00:00:10,667	S1:
This is the.

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County Human Service on board meeting. It is 3 p.m. on Tuesday, December 16th in the Tom Baker Room, and we'll start by doing roll call the members.

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Commissioner Botkin here. Kelly Berglund here. Tracy. Famous here. Jim Holm here. And Director Fleury.

00:00:27,701	S2:
Here.

00:00:28,267	S3:
And for the record, Senator Denver and Trevor Vernet are both absent.

00:00:32,868	S2:
Thank you. Um, next on the agenda is the approval of the meeting minutes. So last time, we didn't have a quorum. So we're going to be looking for a motion to approve the June 17th, 2025 and the September 16th, 2025.

00:00:46,767	S4:
Previous two. Moved to approve.

00:00:49,367	S2:
Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Does anybody have any comments or concerns if you had a chance to review them?

00:00:58,400	S2:
Okay. If not I will just say all in favor of approving that. Say aye.

00:01:02,367	S3:
Aye.

00:01:03,167	S2:
Any opposed? No. Okay. Motion carries on that. Um, next we do public comment. We move that to the, um, beginning of the agenda. But there's no public here to comment, so I won't sit and, um, do that. And so the next will just do the 2026 board meeting dates. That is also in your packet for the proposed dates for 2026. Um, they're pretty much the same cadence of the, um, quarterly at the 3 p.m. here at the Tom Baker, but I don't know that I need a motion on them, but if anybody had any comments or wanted different times, if they felt like we needed more time, less time, I usually just do them at three that we you guys have an hour or more if you need.

00:01:47,367	S2:
No concerns.

00:01:49,100	S5:
Everybody else okay. Yeah. So I think I have one conflict but I'll work around that. So okay.

00:01:55,200	S2:
Sounds good. And um, I know this time typically does work for, uh, I'm going to combine their names. Trevor Endeavor. Uh, they just couldn't be here today. They're just going to be here today because they had a conflict. But typically this time works for them. So they didn't have any concerns when, um, historically. So, um, next we'll just go into the director's report. So I didn't have too much. I just have some notes over the last, uh. Of course I didn't grab my notes over the last quarter, but you guys also have the, um, the printouts in your packet. You can look at those too.

00:02:35,501	S2:
Okay. So for your economic assistance, we did do on September 17th, uh, this board met on the 16th, and then the following day, we completed a visit with our state partners. So this is what they refer to as a heat visit. It's a high efficiency accuracy team that goes around the state and visits every zone and talks to them about, um, specifically the issuance around Snap benefits. So it's our quality assurance team. They do observations of our workers. They complete and conduct interviews. They do targeted training on, uh, specific portions of the Snap issuance of income verification, uh, reported changes, narration. Um, making sure that the team understands the policies and then provide some education on the quality, uh, measurements that we have in North Dakota. So that was done on the 17th. There are trends that they identified and spoke to us about. I would tell you, the biggest one that we looked at was, uh, the narrative that's required on case action. So basically, anytime the worker's touching the case, they're required to put in a narrative of what is missing, what is done, what communication with the client. So they probably spent most of the time talking about, um, narrative do's and don'ts, narrative requirements, making sure those are done. So we implemented narrative template templates. And then, uh, and I spent some time working on our evaluations that we do for employee performance. And we added narration into, um, 2026. So that way going forward, we're evaluating team members specifically on their narratives.

00:04:10,968	S2:
Um, other updates for that unit is just continued outreach that we're doing. So. Last meeting I talked a lot about the doc outreach. So we've been going into North Dakota State Pen two times a month. We're working with the residents there that are getting out in the next 90 days to complete Medicaid applications. And then we're also going into MRC once a month. And, um, I think typically when we're at, um, end up, we're seeing about ten people each visit. So again, two times a month we're getting about 20 people. And then MRC once a month we see about 12. We are going to start in the new year doing Snap applications with them as well. They just it takes more time to do two applications. There's just more time. I have to have my staff away from their work cuz and doing this in person interaction. But it has been beneficial for the outreach. And then we're also doing Snap outreach through Ministry on the margins and the Dream Center. So we're going there two times a month. And those like Data on how much we're completing can be hit or miss. There's times that we might only complete one application with the client, and there'd be times that you could see 5 or 6, depending on who they have in attendance at their events. So any questions so far on that.

