Summary
- The Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services is preparing for annual county budgetary hearings to take place in Q4, which runs October to December. Because of agency capacity and the ongoing hiring freeze under order by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there is concern that staff will not be able to compile and validate valuable service data in time to share at the upcoming hearing.
- In the most recent quarter, 14 youth stayed more than 72 hours in the childcare room onsite at the CCDCFS campus, which houses youth who are awaiting placement. The childcare room has previously been the focus of public demonstrations to ensure the wellbeing of both youth and social workers and to draw attention to poor management and safety issues. Prior to this quarter, rates of youth staying more than 72 hours in the childcare room had been declining for more than a year, so this recent uptick was an immediate concern for members of the advisory board. Conversation centered on how to help youth – especially young children – find placement outside of the childcare room more expeditiously.
- The majority of advisory board members have terms ending in 2027. In order to prevent the upheaval of a mass exodus from the board, conversations have begun about some members potentially ending terms early so that new members can be onboarded gradually.
Follow-Up Question
- Do other agencies, both statewide and beyond, have proven systems and best practices for young children who are awaiting placement? While Cuyahoga County has specific needs, I am curious how much these agencies are able to talk to each other or use success stories in other locations to build their own case for support.
DCFS Advisory Board
Attendance
- Angela Newman-White – director at First Year Cleveland
- Dr. Andrew Garner – primary care pediatrician at University Hospitals, clinical professor at CWRU
- Verna Darby – intake specialist at Birthing Beautiful Communities
- David Crampton – associate professor, Center on Poverty and Community Development at CWRU
- Beverly Charles – retiree, former staffer in U.S. House of Representatives
- M. Gabriella Celeste – policy director, Schubert Center for Child Studies at CWRU
- Daniel Smith – detective with Cleveland Division of Police
- Bianca Crawford – founder and CEO of Motivated and Empowered Inc.
- Kara Davis – deputy director, Short Term Services (Childcare Room, Hotline, START Intake), CCDCFS
- Michael Bokmiller – director of community partnerships at Canopy Child Advocacy Center
- Deborah Barber – senior administrative assistant, Cuyahoga County
- Rachael Amick – senior business intelligence analyst at Cuyahoga County Department of Health and Human Services
Director’s update
Kara Davis opened the meeting with the Director’s Update to the advisory board. Davis said that the Resources and Placement team has been developing regional and state partnerships, including coordination with Jen Johnson, executive director of Canopy Child Advocacy Center. According to Davis, the agency has received nearly 430 youth referrals so far this year and is working to pull data and build narratives around resources needed, all while the Health and Human Services hiring freeze is ongoing and budgetary hearings are upcoming.
Gabriella Celeste followed up with an inquiry about the status of data tracking, to which Rachael Amick answered that HHS has compiled data on recidivism and case closure, but it has not been reviewed thoroughly enough to be ready to present to Cuyahoga Council during budget hearings.
Dashboard update
Amick presented a high-level overview of case types and statuses for Q2 2025, compared against metrics dating back through 2023. These figures will be made available online, but key updates are also summarized below:
- Between April 1 and June 30, DCFS responded to approximately 8,500 calls, opened 4,846 cases, served 6,300 youth, and had 2,380 youth in county custody.
- Q2 saw a slight decrease from Q1 in Initial Relative Placements.
David Crampton prompted board, agency staff and partners to think about how to best advocate for and offer support to relatives who might consider having youth placed in their custody but do not feel well-resourced or prepared for the commitment.
- The goal for Face-to-Face Contact with children in DCFS cases is 95%.This goal was reached for youth in county custody, but is at 87% for other youth.
- 35.7% of youth had achieved permanent placement within 12 months of entry.
- 94% of youth had been classified as Safe from Maltreatment within six months of entry, which is higher than that state average for this measure.
- In Q2, 14 youth stayed more than 72 hours in the childcare room onsite at the CCDCFS campus, which houses youth who are awaiting placement.
This statistic immediately got the attention of the board, acknowledging that this was an increase from last quarter and that the goal should be to use the childcare room as rarely as possible, not as a routine option.
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When foster care and relative placements are not immediately available, some youth are placed in “T-Suites,” a structured hotel-like temporary housing complex. However, as Davis explained, age restrictions, available beds and treatment needs can all limit the use of T-Suites for young children and youth with extreme behavioral needs.
“It’s concerning to hear that especially young kids would be in that room,” said Celeste.
Davis confirmed that the agency often faces challenges placing youth who are on the autism spectrum or who have other high support needs or behavioral concerns. DCFS has been working to collaborate with OhioRISE, a specialized managed care effort through the Ohio Department of Medicaid for youth with complex behavioral health and multisystem needs. DCFS also recognizes the need to have more PRTF (psychiatric residential treatment facility) placements available, but all of the county agencies in the state are competing for the same limited resources.
Crampton requested Amick provide a general summary, without identifiable information, of the age and support needs of youth currently in the childcare room so that the board could better speak to the situation and advocate as needed.
- As part of the established “Fatherhood Initiative” the agency saw 47% of fathers in attendance for initial placement meetings in Q2, up from 27% in 2023.
This was a huge success for DCFS and widely celebrated by the board. As Crampton, longtime advocate of the Fatherhood Initiative, reiterated, “The more people you can get to the table, the more likely you are to have a family-like setting.”
[Editors note: Read more about the county’s work with fathers in this Signal Cleveland article about Passages: Connecting Resilient Families.]
Governance Committee update
Nearly all board terms are set to end in 2027, other than Smith, Crawford and Darby. Newman-White reached out to Sabrina Roberts, senior advisor of Partnerships and Engagement to Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, to determine if any members are able to end their terms early so that new members can be phased in.
Crawford was nominated and approved to replace Crampton as chair of the Intervention Subcommittee moving forward. Crampton was approved to chair a new Dashboard Subcommittee for the time being, which will be focused on reviewing data in the above dashboard and requesting additional/reorganized information to promote transparency and determine support needs.
Prevention Subcommittee update
The Prevention Subcommittee met with Karen Stormann, deputy director of Resources and Placement for the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, to learn more about state plans for prevention funding and programming. Crampton said it is unclear what will be covered through the Family First Services Prevention Services Act (FFSPA). Referring to a potential FFSPA stipulation that a case must be opened in order for DCFS to receive state prevention support, Crampton commented, “That doesn’t sound like prevention to me.”
The Prevention Subcommittee is hosting a meeting on Oct. 3, 2025, with a special presenter from Safe Babies. All of the advisory committee is invited to this event.
Information/resources
Following all subcommittee updates, members of the advisory committee talked about resources, academic journals, legislation news and information about relevant learning and engagement events:
- The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has published a new study, Early Relational Health: Building foundations for child, family, and community well-being.
- First Year Cleveland submitted a $1.8 million funding request to the Department of Children and Youth’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
- Motivated and Empowered, Inc. launched the BloomNourish initiative with grant support from the Ohio Parenting and Pregnancy Program.
- First Year Cleveland hosted the 3rd Annual Infant Vitality Day.
- Celeste drew committee attention to OH House Bill 346, which would “require mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect to report to both a peace officer and the public children services agency.”
The Advisory Committee will be following this bill closely and encourages the public to do the same. Celeste and Garner communicated concern that this new requirement to involve law enforcement will discourage mandated reporters from coming forward.
- The Canopy Summit on Child Maltreatment will be held at Huntington Convention Center Oct. 29. The event is free and open to the public; Bokmiller said that the intent is “everyone who attends will learn better how to identify child abuse.”
These notes are by Documenter Hannah Morgan.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcleveland.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.