STATE OF NEVADA - Division of Child and Family Services

JIM GIBBONS
Governor
STATE OF NEVADA
MICHAEL J. WILLDEN
Director
DIANE COMEAUX
Administrator
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
DIVISION OF CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES
4126 Technology Way – 3 rd Floor
Carson City, Nevada 89706
(775) 684-4400
To: Citizen Review Panel
From: Diane Comeaux
Date: June 30, 2010
RE: Report back to the Nevada Citizen review Panel on 2009 Recommendations
Child Protective Services (CPS) Staff Practices
Recommendation 1: CPS practices need to incorporate appropriate actions and referrals to promote safety,
permanency, and well-being that are timely based on the child and family’s needs.
DCFS Response: The State agrees that referrals for services to families should be made as appropriate and
as timely as possible. Federal and State law requires a case plan be developed within 60 days of removal.
Within the past year, each child welfare agency in Nevada has developed a standardized case plan format for
their agency. Case plans are now located in the Unified Nevada Information Technology for Youth (UNITY)
system, which is Nevada’s Statewide Automated Child Welfare System (SACWIS). Each agency’s case plan
has a section to address the medical, mental health, behavioral and/or educational needs of the child. A
subsequent section asks the worker to describe what services are in place to address the specific needs of the
child. Despite the newly approved case plan formats, documentation of the entire case plan template remains
inconsistent across the state. Additional training in case plan development and documentation would be
beneficial to caseworkers.
Additionally, several related areas of key concern were noted during Nevada’s most recent Child and Family
Services Review (CFSR):
Lack of appropriate and timely in-home services to ensure safety.
Wait lists for many key services, along with the need for tailored, specialized services such as
sexual abuse treatment, grief counseling, and services to support THV/reunification.
Services need to be clearly directed at assessing and building parental capacity, and progress
communicated in a way that helps agencies and courts make key decisions.
Inadequate availability of services to meet needs of children and families, major gaps include:
prevention services/alternatives to detention, substance abuse treatment, accessibility to quality
mental health services, transportation, educational supports, housing, post-adoption, quality
therapeutic homes.
SB 343 was enacted in the 2009 legislative session. This bill authorizes the Director, to the extent authorized
by Federal law, include in any state plans adopted pursuant to NRS 422.271, priority for a parent which is
referred by an agency which provides child welfare services and who qualifies to receive treatment. The