Senate Bill 2257

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 43-26-1, 43-1-55 AND 43-15-5, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE AND DIRECT THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CHILD PROTECTION SERVICES TO PRIVATIZE OR OTHERWISE CONTRACT WITH PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS OR A PRIVATE ENTITY TO PROVIDE LICENSED SOCIAL WORKER SERVICES NECESSARY FOR THE FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT; TO REQUIRE LEGAL SEARCH AND SEIZURE TRAINING FOR SOCIAL WORKERS PROVIDING SERVICES TO THE DEPARTMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 43-26-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

43-26-1. (1) There is hereby created a Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services.

(2) The Chief Administrative Officer of the Department of Child Protection Services shall be the Commissioner of Child Protection Services who shall be appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. The commissioner shall possess the following qualifications:

(a) A bachelor's degree from an accredited institution of higher learning and ten (10) years' experience in management, public administration, finance or accounting; or

(b) A master's or doctoral degree from an accredited institution of higher learning and five (5) years' experience in management, public administration, finance, law or accounting.

(3) The Department of Child Protection Services shall be a subagency independent of, though housed within, the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The Commissioner of the Department of Child Protection Services shall maintain complete and exclusive operational control of the Department of Child Protection Services' functions, except functions shared with the Department of Human Services as provided in subsection (5)(c) and (d) of this section.

(4) The Commissioner of Child Protection Services may assign to the appropriate offices such powers and duties deemed appropriate to carry out the lawful functions of the programs transferred to the department under Chapter 494, Laws of 2016.

(5) The Commissioner of Child Protection Services and the Executive Director of the Department of Human Services shall develop and implement a plan for the orderly establishment of the Department of Child Protection Services and its transition from the Office of Family and Children's Services of the Department of Human Services. The plan shall:

(a) Describe a mechanism for the transfer of any equipment, supplies, records, furnishings or other materials, resources or funds dedicated to the operation of the Office of Family and Children's Services of the Department of Human Services, which may be useful to the Department of Child Protection Services;

(b) Determine the allocation of resources between the newly created Department of Child Protection Services and the Department of Human Services, as practicable;

(c) Determine the allocation of functions where the performance of services may be shared between the Department of Child Protection Services and other employees of the Department of Human Services, as practicable;

(d) Determine whether any administrative support services, such as Information Technology Services, bookkeeping and payroll, can continue to be provided by the Department of Human Services; and

(e) Identify other areas deemed relevant by the commissioner and make recommendations thereon to achieve an orderly transition.

(6) The programs and services provided by the Office of Family and Children's Services of the Department of Human Services under the following statutes shall be provided by the Department of Child Protection Services: Sections 41-87-5, 41-111-1, 43-1-2, 43-1-51, 43-1-55, 43-1-57, 43-1-63, 43-15-3, 43-15-5, 43-15-6, 43-15-13, 43-15-15, 43-15-17, 43-15-19, 43-15-21, 43-15-23, 43-15-51, 43-15-103, 43-15-105, 43-15-115, 43-15-125, 43-15-201, 43-15-203, 43-15-207 and 43-18-3, Mississippi Code of 1972.

(7) The PEER Committee shall review the programs or program of the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, beginning with fiscal year 2017 and each year thereafter. PEER shall submit this review to the Chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Chair of the House Public Health and Human Services Committee, the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Governor by December 1 of each year. The review shall consist of the following:

(a) A review of the effectiveness of any program of the department for which appropriated outcome measures have been established;

(b) Caseloads for social workers for each county or another appropriate geographic area;

(d) Sources and uses of department funding; and

(e) Any other matters that the PEER Committee considers to be pertinent to the performance of agency programs.

(8) Effective July 1, 2019, the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services is authorized and directed to privatize or otherwise enter into a contract with private individuals or a private entity for the operation and provision of any licensed social worker services necessary to carry out any function of the department. The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services is also authorized and directed to enter into a contract with a public or private entity to provide training to social workers providing services to the department on the warrant and probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and of Article III, Section 23 of the Mississippi Constitution. Any such social worker shall complete this training requirement before being eligible to provide services to the department.

SECTION 2. Section 43-1-55, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

43-1-55. (1) The Office of Family and Children's Services and the Division of Aging and Adult Services shall devise formal standards for employment as a family protection worker and as a family protection specialist within their respective offices and for service delivery designed to measure the quality of services delivered to clients, as well as the timeliness of services. Each family protection worker and family protection specialist shall be assessed annually by a supervisor who is a licensed social worker who is knowledgeable in the standards promulgated. The standards devised by each office shall be applicable to all family protection workers and family protection specialists working under that office.

