This hearing of the Senate Health and Social Services Committee will now come to order.
Today is Tuesday, January 27th, 2026, and the time is 3.30.
We are in but the rich room 205.
Members present are Senator Meyers, Senator Klayman,
Senator Tobin, Vice Chair Geesele,
and myself, Chair Dunbar with the record reflect that we have a quorum to conduct business.
Before we begin, I would like to thank Mary Gwen Kawakami,
the Senate Health and Social Services Recording Secretary,
and Kyla Tupou from the Let's,
from Juneau, LIO for staff in the committee today.
We only, and we have one item on our agenda today,
a presentation from
the Department of Family and Community Services.
Here to present our acting commissioner,
Tracy Dompling and Assistant Commissioner, Mary Ann Sweet.
If you guys wanna come forward.
Present in a room for questions are
Actually, I'm not sure they're all here, but we've OCS,
Office of Children's Services Director, Kim Guay,
Division of Juvenile Justice Director Matt Davidson,
Alaska Psychiatric Institute CEO, Ken Cole,
Alaska Pioneer Homes Director Dr. Kern McGinley,
and Coordinated Health and Complex Care Unit Deputy Director
Mikayla Vare.
There aren't actually that many people in the room,
so we're missing a couple of them,
but I am sure we can get them.
It looks like we have a few of then online.
Yes, we have Mr. Cole and Mr Davidson.
Mr Cole is online, Mr Davids, and we
have in the room.
OK, wonderful.
We also have senior policy advisor Chrissy Voguely.
So thank you all for being here today.
So Acting Commissioner, please, when you are ready,
put yourself on the record and begin your presentation.
Great. Thank you. Good afternoon for the record. My name is Tracy Donpling and I'm the
Acting Commissioner for The Department of Family and Community Services. I am both grateful
and honored to be serving in this role as Acting commissioner.
I have worked for Department both as a standalone department and under Health and Social Services
for almost 27 years.
I worked the Department as the Director for Division of Behavioral Health for two years
before coming back to the department as Deputy Commissioner. And then I've been in the Acting
I think Mr. Chair, you pretty much went through the introductions, but we do have assistant commissioner Mary and sweet and senior policy advisor Chrissy Vogley, all the division directors and deputy director from complex care unit are all on the phone.
We appreciate the opportunity to present to you today.
We have four direct service divisions that form the foundation of our department that is the Alaska Pioneer Homes
Alaska Psychiatric Institute the Division of Juvenile Justice and the Office of Children's Services and
As I report out on each division here coming up in the next few slides
Just know that I'll be providing accomplishments and updates from the last hearing later on about slide 12
As we get started today, I just want to take a moment to recognize the staff of our department.
They work with some of Alaska's most vulnerable populations doing so with care and compassion.
Our departments' divisions provide 24-7 services, regardless of challenging weather or other
conditions that people are allowed to work from home for.
We would not be able to effectively operate our facilities or our services without the
dedication of staff.
Slide three is a high-level organizational chart for the department both for The Commissioner's Office and for individual divisions
The chart reflects key positions within the organization to help meet our mission and vision
This year we welcomed a new director to the Alaska pioneer homes in June of 2025
That was dr. Kern McGinley and dr
McG inley comes to us from the Anchorage school district and although his background isn't in assisted living. He's been able to translate his leadership
experience well to the Pioneer Home. The Pioneer Homes provide services to
elder Alaskans including assistance with activities of daily living, nursing
services, recreational and social programs, assistance
with medications, dietary needs, housekeeping and meal preparation. Most of our
homes have an occupancy rate above 90%, however the Fairbanks Pioneer
Home is currently keeping rooms vacant due to direct care staff shortage and
Our homes provide a wide range of services and activities for the most independent individuals
to those living with dementia-related diseases and advanced complex care needs.
Last year we had reported that 58 percent of our residents in the pioneer home had dementia
related diseases.
This year that number has increased to 62 percent, so we are seeing a gradual increase
there.
Alaska pioneer homes have over 400 full-time positions and a budget of just over 117 million.
I'll pause for a second.
Thank you, Commissioner.
If folks have questions as we go,
we have one from Senator Tobin.
I also want to note, Dr. McGinley,
not just from the school district,
but was the principal of King Tech High School
in the heart of my district visit him
a number of times he did a great job there.
So, great hire, in my opinion.
Senator, Senator tobin.
Thank you.
Thank You, Mr. Chairman, and welcome.
I almost said Director Dumpling,
and then I thought, nope, wrong title.
I'm really excited for you to be here,
and I do have some questions as I had the opportunity
this summer to visit my uncle who is in the Fairbanks home.
And I was able to visited multiple times,
and each time he would point to the wing that was closed,
he also would mention that he's been having
a lot of turnover with some of his caretakers
and the folks in facility, which caused a lotta disruption,
I think, for some his holiday plans,
of life. So we all know that there's a lot of issues and a
lot problems and I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about
what is your vision or plan or what are you hoping that you and
the director will be able to do over the next coming months to
help stabilize the ship and then get us in a better position
than when we are right now.
Sure, through the Chair to Senator Tobin, some of the things, I hear what you're saying
about the Fairbanks home.
I've been up there.
I have seen the unit that's closed.
We do have a number of vacancies for our certified nursing assistants as well.
We are having to bring in traveling CNAs, which is part of why you've seen those caretakers
turnover.
I don't want to spoil coming up in my slide, but Director McGinley, he has done a great
And we have an exciting apprenticeship program, a CNA to LPN program that I was going to talk about a little bit later.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Senator Klayman.
I actually appreciate the historical perspective on the six pioneer homes of when they were started.
Can you go through the 6 and let me know approximate population in the sixth?
I'm going to pull out my glasses.
I can do math enough to know that 506 is less than all those years added together.
Great.
All right, the Anchorage Pioneer Home has a census of 162 individuals
with a capacity of 177.
Today, or last week, sorry, they were at almost 92%.
capacity. The Alaska Veterans Pioneer Home in Palmer has 73 residents with 79 capacity,
so they're at 92%. The Fairbanks Pioneer home has a census of 58, with a capacity of 91. They're
at 63, almost 64%. the Juneau Pioneer homes has the census at 47 and capacity at 49, so
they are kind of the top winner. We'll close there at 96%.
