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 divisions 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 2025 Executive Budget recommends $5.5 billion in appropriations for OCFS, a $392 million decrease compared to FY 2024 levels reflecting the expiration of $1 billion in one-time, non-recurring appropriations related to shifting the program year to the Federal fiscal year. The decrease is offset by $608 million in increases for child care, to reflect the increased minimum wage and cost of living adjustments, and for various other programmatic adjustments.

The FY 2025 Executive Budget recommends a workforce of 2,887 FTEs, an increase of 1 from FY 2024, relating to an ITS transfer of function.

The FY 2025 Executive Budget recommends the following budgetary actions:

Child Care Subsidies and Reimburse Child Care Providers for Quality Improvements

The FY 2025 Budget proposes an increase of $536 million in General Fund appropriation authority for child care subsidy bringing the total appropriation authority to $995.6 million. Including General Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant funding and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) resources, $1.785 billion will be available for new child care subsidy allocations. The Budget also creates an increased differential payment rate for high-quality providers that are accredited by a nationally recognized child care organization participate in New York’s Quality Rating & Improvement system, or have completed training and are an active participant in the OCFS Non-Patient Epinephrine Auto-Injector Initiative.

Pilot Family Child Care Networks

The Budget pilots staffed Family Child Care Networks (FCCNs) in regions around the State, with a focus on supporting and growing the capacity of family and group family child care providers. These types of providers operate small programs out of their homes for children and care for a large portion of children in families participating in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). FCCNs will expand business and operational support for these types of providers.

Expand Early Childhood Mental Health Consultations

The Budget doubles the amount of early childhood mental health consultations available to child care providers. Currently, there are Infant Toddler Mental Health Consultants (ITMHCs) located at seven regional infant and toddler resource centers. The additional funding will go to these resource centers to expand mental health consultants to providers across the State.

Childcare Development and Quality Grants

The FY 2025 Budget includes an additional $500,000 for the Civil Services Employee Association (CSEA) to provide professional development and quality grants program for child care providers outside of New York City.

Extend and Make Permanent the Current Structure of Financing Committee on Special Education Placements

The room and board costs for children with severe disabilities placed by Committees on Special Education are shared between local social services districts and school districts. There is no State share for New York City placements, and the former 18.42 percent State share for placements outside of New York City was eliminated in the FY 2021, FY 2022, FY 2023, and FY 2024 Enacted Budgets. The FY 2025 Executive Budget proposes to make permanent the current financing structure which provides the State a $28.5 million savings. Since there was not an appropriation in FY 2024, there is no appropriation change year over year.

Direct More Federal Funds to Child Welfare

Local districts must currently use 40 percent of their combined $964 million in TANF Flexible Fund for Family Services (FFFS) on child welfare activities. The Executive Budget permanently increases the amount local districts must spend on child welfare by $75 million, yielding $46.5 million in savings for the State and $28.5 million in savings for local districts on child welfare costs. Local Districts will also receive a $50 million increase to TANF/FFFS funds for FY 25. This does not change the child welfare appropriation amount year over year.

Adult Protective/Domestic Violence (AP/DV) and Medicaid Service Increases

The FY 2025 Executive Budget increases the appropriations for AP/DV by $21 million and for Medicaid services by $32.5 million in order to pay for these essential services and better align appropriation with spending trends.

Human Services Cost-Of-Living-Adjustment (COLA)

The FY 2025 Executive Budget provides a 1.5 percent huma services COLA for eligible OCFS programs, and includes $5 million for that purpose.

Minimum Wage Increases

The FY 2025 Executive Budget proposes to increase the minimum wage appropriation from $4.4 million to $10.05 million in order to support State-funded contractors whose employee salaries will increase in 2025. The FY 2024 minimum wage funding has distributed into the base appropriations for seven OCFS programs.

Enhance Supervision and Treatment Services for Juveniles Program

Supervision and Treatment Services for Juveniles Program (STSJP) supports intensive, wraparound case management and programming for a wide range of youth pre-adjudication. The FY 2025 Executive Budget recommends a $3 million increase in funding to support additional programming for new interventions or increased capacity for youth alleged to have engaged in violent behavior, trafficked youth or those at risk of a gang recruitment.

Improve Afterschool Programming

To consolidate and bolster after-school programming and to reduce administrative burdens for providers, the FY 2025 Executive Budget combines the Advantage and Empire State afterschool programs into a single program. The Budget includes a $13.7 million increase to standardize funding and eligibility, part of an overall $17.7 million increase to afterschool funding.

Provide Cribs to Families in Need

The FY 2025 Executive Budget includes an additional $2 million to provide portable cribs to families in need across New York State.

Agency Operations/Collective Bargaining Increases

The FY 2025 Executive Budget includes a $2.8 million appropriation to better align fringe benefits appropriations in the child care program; an additional $1 million to support negotiated State workforce salary increases for PEF and M/C employees; and $166,000 to support transfer of functions from ITS.

Federal Title IV-E Appropriation for Family First programming

The FY 2025 Executive Budget includes $13.7 million in new federal Title IV-E appropriation authority that will allow OCFS to receive reimbursements for eligible expenses related to Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) activities and programming.

One-Time, Non-Recurring Expenses

The FY 2025 Executive Budget eliminates funding for one-time, non-recurring expenses including child welfare, AP/DV, and Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) bridge appropriations related to shifting the program year, and funding for youth sports to account for one-time additional revenue ($945.3 million). The Budget also eliminates prior year Legislative Add funding of $89 million.

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 13,636 in CY 2022 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 2022, approximately 105,000 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 2022, 1,136 youth were adopted while another 1,472 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 2022, the agency received 46,646 adult protective referrals, a 9 percent increase from 2021 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 2022, 10,207 adults and children received DV residential services, and 43,006 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 2022 the SCR handled 294,634 calls and received 178,929 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 56 different lines, providing callers with information through high-quality customer service.

Note: Most recent estimates as of 01/16/2024