Eighteen months after federal officials found "serious" problems with the state's child welfare system, officials say some progress has been made but more needs to be done to place foster children in safe and permanent living situations.

Halfway toward a June 2006 deadline to reform Child Welfare Services, the agency has improved on its two primary goals — placing foster children in permanent living situations and seeing that foster care workers visit the families often — said Henry Oliva, state deputy director of Human Services, parent agency for Child Welfare Services.

Oliva said he is hopeful that the state agency will improve even more by the time the federal Department of Health and Human Services performs an audit next year.

An update yesterday at a meeting of Child Welfare Services stakeholders revealed that the state has met the federal standard for worker visitations with children and foster families — an area scrutinized in a 2003 federal assessment.

Social workers were burdened by heavy caseloads, and while the load hasn't changed much, Oliva said, the department is working to reduce paperwork and the amount of time spent in the office. This will allow social workers to attend to their top priority: responding to the concerns and needs of children and foster families.

The federal review also noted "the timeliness of initiating investigations of reports of child maltreatment was identified as a serious problem" mainly because Human Services officials did not have face-to-face contact with the child victim in a timely way.

Case review numbers show that timely investigation of child abuse met federal standards last quarter, but it must be met for at least two consecutive quarters to achieve federal standard, said Amy Tsark of Child Welfare Services.

Evelyn Souza and her husband have fostered more than 60 children during the past 16 years. She said she's seen "remarkable" improvement in the foster care system since the department began reforms last year.

"It's not hard to get anything for these kids anymore," Souza said. Before, it took a lot of hassling to get things as simple as clothing, she said.

Yesterday's update comes a year after the department implemented a two-year plan to meet federal standards set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Federal officials conducted a Child and Family Services review in late 2003 and found that Hawai'i did not meet 11 of 14 federal standards.

But Hawai'i was not alone; every state failed to meet the federal child welfare standards, according to Oliva.

"The system needed to improve, and this gave us a vehicle to improve it," Oliva said.

Souza, 57, of Makakilo, said she began to see improvement when Lillian Koller became director of Human Services in January 2003.

"I have seen a lot of changes since Lillian Koller came — more openness, more willingness to be open. It used to seem like a game of football. Not anymore," Souza said.

While the department has made significant improvements in worker visitations, providing foster children with stable and permanent living situations has been an ongoing challenge, Tsark said.

Tsark said there are several ways the agency is attempting to improve foster child placement, including placing them with relatives and providing counseling support to the child and their foster family.

"Studies show that kids have less disruption when they are placed with relatives than non-relatives," Tsark said.

Also, the department began coordinating with counseling and mental health providers to give foster families support and help them understand what the children are going through, Tsark said.

"When they (foster children) come into care they bring along a lot of issues," she said.

The goal, in the end, is to prevent foster children from being placed more than twice in a 12-month period, an area that Tsark said has seen some improvement.

Souza fosters nine children now, something she says she wouldn't be able to do without services provided by the department. However, Souza admits much more could be done.

"There's movement; it used to be status quo forever," she said.