The Ketchikan pioneer home has 42 residents and a capacity of 45 and then the sick
pioneer.
Home has 63 residents, and the capacity at 65.
So as to those capacities, is that fairly typical that if not counting Fairbanks because
there's other issues going on in Fairbank's, but is, I'm sorry, yeah, in fairbanks,
is generally you're trying to run 92, 95, 96% full.
Through to through the chair to center claiming. Yes, we we would love to be at a hundred percent capacity
There is certainly their room turnover when there is a vacancy and you know
I think it's been told to me too that it
It's not really easy for staff that have developed relationships with the residents and someone passes
It' s very hard just to go in there and
You know spiff up the room pack up their belongings and be ready to put somebody do in the next day
But we also have to give individuals a heads-up when they're on the waitlist next
Are they wanting to come into this particular home?
So.
Yes, it would be our goal to be up, you know, at least for me in talking to Director McGinley
up above 95%.
The Veterans Pioneer Home also has its challenges because we do have a specific requirement
because it is a Veterans' Pioneer home to have certain number of residents who are veterans,
so we need to offer them an opportunity to come into the home first, then we have to
go to the wait list.
Rooms that are female and maybe they need a male. So it's very difficult because it is not comfortable for people obviously to
You know have a mail on one side of female on the other that is sharing a sharing of a bathroom space
Yes, I would just say it. I think you all are doing great the numbers you're reporting
I know Fairbanks has some additional challenges, but the others five facilities.
I thank the
capacity and turn the number of residents in terms of capacity shows you're doing really good work
I have no criticism
Thank You senator claiming senator Myers
Thank you, mr. Chair. So you mentioned the issues and frameworks are primarily around staffing. It sounds like
Looking forward, you know, we're all hearing that you
Population of Alaska is getting older. I'm assuming we are going to be looking at more people wanting your services over the years
And you've already got a wait list
Is staffing the primary thing stopping you from having your capacity, or is it facilities or something else?
Through the chair to Senator Myers, I believe primarily it is staffing.
We did have the flooring, there was a floor-ing upgrade that was going on in some of the throughout the home.
And so we had to be able to have residents move, and that might have been Senator Tobin kind of what your.
Your father was talking about too of having to change location and be a little bit disrupted
But the the new the New floors in the homes are beautiful and they were much needed
Sorry, miss mr. Chair
Just clarify I didn't just mean for Fairbanks
I just I meant for the system as a whole is is
What other challenges are we looking at if if we're going to potentially increase capacity and through the chair to center
Mars, it's it primarily staffing and so yeah as I said, we'll talk a
Little bit more about that apprentice program. Okay. Thank you
Thank you.
Senator Gussel.
Just a comment, Mr. Chairman.
My mother lived in the Anchorage Pioneer Home for nine years.
The staff is nearly, certainly more than 90 percent Filipino individuals, nursing assistants.
So I do wonder what our immigration policies are these days that would affect that.
Thank You, mr. chairman.
ThankYou, Senator.
GUSsel?
We do have the director online now, Dr. Kern McGinley of folks have questions for him,
but I think at this point we'll go on to the next slide, Director. I'm sorry,
Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's hard for me too, just so you know.
I am glad I got the title correct when I made my introduction.
Mr. Ken Cole, he is the new chief executive officer with Alaska Psychiatric Institute.
He has significant experience in psychiatric hospitals across the country, and he walked
in with a vision of a more efficient and patient-centered hospital.
Alaska psychiatric institute, or API, is Alaska's only state-run hospital that provides acute
psychiatric care to individuals experiencing mental health crises.
There's five inpatient units with 80 beds available to provide compassionate health care
API is also the only organization in the state that provides competency restoration services
for individuals where the court is concerned about their competencies to stand trial.
And in 2025, just for some numbers, API provided restoration service to 75 individuals, and
those individuals had an average length of stay for that program of 73 days.
And API has 321 full-time positions and a budget of almost 67 million.
Any good questions?
Senator Tobin.
Thank you, thank you Mr. Chairman, and Mr Foles predecessor invited me to tour API,
which I was able to do.
And it was an interesting and fascinating experience, particularly as I think folks
may not know that there are facilities for court proceedings and
there's also the Chillcat unit for youth.
The few things that we did talk about, one is capacity, and I'm curious because we see
80 license bends here, but we know that that capacity has been substantially higher in
the past.
And so, I am curious about your vision of increasing that bed capacity so we can continue to provide
Alaskan's care.
And I also am very curious, as when I visited, we had conversations about the Chilcat unit,
and if you can talk a little bit about that, your version also for that particular facility.
Sure through the chair to Senator Tobin the goal really I am also coming up I'm going to talk about
the jail-based restoration program, which has also
taken a little bit of pressure off for the competency work at API and
We've also
CEO Cole and I have talked about
Is there other space that we could be looking at within the community?
to try to have either satellite API.
There's a lot of things that come into play with that.
There is CMS requirements, there's joint commission requirements.
But those are the kind of thing that we've been trying
to think outside the box because we're pretty limited
with the space we have there at API, so what do we
have is potential to be able to offer more services
to Alaskans when they need it.
Paul?
Yes, I'm sorry.
Sure through the chair to center Tobin
Choke unit surprisingly here in the last few months is this had openings
There really was a period of time where it was there was significant backlog
When I was they're a few month ago
There was I think only three or four youth that were there
But that is definitely another pressure point and you know
We've again have reached out to somebody in that community to talk about whether or not, you now
There's space there that you no could we move the choke at unit to another area that's
It's so close to API so that we can utilize the psychiatric support and
other staff to be able to, you know, to provide the services to those individuals.
Senator Giesle.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So about, I think it's probably been eight years ago now.
There was concern about what was going on at API and
changes were made in the board that was governing the institute.
have things settled?
Is it more stabilized now?
What can you tell us?
Through the chair to Vice Chair Geisel.
Yes, it has settled quite a bit.
The culture, for what I've seen and heard of the staff there,
has calmed, I think, the same thing with the residents.
There is a really strong leadership team that's at API.
When CEO Cole came in, he had talked to me about really wanting to build that leadership
team and strengthen the leadership team.
We actually had the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association that provided some funding actually
leadership training to the staff.
