Olympia – The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) submitted a revised Program Improvement Plan (PIP) to the federal Children’s Bureau last week. The plan details the agency’s child welfare approach to improving outcomes for children and families, as well as significantly reducing the number of children in out-of-home care. 

“Our plan is to reduce the number of children in out-of-home care which is a complex endeavor that involves a lot of work with other state partners,” said DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter. “The agency is engaged in deeper systems work to improve outcomes for children in this state.” 

The revised PIP incorporates feedback received from federal partners since the original plan was submitted in May 2019. 

In September 2018, the Children’s Bureau completed the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) of key areas of Washington’s child welfare programs and practices. The purpose of the review was to ensure substantial conformity with federal standards, understand what is happening to children and families engaged in child welfare services and assist in enhancing the agency’s capacity to achieve positive outcomes by identifying strengths and areas needing improvement. 

The PIP addresses the areas needing improvement by focusing on reinforcing and enhancing the current tools and structure available to our staff, streamlining, aligning and integrating processes and providing practice support with the intent of recapturing and strengthening core social work practice. 

“We are immensely grateful for the contributions that our staff, partners and stakeholders made to the PIP, and we look forward to continued work with them on implementation once the plan is approved,” said Steven Grilli, DCYF Director of Child Welfare Programs. 

Ongoing negotiations with the federal Children’s Bureau will continue before the PIP is approved. Once the plan is finalized, the agency will have two years to implement the identified improvements.

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