Children and Family Services Office of

Note: Most recent estimates as of 12/16/08.

Mission

The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) was established in 1998 to strengthen services for and promote the well being and safety of children and families.

Budget Highlights

The Executive Budget recommends $3.7 billion All Funds ($2 billion General Fund; $1.7 billion Other Funds) for the Office of Children and Family Services. This is a net decrease of $117 million ($112 million General Fund decrease; $5 million Other Funds decrease) from the 2008-09 budget. This net change primarily reflects funding reductions in several program areas to address the 2009-10 budget deficit.

OCFS’ staffing level for 2009-10 will be 3,678, a decrease of 288 annual salaried positions from the 2008 09 budget. This reduction reflects the net impact of closing/downsizing eight underutilized youth facilities and three underutilized evening reporting centers (-255), the elimination of 39 positions in various programs through attrition, and an increase of six positions associated with child abuse legislation passed in 2008.

Major budget actions include:

• Preserve Open-ended Funding for Child Welfare Services. The centerpiece of the child welfare financing system is the provision of 64 percent State reimbursement for preventive and child protective services. In order to preserve this funding source, the Executive Budget eliminates funding for Community Optional Preventive Services (COPS), which supports an array of non-mandated programs, as well as OCFS-contracted preventive services for youth and families in the child welfare system. Since open-ended child welfare services funding is preserved at the 64 percent State/36 percent local level, districts can choose to support services for families and youth at imminent risk of foster care formerly provided by OCFS-contracted preventive services providers. Additionally, local districts will be asked to increase the amount they spend on child welfare from their Federal Flexible Fund for Family Services in order to achieve both State and local child welfare savings.

• Preserve Adoption Subsidies: The Executive Budget includes $228 million, an increase of $6 million, for the State’s share of subsidies provided to families that adopt children with special needs. These funds will support approximately 48,000 children in adoptive homes.

• Maintain Foster Care Block Grant: The Foster Care Block Grant is maintained at $434 million and provides counties with a clear incentive to reduce the number of children in foster care. Under the Block Grant, savings that result from reduced use of foster care can be reinvested in locally-designed child welfare initiatives that strengthen preventive services or better serve high-needs children. In the face of an unprecedented budget deficit, base-level funding for this program has been preserved.

• Delay Implementation of the Bridges to Health Medicaid Waiver: The Bridges to Health Medicaid Waiver, designed to enhance services to foster care children with multiple needs and prevent them from entering institutional care, will be maintained at its current projected level of 610 slots until 2011-12 when the remaining 2,695 slots will begin phasing in again.

• Reduce or Eliminate Contract and Other Programs: In order to ensure that scarce resources continue to be invested in core mandated programs, the Executive Budget would reduce the Kinship Program, which provides services to those caring for individuals related to them, by 50 percent. Other contract programs including Advantage Schools, Home Visiting, Hoyt and Post Placement services would be reduced by 25 percent. Additionally, the Executive Budget eliminates funding for pilots and other programs including caseworker training, caseworker ratio and portable information technology pilots, the Amy Watkins scholarship program, the Preventive Services COLA, the Substance Abuse Co-location pilot and a portion of the beds for former foster youth funded in the NY/NY III agreement.

• Create a Youth Programs Block Grant. The 2009-10 Executive Budget creates a $90 million youth programs block grant. The block grant will provide local districts with flexibility in funding their youth programs based on local district priorities. Programs that were previously funded through discrete appropriations that will now be included in the block grant are Detention Services; Youth Development and Delinquency Prevention (YDDP); Special Delinquency Prevention Program (SDPP); Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA); Alternatives to Detention and Alternatives to Residential Placement.

• Right-Size Youth Facility Capacity: The 2009-10 Executive Budget reflects $12.4 million in net savings, growing to $17.8 million in 2010-11, from the announced closures and downsizings of OCFS facilities. A total of eight facilities will be closed/downsized and three evening reporting centers are proposed for closure as of June 1, 2009. These actions are consistent with a significant decline in the population at OCFS’ non-secure and limited secure facilities that has led to a 67 percent system-wide utilization rate and more than 500 vacant beds. June 2009 actions will include the following: closure of the Great Valley, Cattaraugus and Adirondack non-secure centers; closure of the Rochester and Syracuse Community Residential Homes; closure of the Pyramid boys reception center; downsizing of the Tryon limited secure center and Allen non-secure center; and closure of evening reporting centers in Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse. These actions will reduce OCFS facility jobs by 255 annual salaried positions, of which 241 were filled as of November 2008.

2009-10 Executive Budget — Agency Presentation
Children and Family Services Office of (PDF)