So I think by that we've got some great staff
in leadership positions, we are building upon that,
we're working with and having, you know,
listening sessions with staff,
I know Mr. Coles has been out there,
or over there a few times, just listening
and people want to come in and talk.
And so there's a lot more transparency
that's happening too, which I
think that helps to kind of settle
some of the concerns with the
staff that were seen in the past.
So, I really do feel like we
are moving in in a right direction with API.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Klai-man.
The Chuket Unit is the Youth Unit?
Yes.
Okay, and then it's kind of similar to the last question.
How many beds in the different units?
My memory is that the forensic unit has 10 beds,
but I don't want to think I know the answer I've.
You should get the answer from you through the chair to center claim and I want to make sure that I have the
answer to but the at least for the chill cat unit. There's 10 I
Believe for The forensic there is also 10 and then there's remaining for this civil, but
Yes, sixty for at the civil yes
And follow up yes, not in the forensic unit or in The youth unit
But what's the typical length of stay for? The adult civil unit if you know?
Through the chair to Senator Clayman, I don't know at the moment, but we can find out that information.
Because one of the things, and of course I'll speak to it a little bit later too, is that under CEO Cole's leadership,
he has really strengthens the data to be able to review.
And so we, we could very simply get that in for you.
Okay, thank you, so,
we have Director Cole on the, or CEO, Cole, on The Line, would you like to.
direct your question to him or take the answer off if he knows the
answer. Better now than later. Mr. Cole. Are you there?
CEO of
Ken Cole CEO API through the chair. Go ahead.
Yes.
Yes, I don't have in front of me the average of this day for just the civil
patients, but we'll get that number and get it back to you right away. Very good.
Thank you, Mr. Cole. Okay, are there any further questions for API?
All right, please continue, Commissioner.
Moving on to Division of Juvenile Justice,
a division which I have some familiarity.
DJJ has six youth facilities,
providing either short-term detention services,
or both detention and secure treatment services.
We have Johnson Youth Center in Juneau,
McLaughlin Youth center in Anchorage,
the Fairbanks Youth Facility,
and the Bethel Youth facility,
who both have detention
and security treatment units.
And then we have the Matt Sioux Youth
Facility in Palmer and The Kenai Peninsula Youth
Facility that only provide the short term
services. There's 13 probation offices that are located in both urban and rural communities
throughout Alaska, such as Anchorage Fairbanks, Gnome, Bethel, Juneau, Dillingham, Ukiavic.
DJJ provides specialized treatment services to address the needs of individual youth,
including treatment programs that were focused on substance use, neurobehavioral conditions,
And DJJ has over 400 full time positions and a budget of almost 73 million.
Very good.
I have a question if other folks don't, I'm sorry to you Senator Tillman.
Thank you, thank you Mr. Chairman.
And this is one that you may have to follow up with me on,
I am very curious as the facilities that your named doesn't name NOM,
which closed.
I believe my first year here working in the legislature, and I am very curious to know about
the recidivism rate, particularly from students and young people from that particular region,
and particularly my curiosity as I have anecdotal evidence is that they're actually
reoffending at higher rates and that are staying for longer because they are not surrounded by
their family and the folks that care for them. And I'm very
curious just to see if that anecdotal
evidence plays out actually in
the data, in fact.
Through the chair to Senator Tobin, that's correct.
We'll have to get you that information.
So my question, thank you, Commissioner.
My question is specific to McLaughlin,
and I don't know if Mr. Director Davidson
might be able to answer it.
Let's see here.
It says Juno, but is that, is he actually
on the phone from Juno?
Is he?
He is on a phone, OK?
So he's in Juno but he is in thephone.
Director Davison, can you hear me?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Wonderful.
So I had the opportunity to take a tour of McLaughlin.
I think it was two years ago, or NYC, as folks call it now.
And there was an issue, a plan for or hoped
for a capital improvement having to do with the courtroom area
a place that a lot of youth came into the facility
and then were, I'm not sure if it was arraigned
or the appropriate term is,
but sort of an initial courtroom area
and they would be taken down this long hallway
to the main area and it would sort
of if you went there it wasn't a very pleasant place
and there was some hope that it could be improved.
And so I guess my question is
I haven't had a chance to go there in a little while.
Has it been improved and if not, are there plans or does the governor have, you know,
in his budget, any plans to fund an improvement there?
Yes, thank you.
For the record, this is Matt Davidson.
I'm the director of the Division of Juvenile Justice, joining you from Juneau, just at my office.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Mr. Chairman, the good news is that we were this past legislature,
Leslie's session, we're able to re-appropriate money from another project
to the renovation of the detention court unit and the planning is just about underway for
that renovation. So we are pending any upgrades to that space that you visited and that staff
So the good news is we're moving in that direction, we just haven't been able to start that yet, so we are moving on that picture.
Thank you. Is there any thought of will those improvements be done in, you know, a year, two years, what's the sort of projected completion date?
Mr. Chairman, I think I'd be out of my depth to speak to the length of time.
I will say that the project is tied to money that we've been appropriated through the facilities council for roof refresh of those same areas.
And so I think it's going to be a couple of year project.
very good one. I'm still very glad to hear that it has funding and is going
forward. If folks get a chance from Anchorage at least to go to Mughlof one
or NYC, it's a much larger facility than you might think. It's many acres
in, you know, very close to the university and the hospital. We're having an issue
with the screen here, but shouldn't impact your
presentation at all. Please continue. Unless there are any other questions
Please continue, Commissioner.
The Office of Children's Services, otherwise known as OCS, is the Department's Child Welfare
Agency, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of Alaska's children, investigating
reports of child abuse of neglect, and administering the foster care system.
OTS provides service delivery across five regions with 21 state offices.
Main offices are located in Anchorage, Wasilla, Bethel, Fairbanks and Juneau, while smaller
OCS reports child welfare data on his website, such as the number of children in care, protective
service reports received and investigated, and the numbers of licensed foster homes and
other care facilities.
And O CS has over 600 full-time positions with a budget of over 221 million.
Questions for O C S. This is usually a hot topic, Senator Tobin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm trying not to be the first one on the mic each time.
Obviously, there's been dynamics around OCS in the news, obviously, with also some legal
action.
