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, 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.

Major Programs

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 2003 to 13,253 in 2023 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 2024, approximately 174,000 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 2023, 1,058 youth were adopted, while another 1,256 children were legally 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 2023, the agency received 50,396 adult protective referrals, an 8% increase from 2022 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 2023, 10,122 adults and children received DV residential services, and 44,512 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 2023, the SCR handled 309,782 calls and received 182,949 requests for database check clearances.

Human Services Call Center

The Human Services Call Center (HSCC) handles more than 1 million calls annually for 10 State Agencies from 56 different lines, providing callers with information through high-quality customer service.

Budget Highlights

The FY 2026 Executive Budget recommends $5.78 billion in appropriations for OCFS, an increase of $114.3 million compared to FY 2025 levels. This increase is the result of the various actions including a $100 million increase in capital funds for child care expansion and renovation projects, $3 million for a child care substitute worker pool, $49 million for the local share of Medicaid, $15 million for youth programming activities and youth sports, $11.8 million for the Targeted Inflationary Increase (TII), $9.2 million for Child Advocacy Centers to support child victims of crime, and for various other programmatic adjustments, offset by a decrease of $105.6 million for the planned expiration of one-time legislative adds.

The FY 2026 Executive Budget recommends a workforce of 2,983 FTEs, unchanged from FY 2025.

The FY 2026 Executive Budget recommends the following major budgetary actions for OCFS:

Child Care Subsidies

In total, $1.79 billion will be available for new child care subsidy allocations using General Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant funding and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) resources. The FY 2026 Budget proposes to maintain General Fund appropriation authority for child care subsidy at $997.1 million.

Child Care Substitute Worker Pool

The FY 2026 Budget includes $3 million to launch a substitute worker pool for providers.

Provide Child Care Construction and Renovation Grants

To facilitate child care providers’ ability to expand enrollment capacity and serve additional children, the FY 2026 Executive Budget provides $100 million in capital grants for child care centers, counties, and municipalities. In addition, $10 million in Federal funds will be used to help family childcare programs pay for small renovations and repairs that are necessary to provide safe, high-quality childcare.

NY Coalition for Child Care

The FY 2026 Executive Budget provides $1 million to support creation of the NY Coalition for Child Care. The Coalition will research and propose sustainable revenue generating ideas that will fund child care going forward. The funding will support staff who will work with public and private partners to develop these recommendations.

Combat Youth Homelessness

The FY 2026 Executive Budget includes an additional $3.5 million to support runaway and homeless youth. The funding will allow for expansion of services for homelessness prevention, outreach, drop-in centers, and residential programs. These new funds will also be used to address the mental health needs of this population.

Youth Programming, Sports and Recreational Activities

The Executive Budget includes an additional $15 million in resources to increase access to sports and recreational activities for youth to develop social skills and promote wellbeing. Funds will be used for, but not limited to: youth sports teams, drama programs, martial arts, debate clubs, peer to peer tutoring, and volunteer opportunities.

Support Child Victims of Crime

The Executive Budget invests $9.2 million to strengthen protections for child victims of crimes. This funding will support dedicated advocates to accompany the victim through every phase of an investigation and legal proceedings and to make the child’s identity private.

Medicaid Services Increase

The FY 2026 Executive Budget increases funding for Medicaid services by $49 million as the Executive proposes to shift the local share of Medicaid expenses from the DOH budget to various agency budgets including OCFS.

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

The FY 2026 Executive Budget proposes to make permanent the current financing structure for placements by Committees on Special Education. Since there was not an appropriation in FY 2025, there is no appropriation change year over year.

Detention Capital and Indian Tribes Increases

The FY 2026 Executive Budget increases the appropriations for detention capital by $400,000 and Indian Tribes by $1.3 million in order to pay for these essential services and better align appropriation with spending trends.

Targeted Inflationary Increase (TII)

The FY 2026 Executive Budget provides a 2.1 percent targeted inflationary increase for eligible OCFS programs, and includes $11.8 million for that purpose.

Minimum Wage Increases

The FY 2026 Executive Budget proposes to increase the minimum wage appropriation from $10.05 million to $14.17 million in order to support State funded contractors whose employee salaries will increase in 2026. The FY 2025 minimum wage funding has been distributed into the base appropriations for seven OCFS programs.

One-Time, Non-Recurring Expenses

The Budget eliminates prior year Legislative Add funding, totaling $105.6 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

Note: Most recent estimates as of 01/21/2025