(2) The Office of Family and Children's Services shall devise formal standards for family protection workers of the Department of Human Services who are not licensed social workers. Those standards shall require that:

(a) In order to be employed as a family protection worker, a person must have a bachelor's degree in either psychology, sociology, nursing, family studies, or a related field, or a graduate degree in either psychology, sociology, nursing, criminal justice, counseling, marriage and family therapy or a related field. The determination of what is a related field shall be made by certification of the State Personnel Board; and

(b) Before a person may provide services as a family protection worker, the person shall complete four (4) weeks of intensive training provided by the training unit of the Office of Family and Children's Services, and shall take and receive a passing score on the certification test administered by the training unit upon completion of the four-week training. Upon receiving a passing score on the certification test, the person shall be certified as a family protection worker by the Department of Human Services. Any person who does not receive a passing score on the certification test shall not be employed or maintain employment as a family protection worker for the department. Further, a person, qualified as a family protection worker through the procedures set forth above, shall not conduct forensic interviews of children until the worker receives additional specialized training in child forensic interview protocols and techniques by a course or curriculum approved by the Department of Human Services to be not less than forty (40) hours.

(3) For the purpose of providing services in child abuse or neglect cases, youth court proceedings, vulnerable adults cases, and such other cases as designated by the Executive Director of Human Services, the caseworker or service provider shall be a family protection specialist or a family protection worker whose work is overseen by a family protection specialist who is a licensed social worker.

(4) The Department of Human Services and the Office of Family and Children's Services shall seek to employ and use family protection specialists to provide the services of the office, and may employ and use family protection workers to provide those services only in counties in which there is not a sufficient number of family protection specialists to adequately provide those services in the county.

(5) (a) There is created a Training and Testing Advisory Council to review the department's program of training and testing of family protection workers and to make recommendations pertaining to the program to the department. The advisory council shall be composed of the following ten (10) members: two (2) employees of the department appointed by the Executive Director of Human Services, including one (1) representative of the Office of Family and Children's Services and one (1) representative of the Division of Aging and Adult Services; the Chairman of the Consortium of Accredited Schools of Social Work in Mississippi; and the executive director or a board member of a professional association or licensing board for each field of study named in subsection (2)(a) of this section, as follows: the Mississippi Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers; a marriage and family therapist who is a member of the Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists, to be selected by the four (4) members of the board of examiners who are marriage and family therapists; the Mississippi Nurses Association; the Mississippi Prosecutors Association; the Mississippi Counseling Association; the Mississippi Psychological Association; and an officer of the Alabama-Mississippi Sociological Association who is a Mississippi resident elected by the executive committee of the association. The executive director of each association (excluding the Alabama-Mississippi Sociological Association) and chairman of the consortium may designate an alternate member to serve in his stead on the advisory council. Members of the advisory council shall serve without salary or per diem.

(b) A majority of the advisory council members shall select from their membership a chairperson to preside over meetings and a vice chairperson to preside in the absence of the chairperson or when the chairperson is excused. The advisory council shall adopt procedures governing the manner of conducting its business. A majority of the members shall constitute a quorum to do business.

(6) Notwithstanding any provision of this section, the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services is authorized and directed to privatize or otherwise enter into a contract with private individuals or a private entity for the operation and provision of any licensed social worker services necessary to carry out any function of the department. The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services is also authorized and directed to enter into a contract with a public or private entity to provide training to social workers providing services to the department on the warrant and probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and of Article III, Section 23 of the Mississippi Constitution. Any such social worker shall complete this training requirement before being eligible to provide services to the department.

( * * *67) This section and Section 43-27-107, Mississippi Code of 1972, shall stand repealed on July 1, 2019.

SECTION 3. Section 43-15-5, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

43-15-5. (1) The Department of Human Services shall have authority and it shall be its duty to administer or supervise all public child welfare services, including those services, responsibilities, duties and powers with which the county departments of human services are charged and empowered in this article; administer and supervise the licensing and inspection of all private child placing agencies; provide for the care of dependent and neglected children in foster family homes or in institutions, supervise the care of such children and those of illegitimate birth; supervise the importation of children; and supervise the operation of all state institutions for children. The Department of Human Services shall be authorized to purchase hospital and medical insurance coverage for those children placed in foster care by the state or county departments of human services who are not otherwise eligible for medical assistance under the Mississippi Medicaid Law. The Department of Human Services shall be further authorized to purchase burial or life insurance not exceeding One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500.00) for those children placed in foster care by the state or county departments of human services. All insurance coverage authorized herein may be purchased with any funds other than state funds available to the Department of Human Services, including those funds available to the child which are administered by the department.

(2) Any person, partnership, group, corporation, organization or association desiring to operate a child residential home, as defined in Section 43-16-3, may make application for a license for such a facility to the Department of Human Services on the application forms furnished for this purpose by the department. If an applicant meets the published rules and regulations of the department regarding minimum standards for a child residential home, then the applicant shall be granted a license by the department.

(3) Notwithstanding any provision of this section, the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services is authorized and directed to privatize or otherwise enter into a contract with private individuals or a private entity for the operation and provision of any licensed social worker services necessary to carry out any function of the department. The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services is also authorized and directed to enter into a contract with a public or private entity to provide training to social workers providing services to the department on the warrant and probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and of Article III, Section 23 of the Mississippi Constitution. Any such social worker shall complete this training requirement before being eligible to provide services to the department.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2019.