Children and Family Services, Office of

Agency Web Site: https://ocfs.ny.gov

Mission

The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) serves New York’s public by promoting the safety, permanency and well-being of our children, families and communities. OCFS achieves results by setting and enforcing policies, building partnerships, and funding and providing quality services.

Organization and Staffing

OCFS is headed by a Commissioner who is supported by several Deputy Commissioners who oversee various departments and programs. Agency staff are located throughout the State in OCFS operated residential facilities and in regional offices, where they work with county commissioners to implement and monitor local programs.

Budget Highlights

The FY 2024 Executive Budget recommends $5.8 billion in appropriations for OCFS, which is a $1.5 billion increase compared to FY 2023 levels. This increase reflects an additional $1.1 billion in child welfare appropriations and $44 million in Adult Protective services appropriations, which are primarily to allow for better appropriation alignment with Federal fiscal years – not programmatic changes.

The total also reflects $17 million to assist certain foster care providers with Federal provisions as they relate to Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD), $7 million for both preventive and permanency placement services for foster families, adoptive families, and kinship families, $16 million in additional capital funding to renovate and maintain vital infrastructure at OCFS youth facilities, $83 million to move funding for the Empire State After-School and Advantage After School programs to the Office of Children and Family Services, who already administers the programs, $700,000 for Runaway and Homeless Youth program year shift, $600,000 for the Youth Sports program, $8.5 million to fund the Human Services Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for impacted programs, $4 million for minimum wage increases, $3.3 million for union settlement agreements, a net increase of $128 million in State General Fund support for child care subsidies and to reflect the market rate, $100 million in additional Federal child care funding, $2 million for child care union agreements, $4.8 million for a new child care pilot program with local businesses, and $1 million for a new business navigator program. These increases are partially offset by a decrease of $57 million related to the expiration of one-time legislative adds and one-time child care capital funding.

The FY 2024 Executive Budget recommends a workforce of 2,886 FTEs, unchanged from FY 2023.

For more information on this agency's budget recommendations located in the Executive Budget Briefing Book, click on the following link:

Briefing Book – Human Services (PDF)

Program Highlights

Child Welfare Services

Child Welfare Services provide a variety of services to families to ensure the safety and well-being of children, and to strengthen families to successfully care for their children. Child Protective Services include: investigating reports of child abuse or maltreatment, providing solutions to protect children, and helping prevent future occurrences of abuse or maltreatment. Preventive Services are provided to families with children at risk of entering foster care. Independent Living Services teach youth aging out of foster care the necessary skills to be independent adults.

Foster Care

Foster Care provides out-of-home placements for children and youth who have been removed from their homes due to abuse/neglect by their parent, or a court determination that a child is a “person in need of supervision” or a juvenile delinquent. Foster boarding homes provide care in a home setting by foster parents, and residential programs serve youth with more significant health or emotional needs. The foster care caseload has dropped from 37,000 in CY 2003 to 14,358 in CY 2021 after the State reformed child welfare financing to incentivize preventive and Child Protective Services that help keep families together.

Child Care

The Child Care Block Grant (CCBG) provides child care subsidies to families on public assistance, families transitioning off of public assistance, and low-income families. In 2021, approximately 103,000 children received child care assistance.

Adoption Services

Adoption Services provide funding for expenses related to the adoption of children from the Foster Care system. Subsidies are provided to families to help meet the needs of caring for handicapped and hard-to-place children. In 2021, 866 youth were adopted while another 1,195 children were freed for adoption.

Adult Protective Services

Adult Protective Services assist individuals 18 and over that present the following: physical and/or mental disabilities resulting in a reduced capacity for self-care; evidence of harm or risk of being harmed by others; and lack of assistance from others.

In 2021, the agency received 42,662 adult protective referrals, a 12 percent increase from 2020 in a return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic numbers.

Domestic Violence Services

Domestic Violence Services assist individuals 16 and over that have been victims of domestic violence (DV). Services are designed to provide safety and support to victims and their children through approved residential and non-residential programs. In 2021, 11,816 adults and children received DV residential services and 32,428 adults and children received DV non-residential services.

Runaway and Homeless Youth Services

The Runaway and Homeless Youth Program provides funding to counties for contracts with not-for-profit runaway programs that provide services to youth. Services include short-term shelter and long-term transitional and independent living services for youth. All youth receive case management services and basic needs, either directly by the service provider or through referral to other programs.

Youth Facilities and Youth Program Services

The Youth Facilities Program supports the Division for Juvenile Justice and Opportunities for Youth (DJJOY), which provides a range of core mandated and enhanced services to court adjudicated youth and their families, delivered in state-operated residential facilities and at community sites. The Program also provides support for local detention facilities that house youth while the cases are pending in family court. In addition, the Youth Development Program provides funding to localities to support delinquency prevention programs.

Commission for the Blind

The Commission for the Blind supports services to legally blind children and older adults including Vocational Rehab Basic Support, Independent Living for Adults and Preschool Children, Independent Living for Older Blind, Supported Employment programming and In-Service Training. The Commission also provides support for assessments, mobility training, academic instruction, case management, and job-oriented vocational instruction.

Statewide Central Register

The Statewide Central Register (SCR) is responsible for screening all calls of suspected child abuse and maltreatment. In 2021 the SCR handled 289,476 calls and received 280,443 requests for database check clearances.

Human Services Call Center

The Human Services Call Center (HSCC) handles more than one million calls annually for ten state agencies from 46 different lines, providing callers with information through high-quality customer service.

Note: Most recent estimates as of 02/01/2023