00:05:28,000	S5:
Was uh, going back to the Snap program was, uh, what impacts did you see of the federal shutdown, if any?

00:05:35,901	S2:
Yep. Good question. That was the next bullet point I had for you guys was the snap freeze. So with the federal shutdown, uh, probably aware, but North Dakota responded to the freeze on the Snap benefits with additional resources to support food banks. And then whic services we as local zones were challenged on what we were going to do to fill the gap. Uh, how it was very, I would say, frustrating during that time because we are the ones who directly served the the residents and the clients. And so we were hearing from them their anxiety and their concerns as their food insecurities were approaching. And so we did do a lot of work with our state partners to figure out what we could do, should do, and what the state of North Dakota was going to do. So we ended up doing basically a community initiative to collect and distribute food and make our office a drop point and a pickup point for that. So we did work with Great Plains Food Bank to get 84 food boxes that we could store. Normally, we're not a location for food boxes. And so we did provide that. And then we also just collected donations from community partners, um, that we would distribute to those coming in.

00:06:44,167	S5:
How'd that work out logistically with the food bank? Was that positive or was it extremely cumbersome?

00:06:51,767	S2:
I would say it was positive, but slow just because it was such a sudden need, like they were having to deliver those food boxes to all the zones that were going to participate in a very quick. So they had to plan the logistics. It was very pretty responsive.

00:07:06,868	S5:
But yeah, they do a great job. It's just I was kind of curious how that overlapped with, um, what your mission is.

00:07:13,467	S2:
So yep. They on their their end. It was great. Um, it just was a very quick like. We need to hurry up and get these order and get these done and get them to the location. So, um, we still have those. So we're still offering the food boxes to individuals who are coming in. We'll keep doing that as long as we have them. Um, but yeah, then obviously that was lifted. And so we don't longer have that issue. But yeah, that was on my agenda to talk about, just so everybody knew here that we did have impact from that.

00:07:40,067	S6:
So so with those I.

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Know you're fine.

00:07:43,667	S6:
With, uh, government shut down so many times. They do the arrears then or, you know, did they do that this time as far as providing those Snap benefits from November.

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1st to when they end.

00:08:01,100	S6:
On December.

00:08:02,467	S2:
People were issued their full benefit. Then by the time they it was within the same month. So by the time that they um, The federal shutdown ended and we were able to issue the benefits. They were able to get their entire month benefit for November. Okay. Yeah. Does that make sense?

00:08:19,067	S6:
It does.

00:08:22,000	S2:
Um, yeah. So that.

00:08:24,567	S6:
Was.

00:08:25,467	S2:
Probably what most of my focus over the last quarter was, um, which was quite a bit because there was a lot of unknown, a lot of hurry up and wait for information. Not knowing the impact, I think the next thing on the horizon is just, um, continuing to address timeliness for processing applications. I don't believe that it's anything to do with, um, performance from one's own or the other. It's just there's a large volume of work and we're really focusing in on does our system do what we need the system to do as far as our technology in the system? Um, do we have enough workforce to process the amount of cases coming in, that kind of stuff? And then we're really focused on quality assurance, um, errors that are coming back on the cases. How are we doing targeted training to prevent repeated errors. So.

00:09:13,467	S2:
Um, and then as far as child welfare, that's our focus over the last quarter, we've done a couple different things. Um, I'll talk about we did a collaboration with the Casey family and then our equal partners. So Icwa is our Indian Child Welfare Act. So we have partners, uh, state and federal partners that we align with to make sure that our process, policy and procedure, um, withholds the spirit of Icwa. And then Casey Family Programs is a, uh, foundation in the US that's focused on reducing the need for foster care and improving the lives of children and families. So, um, they aim to prevent foster care and support families and ensuring every child is safe, supported, and then has a permanent family. So this is a state, uh, nationwide initiative that the North Dakota had adopted, the safety practice model. And has Casey families been instrumental in this, the practice that we do for child welfare. So they came in and completed, uh, an initial meeting just to talk about the case review they were going to do. And then they conducted focus group. So we had a couple different focus groups that took place. So there was one for my zone management team where we really got to talk about the kind of cases we see coming in, um, the services that the families do or don't have in the community, what are gaps, what are the issues for reunification, or what are barriers that are preventing us from keeping kids in the home versus having to move to that higher level of intrusion of foster care? They met with our frontline staff, asked those same kind of questions, but just got that information from those actively working in the front. And then they also met with our equal partners and then our community partners and stakeholders. So that was refreshing. They met with our community collab group, um, and asked them those same kind of things, what they see as barriers. Um, it is focused through the lens of Icwa because, uh, with our location or not. Just a large percentage in this board has talked with us before that we serve as our Native American youth. And so they wanted to look at, um, is our policy procedure culturally appropriate and what are things that could be changed? So they also look at the law and policy around that. Does that embrace the spirit of Icwa. And then the next steps of this review is to do a case review that will be completed in 2026. So it's still kind of like an ongoing, um, collaboration we're doing with them. But I just thought I'd share with this board that it started, and we're kind of working into that in 2026. Any questions on that?

