Bill Text: MS HB274 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Family protection specialists; require DHS to pay equal compensation to those with same education/experience.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-02-23 - Died In Committee [HB274 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2016-HB274-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2016 Regular Session
To: Public Health and Human Services; Revenue and Expenditure General Bills
By: Representative Arnold
House Bill 274
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 43-1-55 AND 43-27-107, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THAT THE COMPENSATION OF FAMILY PROTECTION SPECIALISTS EMPLOYED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES WHO HAVE THE SAME LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE BE EQUAL REGARDLESS OF THE AREA OF THE STATE IN WHICH THE FAMILY PROTECTION SPECIALISTS ARE EMPLOYED; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. 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. The compensation of family protection specialists employed by the Office of Family and Children's Services and the Division of Aging and Adult Services who have the same level of education and experience shall be equal regardless of the area of the state in which the family protection specialists are employed.
(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) This section and Section 43-27-107, Mississippi Code of 1972, shall stand repealed on July 1, 2019.
SECTION 2. Section 43-27-107, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
43-27-107. The Department of Human Services is authorized to set the qualifications necessary for all family protection specialists employed by the department, which shall at a minimum require that the applicant possess a baccalaureate degree in social work from a college or university accredited by the Council on Social Work Education or Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, unless the person was licensed as a social worker before September 1, 1994, pursuant to Section 73-53-7, Mississippi Code of 1972.
The qualifications for employment of a family protection specialist at the senior, advanced and supervisory grades shall require, in addition to those required of a family protection specialist, state licensure as a social worker.
The department shall not be required to go through the State Personnel Board or use the qualifications set by the Personnel Board in employing any family protection specialists for the department. All family protection specialists employed by the department shall be state service employees from the date of their employment with the department; however, to carry out its responsibilities, the department may use any available federal funds to employ such additional family protection specialists as it can employ in time-limited positions. All social worker positions existing before July 1, 1998, will remain state service.
The compensation of family protection specialists employed by the Department of Human Services who have the same level of education and experience shall be equal regardless of the area of the state in which the family protection specialists are employed.
This section shall stand repealed on July 1, 2019.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2016.
