report, and Salaries Report by size of agency. This amount of detail allows for a close comparison among similarly sized organizations as agencies consider their own employee compensation packages.

This annual report is one of the many benefits of Full Membership in the Michigan Federation for Children and Families; there is no extra charge for participation and a copy of the summary report.

The 2010 report will be available to non-participating non-members for $200 per copy; $150 per copy for Affiliate and Individual Federation members.

Send your request and check to: Michigan Federation for Children and Families, 320 N. Washington Square, Suite 100, Lansing MI 48933. The printed report will be sent directly to you as soon as it is available.

Lansing Teen Court, a community-based and highly collaborative program of Child & Family Services, announced today that it has awarded Don LeDuc, president and dean of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, with the organization's first-ever Community Recognition Award.

"To say the least, we are grateful for Don's civic-minded nature, his commitment to education and his support of creative and community-based methods of resolving juvenile justice and community challenges through collaboration," said Mike Botke, director of Teen Court.

The basis for the Community Recognition Award includes making a significant contribution to the community, whether monetary or in deed. LeDuc is the first to receive the award and was selected to honor his commitment, not only to Teen Court, but to community collaboration as well.

"Cooley is honored to be involved with the Teen Court program," said LeDuc. "Our staff, professors and students have embraced this program, as it gives a second chance to young people and provides an invaluable service to the Lansing community."

This report, submitted pursuant to 1997 PA 170, § 9, provides an overview of the review board’s functions and program activity details from this past year. Included are data, trend summaries, and observations gleaned by the board during 2009 from the review of cases involving over 1,300 children in foster care. These reviews were conducted by 200 dedicated and well-trained citizen volunteers. The information obtained from case reviews provides an objective, third-party evaluation of the care that Michigan’s foster care system provides to abused and neglected children.

This year’s report and recommendations address significant issues related to achieving safe and timely permanency for children in foster care, particularly in the area of parent-child reunification.

The Foster Care Review Board (FCRB) is a program established by the legislature to provide third-party review of foster care placements and related matters. There are 30 local review boards throughout the state, comprised of citizen volunteers. For those who are not familiar with the program, complete information can be found at
http://courts.michigan.gov/scao/services/fcrb/fcrb.htm

The Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS) is responsible for administering the state’s child welfare program. The DHS mission includes a commitment to ensure that children and youths are safe; to sustain a higher quality of life; and to give children in DHS permanent and stable family lives. The DHS Children’s Services Administration is responsible for planning, directing and coordinating statewide child welfare programs, including social services provided directly by DHS via statewide local offices and services provided by private child-placing agencies.

A settlement agreement was signed July 3, 2008 and a final consent decree was entered on October 28, 2008. Since then, DHS has made significant strides to improve the quality of service to children and families in the child welfare system by reducing caseloads for its workers, moving more children to permanency, reducing the number of children in out-of-home care, launching a continuous quality improvement system, increasing oversight of contracted providers, and developing extensive data reporting capabilities.

The consent decree requires DHS to ensure that qualified and competent individuals conduct a fatality review independent of the county in which the fatality occurred for each child who died while in the foster care custody of DHS. The fatality review process is overseen by the Office of Family Advocate.