00:11:49,000	S6:
I do. The KC family, is it the initials Casey?

00:11:55,567	S2:
Nope. Casey.

00:11:56,367	S6:
Like Casey.

00:11:57,667	S2:
Like Casey. Like Casey. Oh. Casey. Family.

00:12:01,968	S6:
Yeah.

00:12:08,767	S6:
Thank you.

00:12:16,300	S2:
Otherwise, in child welfare we are in the process of case management redesign. So again this board I talked about the last meeting that historically zones across the state offer in-home case management or foster care case management. We're really working to just blend that case management as case management. That way the families don't really notice the difference between receiving one service or the other if they were to change, um, needing in-home versus foster care. One of the work groups that Berkeley County is part of is the placement stability work stream. This is a workgroup where we look at data around placement disruption. So kids moving from a placement to a placement, what are identifying the trends, what are the reasons. And then coming up with improvement in this area with different recommendations. So we um tend to have the highest number of kids in care. We have a drone 200 right now where other zones could be much lower. Even our comparable size zones of Cass County, Grand Forks and Ward County are lower than us. So they focused in on Burleigh County. And with the high caseloads, our number of kids and care come higher cases for case managers. And then often, um, burning out our foster parents and you'll see placement disruptions as a common one. So we're just really looking at what would be helpful for foster parents with more support, we could offer them with respite. Sometimes it's financial support, sufficient training for foster parents to support the needs of the kids, smoother transitions from residential placements if they're in a a treatment facility like a Dakota boys and girls ranch back to the community to ensure, um, good aftercare and stability. So we've just been focused around what does that look like and what could we do different. And then we're just meeting with the department on our readiness for this case management redesign that will go live in January, um, large conversations about our current caseload and staffing models. So with the staffing models, I'd probably talk about, um, just our current vacancies. So since our last meeting, we did have internal movement with promotions, which then leave vacancies throughout our unit. So our case management and our child protection team, we have four openings in case management and two in our child protection team. So we are posting interviewing for those sometimes um have better luck on rosters than others. But uh, right now that is the openings we have. And then we do have a request in to HHS for three additional FTEs with potential of adding more depending on case management, redesign and what, um, the impact is going to be.

00:14:56,067	S7:
Um.

00:14:57,868	S2:
Another thing I had for child welfare was just additional outreach we're doing for local universities. When I talk about hiring and having a hard time doing that, we're really trying to work with universities on educating the students on what social services is giving them a better idea before they come out of school and come into these jobs. So we were able to accept a couple interns for 2026. We've had good luck, historically, of having interns that then are able to apply for positions and be good candidates. So I'm hopeful with that process. And then we've been doing work with ongoing work with System of Care. So I would just educate that. North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services Behavioral Health Division was awarded a four year substance abuse and mental health grant to enhance mental health outcomes for children and youth. So this grant Ran will run from. It's still active from September 30th of 2022 to September 30th, 2026, and it was a $3 million per year grant. Um, this grant is designed to enhance the mental health outcomes for children youth, birth to ages. Um, sorry. Birth to age 21. So this group is different stakeholders in the community that provide services to the this population. And we really have been focused on outpatient services. So, uh, youth and kids having access to community based services and not having to go into residential treatment facilities to get them, um, 24 hour crisis and emergency services. So we talk a lot about nine, eight, eight, um, and the services that they're providing through the Human Service Center. And then we talk about intensive in-home based, um, case management services. So child welfare shouldn't have to be this safety net for families to get case management services. So there should be different agencies that are able to provide that. So we've through this, uh, system of care work, they've been able to distribute grants to different community partners, like a youth works or community action community option, different providers who then can go in and provide some of these different services to the community. we were able to work for. One of the biggest wins was probably the partial hospitalization program, that intensive day treatment that was started back up through Saint Alexis, and then we worked on rebuilding respiratory services for families. Again, you don't have to get involved in child welfare to get respite if you if that's needed to prevent removal of children from the home, and then transition services for children and young adults into the adult services system. So that um, that's really the updates I had for that side of the the agency. Does anybody have questions on any of that?

