State searches for new DFYS director

JUNEAU -- Gov. Frank Murkowski's new commissioner of Health and Social Services Joel Gilbertson announced a nationwide search for a new director for the Alaska Division of Family and Youth Services (DFYS) last week. The announcement came in a press release Wednesday, Dec. 17, just eight days after Murkowski announced Gilbertson's appointment.

"Alaska's high rate of child abuse and neglect is unacceptable," Gilbertson said in the press release. "The federal report on Alaska's child protection system issued last September sent us a message: rethink the way we protect Alaska's children."

DFYS social workers investigate reports of abuse and neglect and work with troubled families to keep children in their homes or place the children in foster care or other settings. DFYS has approximately 387 workers in 30 offices throughout the state.

"I believe we need the benefit of a new perspective," Gilbertson said. "By bringing in a well-qualified professional to head DFYS, we can jump-start our initiatives to improve Alaska's child protection system."

DHSS also announced in the release that the department has applied for an extension to a deadline for a report on DFYS that was due to federal government last Thursday. DHSS requested a 90-day extension to submit the plan in order to get the new DFYS director on board.

"Our commissioner, and others here, feel very strongly that the fingerprint of our new [DFYS] director should be on that report," DHSS spokesman Ross Soboleff said. The improvement plan was part of an exchange of reports between the state and federal governments, according to Soboleff, who said the process was required in every state.

"I would consider it a very thorough and very rigorous process that the federal government is going through," Soboleff said.