CHILD PROTECTION ACCOUNTABILITY COMMISSION (CPAC)

CARRYING OUT CPAC'S STATUTORY MISSION

    The task of monitoring Delaware’s child protection system is a daunting one. At the close of Fiscal Year 2004, Delaware was actively serving 4,568 children within the Division of Family Services. Of those children, 175 were active with the Division of Child Mental Health Services (“CMH”), 181 were active with the Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (“YRS”), and 96 were active with all three Divisions. As of June 30, 2005 (the last day of Fiscal Year 2005), the DFS had open cases with 5,153 children. Of those children, 181 were active with the CMH, 228 were active with the YRS, and 115 were active with all three Divisions.

    For many of those children and their families, regular services, intervention and monitoring has been provided by the many agencies represented on the Child Protection Accountability Commission – the Attorney General’s Office, the Children’s Advocacy Center, the medical community, the Child Placement Review Board, the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program, the Department of Education and the local districts, the Family Court, law enforcement, the Office of the Child Advocate, private providers and non-profit advocates. As these numbers continue to increase, the partners of Delaware’s child protection system work hard in a multi-disciplinary fashion to meet the needs of Delaware’s ever-challenging youth population.

    As an accountability commission, CPAC is charged with gathering and acting on information to ensure all components of the child protection system are meeting the challenges presented by 5,153 children being served by Delaware’s system. This multi-disciplinary system has made great strides since the creation of CPAC in 1997; however, CPAC serves to ensure that those strides continue, as well as to address new issues that arise in this multi-faceted system. CPAC carries out its statutory mission by, among other things:

• Providing a public forum for the sharing of information and concerns about Delaware’s child protection system;
• Examining policies, procedures, statistical data, agency reports and other relevant information regarding the functioning of Delaware’s child protection system;
• Advocating for changes to policies and procedures where appropriate;
• Supporting initiatives of child protection system partners;
• Pursuing legislative initiatives;
• Planning and participating in trainings and other opportunities for multi-disciplinary communication and education;
• Working with system partners to gather additional relevant data illustrating the performance of Delaware’s child protection system, and acting on the information obtained to improve outcomes for children; and
• Reviewing individual cases of child abuse or neglect and issuing recommendations resulting from those reviews.