00:17:42,267	S6:
Sorry. As far as the respite care. Has there been any redesign as far as the training that would be required to be respite care rather than full time foster care, or do they have the same?

00:17:58,467	S6:
Um, training requirements?

00:18:01,067	S2:
No, there is different training requirements based on like the level of licensing people want to get. Yeah. So good question. We also work with what we call kinship care. And so if families if we have kids who are at risk of being removed from the home, and you have somebody who's willing to provide care for them, uh, and you would be identified as kin, there's another level of, um, certification or license that you can get that is less than a full time foster home. So if that a little bit answers your questions, it does have a different training requirement, different licensing requirement. And then you still are able to be compensated for your expenses while you're providing a safe place for those kids through this kinship versus foster care.

00:18:40,267	S6:
Okay.

00:18:41,868	S2:
There's also some initiatives through path to, um, bolster their respite home program for DD services. I that's kind of still a lot in the conversation, but those are things we talked about with those partners that, uh, it's meant to be preventative. So not for kids that we have custody of, but that is a struggle. We often take custody of kids who have different, um, developmental disability diagnosis, and they're just harder for foster parents to care for. It's a different skill set. Um, so path is starting to bolster, and then we'll be piloting a program where families who have children with specific diagnosis could qualify for respite through these host homes that they call them, where you can go get respite. Then and again, the idea is to try to prevent them from burning out. And then the kids entering foster care is one of the goals.

00:19:30,567	S6:
Oh that's wonderful.

00:19:31,601	S5:
What are they looking at for a timeline on that as far as getting it fully implemented? And then, um, how long would a child be reside there in that scenario?

00:19:44,767	S2:
Um, all those things are still being worked out. They just presented to directors last week that The Path has been collaborating with the DD Division through HHS and just, um, kind of developing the logistics around the pilot, so I have no idea when it will. Hopefully by the next board meeting I'll have better information. This is something I'm very hopeful will be impactful to our families that we serve. So something I definitely pay attention to when they're talking about. So hopefully I have more information on a timeline. What are the stays that families can use? Like is it hourly per month or how did how do families get into using the service?

00:20:18,100	S5:
That's kind of what I was curious about because it's kind of a stopgap. So what's that look like or what are they envisioning that that time frame to be. Yep.

00:20:27,267	S2:
Hopefully we know like who qualifies. How do they apply. Because my team is going to want to push this out to families for. Yeah.

00:20:33,467	S6:
And how quickly can you pass this.

00:20:35,167	S2:
Yep. Yeah. Do you already have to have a diagnosis. Yeah. And a waiver to get this service. Yeah. All that'll be interesting to see how it lays out.

00:20:46,367	S2:
Um, but those are tough cases where. Yeah, reunification is hard. In those cases, stabilization of the kids are hard on those ones. So that's a good area for some prevention versus waiting for those to end up in foster care.

00:21:04,167	S2:
Any other comments questions.

00:21:08,267	S2:
Otherwise, for I never find my agenda again for other zone updates. Um, I told you guys a little bit older staffing model. It's really just been business as usual with, uh, the other things, um, navigating, uh, the remodel of our building, navigating, uh, the changes to our staffing in our, our organization and then requesting those additional FTEs. So hopefully again, by the next meeting, I have more updates to you on what that looks like organizationally for our chart. And, um, the impact that will have to our caseloads. But otherwise I don't have any other updates for you guys.

00:21:49,367	S2:
Okay, well, nobody has any other questions and I'll just jump ahead and we'll adjourn the meeting. So thank you. Thanks. Thank you.

00:21:55,467	S5:
Merry Christmas.