I was just rereading the 2024 audit, which has some glaring determinations about some
I'm going to ask a very specific question as I know that we're probably going
to have a lot more opportunity to sit and talk about what is your vision
and what are you hoping to do within this particular agency.
I see here on the slide it says partnering with tribes and one of the most incredible programs
that I now of in that partnership was called Know and Who You Are,
which was produced by the Casey Family Foundation and it was offered multiple.
in multiple settings, I actually was able to partner with OCS officers in NOM as I needed somebody who...
could provide a different perspective
to the potential foster families that were taking the program.
And I have known that the Program has actually
not been offered for the last four years.
So I'm curious about some of these best practices
that seem to have been put to their wayside
over the past three to four year.
It's curious to hear if you have an interest
in bringing these back or what is some
of the thoughts you've have about
some those really high quality programmings
that did strengthen a family's ability
to serve the young kids in their care.
Through the chair to Senator Tobin I can get started and then Director Guey can potentially add more information
I too have taken knowing who you are. It's very impactful training. I I don't know if or why we're not providing that anymore
Again, I think director Gewe can can speak to that a little bit further
As far as some of the areas that are important, you know to me
I've talked with director gueh about this, but you really looking at that length of time for permanency
with families is increased. We know that's an area that needs improvement and also making sure
that we're having those routine engagements in contact with kids that are out of home placement
The Office of Children's Services was working on an initiative that was called Back to Basics
that really kind of focused in on, again, those basic services that were needed.
Some of those, that initiative wasn't necessarily moving the mark, so we met about that a couple
of weeks ago and we talked about, you know, it's never, I feel like it is never a bad
thing to say this isn't working.
What I think is a bad thing is when you continue to do the same thing and get the
same outcome.
So that's where we're at is kind of a going back to the drawing board.
And I've I talked about where my priorities are that I just talked
about and, you know, asked director Guey to work with leadership to come back
to our department leadership, to be able to give some new initiatives that we can
work on because I I thinks she would agree with me that those are areas for
improvement.
But if you'd like to ask director way to.
Senator Tobin's question.
Yes, on the record, this is Kim Glade, the Director of Office of Development Services.
Through the chairs, Senator Tillman, thank you for your question, knowing you are was
shelled by Kacey families a few years ago, and Alaska took it out and tried to figure
out a way to implement that within our own training system.
And there were some internal dialogues about how we could morph this training.
It really, it was not meeting the mark as far as what we were hoping to achieve with some of our staff, right?
So this is OCS staff that typically we're attending.
And it wasn't about OTS as a staff member of OGS.
What do you bring to the table as part of your own identity?
How do you, you know, look at your own bias through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion?
And so we, what we did is we adopted a new model.
It's a little different than knowing who you are, which was around the two days in person training.
What we wanted to do is, we want to build a foundation and then build upon that.
You know, four hours here, and then a few months later, we added a date here.
So we're trying to build upon people who are just standing there on bias, but they bring
to the table how to partner with people.
We have been working with our tribes on this.
In addition,
we have launched something at last at blanket exercise, which is very powerful.
And so we do that with all of our staff as well.
So, you have a pretty robust training program.
I've been saying with anything that we're always looking at ways to exhibit.
Looking at what people are offering as far as suggestions and what's currently out there.
So that's my shoulder there, sir.
Thank you. Senator Tobin, do you have a follow-up?
Just a brief follow up.
Mr. Chairman, if we could have at some point a Alaska Children's Caucus are potentially here in the Senate Health and Social Services.
opportunity to kind of hear a little bit more about the work that you're doing
with parents and with tribes to really build that collective understanding of
how do we ensure that the children who are placed in our care are developing as
whole people as future citizens and the the
work we are doing to ensure the parents
and community members who may have those young people placed
in their homes are giving all the tools that they need to be successful.
Thank you, senator when I have a question for you director Guey actually two questions
I had a great meeting over the interim with a I'm gonna
Forget the name here, but a youth council at covenant house
and sort of formerly homeless youth
Action committee had names of that nature and they had some really great very specific
requests. Not all of them applied to OCS, of course, many of
them had to do with sort of broader Department of Public
Assistance and that kind of thing. Because my first question is,
have you been able to interact with that group? And the second,
one of the specific issues that they raised to me, and again,
this is more broader for the whole government rather than just O
CS. But they were, they we're concerned, as are many
of our residents, about forms being accessible digitally versus
And, you know, they're young people, so they are sort of baffled that in some cases they
have to use paper forms.
Of course, with OCS you might have guardians involved, but has there been an effort to
digitize things?
And then again, have you had the opportunity to interact with that group, and I apologize
that I don't remember the exact name.
I'm not quite sure the name of the group.
We do a lot of collaboration.
I just want to think I am very proud of at OCS as we partner quite a bit with lived
experience.
We have recently been standing up up here at the advisory committee.
We had facing foster care in Alaska.
We also have a resource family advisory board and we put out surveys through our tribes
who are very closely with our tribal partners.
We work a lot with Covenant House, we actually have a meeting with them yesterday, so I'm not
quite sure which group. So you can get more information about which one. I'd be happy to
elaborate more on that. As far as technology needs, yes. This is an issue for us for sure,
trying to figure out how to be mobile with our youth and with families.
And so that is one of the things that we are interested and have been interested in
trying to become more modernized. It's going to take some funding
and something that need to do here at OCS.
Thank you. And yes, I'll certainly get you that name of that group. I have one other question
and then I do have a question, Senator Meyer. This might be stepping on the commissioner's
Last year, and I'm sure in years past, I remember either you or the commissioner stressing the shortage of foster families, the difficulty recruiting foster
families. And I wonder if any progress was made over this interim.
relative and kins placements and we have seen an increase in the number of
placemants with relatives and kin providers. We are also doing quite a bit
as far as recruitment events for foster homes and trying to get the word out
about bringing foster home to the table and so I know that that is an active work
current foster homes compared to last year.
Very good, thank you.
Any further questions?
Senator Klayman.
Another topic that frequently comes about,
OCS's retention and recruitment.
I know you've got more positions in
Office of Children's Services than any other portion
in the department.
How are things going on retention in recruitment?
Through the chair to Senator Klayman,
I am going to speak to that later, but I, so there, okay, I'm going
to say to it later. Yes. That's fine. Very good. Okay.
