DHS settlement will bring big changes to child-welfare agency

Oklahoma's plan of improvement has yet to be developed by state Department of Human Services' staff working in conjunction with DHS commissioners, the governor's office and state lawmakers.

However, Oklahomans curious about what some of the reforms could look like might want to take a look at New Jersey.

That's because two of the three most powerful people shaping the future of Oklahoma's child-welfare system are former high-ranking administrators of the New Jersey child-welfare agency.

Oklahoma's settlement agreement called for the creation of a panel of three out-of-state child-welfare experts who have been granted approval authority over Oklahoma's plan of improvement and given the responsibility of overseeing reform plans to make sure they are implemented.

The three individuals selected are Kevin Ryan, former commissioner of New Jersey's child-welfare agency; Eileen Crummy, who worked for Ryan in New Jersey and later served as acting commissioner over the agency; and Kathleen Noonan, a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin law school.

Crummy and Ryan are now partners with Public Catalyst, a small New Jersey-based company that works with states, counties, nonprofits and courts to improve child-welfare and juvenile justice systems.

In their former jobs, however, they had the responsibility of implementing court-mandated reforms that arose from a 2003 settlement agreement in a lawsuit by New York-based Children's Rights. The lawsuit was similar to the one in Oklahoma in which the parties have reached a settlement agreement that is awaiting final approval from a Tulsa federal judge.