STATE OF NEVADA - Division of Child and Family Services

as well as foster parents, are trained on state and federal laws regarding special education rights and services. During the
current grant period, approximately 100 additional surrogate volunteers were trained. LACSN has worked with the
Southern Nevada Paralegal Association and the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law to recruit new volunteers to
become surrogates. Approximately 90 children had active educational surrogates acting on their behalf with the school
district. Funding for an additional year was provided in the spring of 2010 to update the training manual and train more
volunteers.
The training goal has been met in a variety of ways. A Special Education Manual was created by staff at LACSN. The
manual presents the pertinent federal and state law in an easily understandable manner and contains useful Clark County
School District information, including an overview of how the District is structured and the District's regulations regarding
Special Education. The manual can be adopted for used by other jurisdictions.
A fourth program supported by CIP is the Nevada CASA Association, Inc. CIP has provided second year funding for the
Nevada CASA Association, Inc., which ended in August 2009. The purpose of the Nevada CASA Association is to support
existing local CASA programs with volunteer recruitment, training, and support as needed; expand the program to one
additional court per year, to reach the goal of providing a CASA volunteer for every abused and neglected child; and to
promote the CASA mission throughout Nevada. With more CASA programs and more volunteers, more abused and
neglected children have advocates working toward the ultimate goal of permanency. Since May 2009, there has been a
10.2% decrease in the number of children served in the rural areas in particular, and the cause for this decline is under
investigation. Additional efforts made to promote the CASA mission include:
• August 6-9, 2009, Bill Fowler, Director of Nevada CASA Association, volunteered at the Legend’s Reno-Tahoe Open
Golf Tournament. Bill was able to speak with 15-20 people about CASA.
• September 19-20, 2009, NCA sponsored Bowling for CASA in Carson City, Las Vegas and Reno, with a combined
turnout of more than 100 people. The main purpose is to promote CASA, but the fundraising component will be
shared with the local CASA programs in Carson City and Las Vegas.
The current economic recession has and will adversely impact the funding of current CASA programs, start-ups of
additional CASA programs for rural counties, and NCA goals.
A fifth initiative sponsored by the CIP is the Early Representation Pilot Project. Begun in February 2009, this pilot project
follows best practice research regarding improving outcomes for children by reducing to a minimum the time a child
spends in placement, and expediting comprehensive case planning while applying active efforts to reach an early
resolution of plan and permanency. A core of the program is immediate appointment of counsel for children and parents,
exchange of reports and necessary information, and a facilitated series of meetings with all counsel and stakeholders,
within days of removal to identify and resolve conflicts and reach a collaborative solution. All cases are assigned to a
single judicial officer and originate from a single geographic service area. The project has met the first goal of having 25
cases in ERP. Related to this goal, is the goal of assuring that all children and all parents in ERP actually receive legal
counsel and assuring counsel’s participation in hearings, safety team meetings and any subsequent child and family team
(CFT) and other case-related meetings. This goal was met. A data collection system has been developed with help from
the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC); a worksheet that captures the statistical information needed for analysis is
complete and operational. The DCFS – Rural Region has trained its Children’s Clinical Services’ therapists to serve as
safety team facilitators. ERP has two assigned clinical services workers who facilitate all safety team meetings and within
a day, provide summaries to the stakeholders via e-mail. Monthly stakeholder meetings are held to address and resolve a
wide range of issues related to the pilot project. Since the beginning of the project, 84 children have been provided legal
representation. Of those, 42 have been reunified and their cases closed. Of the remaining 42 children, 13 have been
placed back with their parent(s), 10 are in a relative placement and 19 remain in foster care. The second goal of
assigning cases to a control group started in February 2010. Second year funding was approved through CIP.
A sixth and final initiative l was to improve video conferencing capabilities in the courts to improve communication and
training opportunities. Elko County, Humboldt County, and White Pine County District Courts were all approved to receive
video conferencing equipment as part of the CIP effort to implement video conferencing capabilities in courts for use in
child welfare cases. Elko County is completely operational and has started providing quarterly information on its use.
White Pine County is expected to be operational within 30 days. Once the technical issues are resolved in Humboldt
County, video conferencing should be available within 30-45 days.
Nevada APSR – SFY 2010
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