Thank you, Director Guey. We will go on to the next slide then, Commissioner.
All right. Good afternoon for the record. My name is Marion Sweet. I
am the Assistant Commissioner for The Department of Family and Community Services.
So the mission of departmental support services is to provide quality administrative services to support the department's mission
departmental support services encompasses all of the behind the scenes operations of our
organization to help it run smoothly. The services that we provide are oversight and guidance to
our direct service divisions and it starts in the commissioner's office with leadership. It's
expanded through our public outreach from our Public Information team and covers all administrative
management of our facility projects.
Our goal is to maintain and strengthen the services
that we provide and deliver to Alaskans.
DSS has 90 full-time positions
and a budget of 42.3 million dollars.
Any questions?
Not seeing any, thank you.
Right.
On our next slide, I'm going to discuss the Coordinated Health and Complex Care units.
The Department of Family and Community Services established our Coordinating Health
and complex care unit to oversee complex cases that were involving individuals within
This unit works very proactively to identify barriers in the Alaska care system and collaborates
with the Department of Health on policies and processes so that we can improve the outcomes
and ensure better outcomes for Alaskans with complex needs.
And it represents the cases that our complex care team has worked on.
The data is specific to quarter two of the state fiscal year.
However, we do have data that goes back to state fiscoll year 2024.
And since its inception, the team
has work on 150 unique cases within the State.
Additionally, we also have data that shows the most common diagnoses within the state,
and they are listed in order of the highest occurrences.
And you can see inside of a graph that there are definitely a lot more diagnoses that we
see in side of our youth population than we do within our adults.
And then our Coordinated Health and Complex Care Unit is a small, but mighty team of six,
and it is led by Deputy Director Michaela Vare.
Any questions on this slide?
Not seeing any. Thank you.
Okay
So the fundamental value that is guiding the department is a vision of service first.
And what that means is that every decision, every action, and
every partnership that we have is rooted around putting Alaskans first,
and we do that and our vision is succeeded by what you see on the board.
The first week of us being a brand new department we got together as leaders and we developed
SPAM which is strengthening lives through meaningful connections with families,
communities, tribes and providers.
providing safe person-centered care with integrity and dignity to Alaskans.
We serve advancing an agency culture that prioritizes the well-being of our workforce
and mobilizing innovative solutions to complex challenges.
I'm happy about building spam and the work that we do for Alascans
I appreciate that you could have gone with maps, but you stay committed to them.
All right, I'll move on.
I do want to take just a minute to give some updates on some of our department initiatives.
Some of this, we already touched on a little bit, but I'm going to go ahead anyway.
Some the renovations that we're doing within our homes and facilities.
We talked a bit about the Palmer Pioneer Home.
We are very nearly completed with the roof replacement of
our veteran's home there, and the majority of the funding actually has been
ordered to us from a grant with The Veteran's Administration.
We talked a little bit about the Fairbanks plan your home flooring project that too is nearly complete
We are grateful that is going to be done and we will be able to actually open up that wing again
For our elders in our care
The Wasilla field office is currently undergoing an expansion and it's almost nearly
Complete as well to help us better serve children and families with inside of that region
And then a DJJ, we are in the planning phases for our McLaughlin remodel for the DCU or the detention and court unit.
And we're also doing remodels at our Fairbanks youth facility.
A lot of work that are going on within our facilities at DJJA and our Pioneer Homes.
Some of the technology improvements that we have done so the department is
implemented using smart sheet and so smart she and I'm going to read this part really quick is a cloud-based work management and
Collaboration tool designed to help teams plan track automate and report on projects
Basically, we're using this for a number of different things
One of them I am really excited about is that
We're, using it to track our facility projects so that,
our divisions, but to leadership so that they understand where we are with these things.
And so it'll just have all the information about where
we're in the design phase or foreign construction and we have an estimated completion date so
that we can reopen the facilities.
We're working on a budget projection and a spend plan tool, and then we'll also using it for our department strategic planning.
We have also expanded the use of image source, which is a system that we were using for a number of other things, our implementation.
As, as, sorry, we have increased our
implementation to an online tracking system for our Title 47 patients.
These are those that are in involuntary commitments, and this allows us to have better tracking of all of the patients that
are around the state.
I'm sorry. My mic keeps cutting out.
Can you hear me? Okay.
Okay, thank you.
All right.
And then, additionally, we have created an online application for our mental health treatment
assistance program. This is for designated facilities, and we provide reimbursement when
they provide mental-health treatment to individuals that are in involuntary commitments.
And then, finally, we are working on, from an IT standpoint, Wi-Fi enhancements at all
of our pioneer homes to help support our Intric system.
And our Entric System is a comprehensive senior care system and wellness system that uses
sensors and real-time data to track the safety of residents and increase our staff responsiveness.
It's a really enhanced nurse call system
All right, we are continuing our emphasis on workforce well-being across our entire department.
DJJ maintains an employee-led wellness committee that sponsors statewide morale events.
API has an active employee committee that hosts several staffing events year-round and
additionally, because of API and what they deal with, they have created a critical stress
management team.
It's a team of four peers within the hospital that help provide support to colleagues during
At each of our pioneer homes, there is a focus on well-being by monitoring staff to prevent burnout and ensure that we're providing care to our elders and staff are celebrated throughout the year for service excellence.
And to piggyback on what Commissioner Dumpling was discussing,
there's also ongoing training to help increase the high quality of care that
we provide to residents within the homes.
And OCS prioritizes workforce wellness through their wellness and resiliency officer who is doing audits of all of our facilities to help provide improvements across all our O CS offices.
The talent acquisition team is a team within departmental support services that was developed to create an unbiased standard hiring practice that builds efficiencies and focuses on the candidate experience.
We are still in the pilot phase with just OCS and with departmentals support service is going through that.
we interviewed and hired 105 new DFCS staff members.
So it's pretty exciting.
And then, of course, we're continuing with our cross agency collaborations with the Department of Health.
We worked with them on the Behavioral Health Roadmap as well as the Alaska Integrated Comprehensive Plan or the Comp Plan.
And, in fact, the comp plan is integral in how we have developed our strategic plan that we are working on for the next several years.
And we then are also continuing our collaboration with The Department Of Correction on our Competency Restoration Program, our jail base.
company's competency restoration program.
