August 30, 2007

County supervisors praise Enhanced Joint Response Program

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently highlighted the success of a countywide collaboration between the Department of Families and Children Services (DFCS) and local law enforcement departments, to better assess and address the needs of abused and neglected children.

As the first county in California to fully implement a joint social worker-peace officer response to law enforcement investigation scenes, the Enhanced Joint Response program (EJR) now serves as a model for other county agencies and jurisdictions throughout California. A report presented to the board of supervisors indicates that thanks to the increase in Enhanced Joint Responses, approximately one half of children involved in EJR are diverted from entry into the children’s shelter, and of the families diverted from entry into the shelter, about 62 percent are stabilized with social workers’ support.

“We are proud our county is leading the efforts to protect children, and our strong partnership is now a model in the state,” said Supervisor Don Gage, chair of the board of supervisors and vice chair of the Children, Seniors and Families Committee. “We are happy to provide an increased level of services to families in need.”

Currently operational in all 15 cities in the county, the Enhanced Joint Response Program is a multidisciplinary 24/7 approach to ensure that when law enforcement personnel respond to a call with children involved, a social worker is also en route to the scene. The goal is to ensure safety, reduce child removals and reduce costly and more restrictive placements, minimize trauma if removal is necessary and immediately identify opportunities to provide services to families.

Social Worker response time is approximately 30 minutes or less within San Jose and surrounding law enforcement jurisdictions. As far south as Gilroy and as far north as Palo Alto, social workers can be on the scene in approximately 45 minutes.

“Determining the safest and best outcome of a family is our number-one concern,” said DFCS Director Norma Doctor Sparks. “The response from both law enforcement and social workers has been extremely positive.”
In early August, local experts from DFCS presented the Enhanced Joint Response program to state judicial and child welfare professionals. DFCS key staff will also join law enforcement officials in a special seminar in San Diego sponsored by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), to develop a tele-course on the subject of Child Safety/Parent Arrested for the POST Training Network. Next October, the County’s EJR Program will be presented at the County Welfare Directors Association Conference.

“When children are involved, it is critical that we respond to incidents quickly and with all available resources to reduce the trauma to the child,” said Supervisor Ken Yeager, chair of the Children, Seniors and Families Committee. “All cities in Santa Clara County are on board and should be commended for making ours the first county in the state to achieve complete participation from all its jurisdictions.”

About Enhanced Joint: Response
Historically, the Department of Family and Children's Services (DFCS) has practiced Joint Response with law enforcement personnel whenever children were placed in protective custody. Until the implementation of the Enhanced Joint Response, formal law enforcement and social services protocols did not exist to always include DFCS in law enforcement’s removal decisions, resulting in unnecessary child removals and foster care and placements, and a greater likelihood of court ordered services.

Now, when children must be removed from their homes, social workers, rather than police officers in marked patrol cars, transport the children to the children’s shelter. For those situations where social workers are not immediately needed at the scene, law enforcement has the ability to consult with the after-hours Joint Response social workers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This reduces stress and confusion for the children and allows police officers to return to service more quickly.

Known initially as Joint Response (JR), the groundbreaking collaboration began in the San Jose in May 2004 and was later adopted by other localities. With the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy joining other localities, the practice is countywide. In anticipation of increasing demand by law enforcement for social worker response as JR was implemented throughout the county, DFCS established its first “swing shift” Emergency Response unit in late 2004. Since November 2005, the California Highway Patrol has provided social workers with Diamond Lane passes to facilitate a more timely response to outlying jurisdictions.

A strong network of partnerships between DFCS and the law enforcement community has been developed. By providing timely services that are culturally and linguistically competent up front, EJR is one of several DFCS strategies to reduce the overrepresentation of children of color removed from their homes. Approximately one half of families involved in EJR are Latino, 13 percent are of African ancestry and 12 percent are of Asian or Pacific ancestry.

The Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children Services worked with the Santa Clara County Police Chiefs' Association to expand JR sequentially to law enforcement agencies within the county, with the support of law enforcement agencies from the cities of San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Campbell, Milpitas, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Los Altos, Morgan Hill and Gilroy. The cities of Cupertino, Saratoga and Los Altos Hills are covered under the sheriff’s jurisdiction. Monte Sereno is serviced under Los Gatos Police Department. The California Highway Patrol also participates in the county’s Enhanced Joint Response.