We have a question from Senator Tobin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So I'm curious as I always, my ears always perk up when I think about technological
improvements and talent acquisition and.
the introduction of A.I. And if the department has or has any plans to use any sort of artificial intelligence and screening applications or in any of your hiring processes,
if that is something that has been discussed or is considered.
That's very intriguing, as far as how we could use that for hiring practices.
You've piqued a curiosity of, it's not something that we've actually talked about.
There are definitely other things that the department and state agencies are using AI for.
And I know that there's some interest within the Department for data mining tools for our
existing systems to be able to use AI to go into our existing system to quickly find
numbers, or the number of times that a specific individual was listed in a case note.
So we've been having conversations from that aspect, but as far as the HR, that's very
intriguing to me.
Thank you.
Okay.
For the record, Tracy Donpling, Acting Commissioner for the Department.
On slide 12, we want to highlight some of our accomplishments from 2025.
The Alaska Pioneer Homes launched a new online application to replace an old outdated paper
process which has improved access for seniors and families and also increased residential
enrollment.
Today we had 7,462 individuals that were on the wait list compared to just a little over
7 thousand just six months ago.
So we're pretty pleased with that and of course that improving those technology opportunities.
While the Office of Children's Services continues to see high number of youth in out-of-home care, these numbers are decreasing.
In 2021, there were 2,923 children in Out-Of-Home Care.
And in 2025,
there was a safe reduction to 2363 children In Out of Home Care
We've also seen family reunifications that are rising.
In 2025, 60% of the cases that closed
were due to family re-unification.
That's up from 55% in 2024 and 51%
in 2022.
So we're making small incremental changes,
but it is.
Also, here OCS has seen a 5% increase in family reunications for Alaska Native children in
the last year, so that went from 53% in 2024 to 58%
in 2025.
Can I pause you there for the second commissioner?
Maybe you're about to say this, I apologize.
But for you or for Director Guay, to what do you attribute those, that improvement?
Was there a change in policy?
Is it just sort of a statistical noise?
Why do you think it improved to the chair? I will let director Guey speak to that since she was in her position at OCS during that time frame
That's what Kim Gway for the record doesn't give way Office of Children's Services director
I believe that what chair Dunbar got asked that question. I think that's a multitude of
Initiatives that we've been doing and partnerships
I will say for one, I can't predict the tribes enough of an amount of collaboration in working
with us and working with the families.
I think that definitely contributes to the higher number of reunification.
We also have been really trying to increase our training and understanding of families,
So, I think there's a multitude of different initiatives that we are tracking and looking
at.
We also, of course, are making sure there is not reentry, right?
So when you're looking at reification, you also need to make sure the children aren't
then reentering the last six months later or a year later.
So we're tracking that data to ensure that it is a good number.
is compared to the nation we do keep kids in care a little bit longer and I will say
primarily because we have a disproportionate number of Alaska Native children in
care and by law the Indian Child Welfare Act there's active efforts and reasonable
And so with that, we do have kids that stay in care longer.
So it does provide the parents a little bit more time
to work on changes of behavior.
Any follow-up questions from the committee?
I don't see, thank you, Director.
Thank you Commissioner, if you could please continue.
Yes, moving on to juvenile justice.
Youth transitioning out of DJJ facilities now have Medicaid activated and are automatically
eligible for Medicaid support services 30 days prior and 30 day post release from facilities.
This allows you to become better connected with medical, behavioral, and dental providers
in their home communities prior to release. There's also some screening and assessments
We're also happy that we've seen some staffing improvements DJJ. Let's see in 50 in FY 24
DJ J had a 14.9% vacancy rate overall for all of its positions
compared to 11.4 in fiscal year 25 and
fiscal 24 there was a
21% Vacancy rate that was specific to the front line facility staff and then that's compared
to 14% in 2025
So, some of that improvement, we feel like, can be attributed.
There was an increase in base pay that happened around July 31st of 2023 and the vacancy rate
for all of the juvenile justice councilor positions decreased from 21% the month prior
to that pay increase to 11% vacancy a year and a half later.
So we felt like that definitely contributed.
Fair being chief facility is also a highlight with staffing and fiscal year 24
They had a 50 almost 52 percent vacancy for their frontline facility staff that equated to about 14 out of 27
Positions being vacant and then in fiscal years 25
They were down to 22 percent Vacancy of those frontline staff equating to six of twenty seven positions being bacon
API and Department of Corrections partnered to provide competency restoration for individuals
who reside within a department of corrections facility instead of them having to wait for
So, the Department of Corrections provides the space and the security staff for up to
10 male participants at the Anchorage Correctional Complex and up 10 female participants
at Highland Mountain Correctional Center.
API staff provide the mental health treatment and restoration education such as how a criminal
trial works inside the department of corrections facilities.
So talk a little bit more about competency.
These patients are typically placed under a civil commitment order and oftentimes we refer to these patients as conversion patients.
They continue to reside at API and receive the same care and treatment as other patients,
but API has found some success in utilizing conditional release into the community for some conversion patience.
So they are being released usually typically to assisted living homes that are providing additional support and supervision.
There's currently nine conditional, actually we go to the court, sorry, I didn't want
to miss that part.
We do go the Court for approval for those people that we feel it's appropriate to ask
for that release.
There is nine Conditional Release patients currently in the Anchorage area.
Patients need to comply with specific conditions of release, and if they don't, they are returned
And then in an effort to support community resources,
each of those conditional release patients also has a monthly outpatient clinic appointment at API.
So those are some of the ways too that we are trying to take some
of that pressure off those beds that are really holding up the wait list at
API and then just lastly this new year.
Developed under the leadership of CEO Cole, I think I talked a little bit about it earlier, but API hosts a dashboard on his website
So reports the civil and forensic wait lists along with other indicators such as census
Occlusion and restraint and active or I'm sorry average length of stay
And I thing that that again has been important in the transparency really not only to the staff
But also the public of the services that we're providing
Slide 13 want to highlight some of our areas of focus as we continue into 25 to or excuse me 2026
Complex care unit in collaboration with the Department of Health is continuing its work to expand community-based placements
So that we can find a wider range of treatment opportunities and reduce placemants in institutions
The development of the complex care residential home license
Is essential for expanding the number of those community based placemen's for individuals with complex needs?
This unit will assist in the development of these homes with specializations to support
the populations for the individuals that are in care of the department.
Through the Complex Care Committee, the unit we'll also focus on advancing complex care
system reform, doing that also with the Department of Health.
complex care unit is identifying a small number of high impact projects so we can lay the groundwork of a meaningful change
That includes regulatory reform and also a mechanism for sustainable funding because that is really the key
You know you can you, can start a pilot
But there needs to be that sustainable
Funding to able to keep the resource moving forward
Laska pioneer homes
I talked a little bit about it earlier but the CNA to LPN apprentice program it aims to address
the cna shortages and retention across the pioneer homes. This is a partnership with the
Department of Labor and the Alaska Vocational and Technical Center. The Alaska Board of Nursing
has has approved the DNA to lpn apprenticeship program and there's also grant funding from the
The Pioneer Homes and the Alaska Vocational Technical Center are creating the curriculum for this program,
which we'll have to go before the accredited commission for education and nursing.
And the Alaskan Board of Nursing for approval before they can launch the program.
But this is definitely a way that they have looked at kind of that grow your own opportunity to really look at addressing some of those
stuffing issues in the homes.
Thank you, thank you Mr. President, that's very intriguing and I think my ears perked up as this committee also has the purview of overseeing the Rural Health Transformation Fund.
And so I'm curious to know if this will be able to access some of those dollars or if there's been discussion as I understand one of the lines in the particular state application was about workforce development.
Through the chair to center Tobin. Yes, we we have been looking as a department at opportunities just really in all of those
Focus areas that the Department of Health has identified and we are looking at those again at the department level to really prioritize
What we want to move forward for potential funding?
Good question, and uh,
We will begin our hearings on that fund on Thursday
And I expect that to be a major focus of this committee, the whole session.
Pioneer Homes, this upcoming year, will lead a health and wellness initiative by collaborating
with medical professionals, behavioral health experts, and other stakeholders to support
elders that are struggling with substance use,
and also other behavioral-health needs that you see and that
are associated with an aging population.
Pioneer Homes will develop a network of dimension formed clinical counselors to support families and caregivers and staff in managing emotional
relational and behavioral challenges with residents
In partnership with Department of Corrections,
API will be exploring the feasibility
of expanding the jail-based restoration program.
I know that they would like to try
to see a capacity increase from 10 to 24 individuals
to better meet system needs.
But again, that's a strong partnership
that we have with the Department
of Corrections to to
see if we can expand that program
API is also onboarding a new electronic health records platform this year, which will connect with the health information exchange, and also lead to better care outcomes for this population within the state.
Okay, pause you there for a second.
I guess this is a question for Mr. Cole.
That's great. It also, you know, we've all had sort of nightmares at every level of government
with upgrading these kind of systems. They end up costing much more than we expect and sometimes
being delayed. Is there any, can you give me an update on this system? How much is it going to cost?
Are we sure that's how much it's going into cost.
Yes, this is Ken Cole, CEO of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute.
I'll have to defer the cost question to Ms. Sweet,
Assistant Commissioner. She should be able to answer that question.
And regarding the schedule and the deployment of
the electronic health record, we are currently on schedule to
deploy the system on May 1st of this year.
We've been working hard over the last several months with the vendor and the
vendor to get the system up and going and then a couple weeks here we'll begin
essentially a user acceptance testing of the systems so we will know a lot more then.
Very good assistant commissioner you have.
through the Chair, Mary, and Sweet Assistant Commissioner.
We have about 1.6 million that was encumbered for the EMR system.
We've had increases.
Particularly with the expansion of getting a pixis machine,
which is a pharmaceutical distribution system that we are going to be adding on to it.
So there have been a couple of little additional costs,
but overall it has not been what we have seen in other implementations of large IT infrastructure systems.
Just because you mentioned it, is that the first of that kind of machine we've had at API
or is it an additional or a replacement?
The pixest machines
Is he mister, okay? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead
Sorry, we can't see I not looking at the video
Yes, We currently run a system made by a company called Meditech and we've been on that system at API for many many years
Assistant Commissioner suite
May know when we started that, but I wouldn't want to guess it's been
Quite a while. So we're transitioning from meditec to this new
updated system called Avatar NX made by a company called NetSmart out of Kansas
Okay
Well, it's a bunch of interesting terms there.
Well Godspeed, and we hope that the health record system works well.
Any other questions?
Go ahead, Mr. Cole.
No, I'm sorry.
Thank you for your support.
Of course.
I think everyone on this committee is a strong supporter of API, and as Senator Geesol mentioned,
we've all heard the poorest stories from years ago.
And frankly, the less we hear in the news about API the better, so long as we can have confidence that things are going well.
With that, anything more on the portion of this slide, or can we go on to children's services?
Mr. Chair, yes, we can move on to children's services.
And for the record, Tracy Dompling,
Acting Commissioner for The Department.
Hofstra Children's Services has multiple initiatives
that are addressing workforce recruitment
and retention challenges,
resulting in a positive trend in retention.
So turnover rates have reduced from 52% in 2023
to 32% percent in 2025.
So that's the turnover associated with retention
So, to decrease turnover, OCS has been trying to hire the right staff, train them, connect
them with mentors, slowly onboard case assignments, and then at a macro level, conducting wellness
assessments in offices, performing critical incident debriefing, then using reflective
supervision with supervisors.
things of course we know can fluctuate but right now you know we're pretty happy with
the work that's happening there but I do want to note although the retention is improving
recruitment still poses challenges currently the division has 99 vacant positions and we
are actively recruiting for those positions it's as you now it is a tough job.
OCS is also focusing this next year on strengthening their investigations and assessments across
the state.
They are also launching a permanency focus at the nine to ten month mark when children
are out of care to improve overall outcomes for children and families.
And then I think Director Wei mentioned this earlier,
but Alaska does have one of the highest rates
of relative placement in the country.
So OCS is continuing to utilize extended family
instead of foster care, where it's appropriate
to reach those child permanency goals
and to maintain the cultural and familial connectedness.
Okay, can I ask a question before we move on from that?
I know the answer, but I like to hear this
reiterated from the department.
Iqwa was mentioned earlier, it's a very important federal law.
There are some challenges to Iqua that is to say there have been challenges at the federal level.
But my understanding is that even if Icwa were to be repealed,
it would still be the policy of the department to largely follow its recommendations.
Is that true?
Yes, Mr. Chair, that's accurate.
Okay, very good.
Senator Tobin.
Thank you, thank you Mr. Chairman.
I have a question as I know that the focus areas are obviously dealing with internal dynamics,
but I had a curiosity about some of the external challenges that may be coming.
I knew that one of, the dynamics of HR1 was to remove foster children,
the exemption of those who are aging out of system from being able to continue to receive Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
Plans are how are they going to address those children who may be in a very vulnerable position as we all know the statistics of how many young folks who do age out of foster care do end up at Covenant House or in other types of services for houses and homeless youth.
Through the chair to Senator Tobin, I can't speak directly to how deeply we have kind of taken a dive into that as a department.
I don't have anything directed in regards to the SNAP benefits or Medicaid, but we do
quite a bit of work with young adults who elect to stay in care.
And then there's the youth that have moved into adulthood that do not stay
in Care.
We continue to work on that population as well in a variety of ways, and so.
I don't know if that's helpful or if there's more specifics that you're looking for if it's just map and Medicaid.
Senator Tillman.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We can talk offline as I think there's some really interesting innovative things.
Other states like Utah have been implementing so that they can actually ensure folks continue on a progress forward.
And don't end up needing additional state services.
And so I'd love to talk more about what some of our partners here in the West are doing as they also are going to be facing these challenges.
Through the chair, Senator Tubman, I would love to chat offline about that, that would be fantastic.
Thank you, Director Sander-Clayman has a question.
So I appreciate the information on vacancies and recruiting and retention, but it's still just shy of one in six.
And I know that's super challenging.
What are some of the steps that have been,
I note a lot of those stuff in terms of recruiting, and getting folks once hired to keep them,
Are our wages competitive?
I mean, that's always the first question I raise,
because I recognize working OCS is quite challenging
for the folks that work there.
And are we struggling even in terms
of wage competitiveness for those positions?
Through the chair to Senator Klayman, I believe,
and Assistant Commissioner Sweet can correct me
if I'm off base.
At some point there was a classification study that did identify that our
wages for the protective services specialists were on par.
Yes, so with the nation, kind of what people are receiving for reimbursed or not reimbursement,
sorry for pay for that work. Now,
we have been working. We've been talking a lot with Director Guay and her leadership team about,
you know, are there other areas that we can try to incentivize? Because there are areas of the work
that are challenging. One of them is being on call. So trying to look at, you
know how can we better support our staff in those types of situations as well.
So I'm kind of looking at the big picture of, what are the pressure points and the reasons that
That's good.
I wouldn't follow up.
I guess I would, I don't know when you did the salary study, but with that sort of vacancy
I'd have some skepticism because that's just a, if I were a private business and I had
a 1-6 vacancy factor I either would be talking about substantially scaling back the business
because I never thought I could achieve that or I'll be changing something to try to fill
I mean, and I'm not, I don't need this in a criticism, as a critic, it may sound critical,
but I think you all have been trying very hard to fill the gap, but it's just a huge gap and it
was much worse before, um, in so it was progress, But it still is very difficult in the turnover
rate you're describing suggests that it isn't just salaries and benefits. It's
just hard. To keep people there. I am not sure it is a question that calls the answer,
I'm continuing to be concerned.
Understandable.
Thank you, Senator Klayman.
Commissioner, you want to finish your juvenile justice?
Yes, and I'm going to skip over the juvenile facility
infrastructure.
I think we've talked quite a bit about McLaughlin
Youth Center, Fairbanks Youth Facility,
and that infrastructure, I will note
that there's a focus on improving telehealth infrastructure
to support connection with community providers to aid
youth as they're coming out of our secure facilities.
We have cloud-based electronic health record.
We're looking at upgrades to facility.
wireless infrastructure within facilities at utilizing HIPAA compliant devices.
really to look at improved privacy.
And so funding for those specific opportunities
has been through the federal,
I'm gonna read this out,
promoting continuity of care following incarceration grant.
That was actually a grant that the Department of Health
had pursued and then the funding
for that supports activities both within the division
of juvenile justice and the department of corrections.
DJJ is also focusing on full implementation of juvenile probation service enhancements
such as standardized probation success planning and supervisory case reviews, also looking
at staffing and caseworker flexibility, or casework flexibility to be utilized to improve
efficiencies and respond to demographic changes, especially when there's vacancies in rural
areas because we do see that in some of our facilities, our offices, sorry.
Very good. I have one one more. Oh, you do. Yes. It's on the last yes. Thank you, mr. Chair
So in closing today, I did want to highlight and talk about a few takeaways. We feel that the department is moving in the right direction
Across the Department. we're seeing real progress with improvements and workforce stability
Strengthening our service delivery and using data and evidence-based practices to guide our decisions
whether it's improving outcomes for children and families at the Office of Children's Services,
strengthening our services at The Division of Juvenile Justice, expanding programs at
the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, or improving access to wellness and behavioral health supports
at Alaska Pioneer Homes. Those are not abstract goals. They are measurable outcomes that directly
impacts Alaskans and are addressing the changing needs of our population, some of which we've talked
We're intentionally shifting towards early intervention and least restrictive care through
coordinated health and complex care unit, expanding community partnerships, and anticipated new
licensing and service models.
We are working to reduce system bottlenecks, supporting families sooner and helping individuals
receive the right care at the place at that time.
our workforce shows up every day for some of the most vulnerable Alaskans, often under challenging
conditions, and their dedication is the foundation of everything that we do. At the same time,
we have collaborations with tribes, communities, state and federal partners,
and providers, which is essential to sustaining this momentum. So we know that there's more work
ahead. We're not saying that, we're perfect. But we are approaching these challenges with
innovation, accountability and a focus on long-term sustainability. I appreciate the
I don't see any further questions, so thank you to the acting commissioner and the assistant
commissioner, and everyone that was online. Very much appreciate your presentation today.
The next meeting of the Senate Health and Social Services Committee will be Thursday,
January 29th, 2026. We will have a presentation from the Department of Health on the Rural Health
Transformation Program. Thank you everyone for the productive hearing. This meeting is adjourned.
It is 4.43 pm.