Office of Children and Family Services

The enacted budget makes no changes to the Executive Budget, which increases the All Funds appropriation by $11.5 million over the SFY 2009-10 enacted budget (June 22, 2010)

The Senate Budget Resolution makes the following recommendations (March 22, 2010):

·         “Redirects” $2.215 M local assistance for alternatives to detention and residential placement

·         Proposes legislation to create a pilot program to provide job skills training for youth at 3 state facilities (+$300,000)

·         Proposes legislation that would provide that juvenile delinquent youth should not be placed by Family court in certain residential placements unless the youth poses a significant risk to public safety and that there are no available alternatives to placement that could mitigate such risk.

·         Proposes legislation to provide that counties could receive 65% reimbursement from the State for alternatives to detention and alternatives to residential placement programs ($11,815,000)

·         Proposes  legislation to allow the Correctional  Association (not for profit) to act as an independent oversight entity over the juvenile justice system. 

According to Assembly analysis (analysis as of January 29, 2010) the budget includes:

·         a $6,000,000 increase related to a pending application for federal ARRA funding for Head Star

·         a $4,230,000 increase related to a shift of certain child care functions from Local Assistance to State Operations

·         a reduction of $7,540,000 related to the attrition of 32 FTE positions

The Executive Budget recommends (analysis as of January 19, 2010):

·        A FY 2009-10 workforce of 3,497FTEs, a decrease of 79 FTEs from the adjusted FTE level for SFY 2009-10.   According to the Executive Budget the 79 FTE reductions will be achieved through the abolition of 75 FTEs and the attrition of 582 FTEs, offset by 578 new fills.  We expect that most if not all of the abolitions will be in the Youth Facilities Program. Commissioner Carrion has said that there will not be any layoffs, this discrepancy needs to be resolved at Statewide Labor/Management.

The following table, based on the “Projected Levels of Employment by Program” tables in the FY 2009-10 and FY 2010-11 budgets identifies adjustments in the current fiscal year’s FTEs along with the recommended change from the adjusted SFY 2008-09 FTEs by program (if the program is not listed there was no change). 

·        An All Funds appropriation of $532.36 million, an increase of $11.39 million (2.2%) over the enacted appropriation for SFY 2009-10. This includes reductions in various programs, notably an $8.2 million reduction in Special Revenue-Federal funding for the Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped Program.

·        An increase in the Personal Services appropriation of $12.9 million (6.5%) from the enacted SFY 2009-10 budget. However, the change in Personal Services from the adjusted appropriation is a reduction of $1.98 million, reflecting deficit reduction savings imposed on the agency during SFY 2009-10.

·        Increases funding by $9 million in personal and non-personal services to increase staff-to-youth ratios and to provide improved medical and mental health services for youth in state-operated juvenile justice facilities in order to improve conditions in the facilities and outcomes when they are released. This would begin to address the deficiencies identified by the Governor’s Task Force on Transforming Juvenile Justice. The addition of 169 Full Time Equivalents (FTE) is included in the proposal. This increase in funding is estimated to cost $45 million in SFY 2011-12.  This indicates that most of the new positions will be added in the last half of SFY 2010-11.

·        Three residential facilities will be closed or downsized effective January 19, 2011.  In total, 180 residential beds are proposed to be eliminated.  The personnel target is reduced by 251 FTE positions, of which 239 were filled as of November 2009.  Anticipated savings for SFY 2010-11 from downsizing  are $2.9 million The impacted facilities are as follows:

-        Tryon Residential Campus, elimination of Tryon Boys Limited Secure (-130 beds). Tryon LS currently has 130 bed budgeted capacity, 80 beds available capacity, and a population of 38 youth).  Tryon Girls Secure facility (30 beds) will remain open.

-        Annsville Residential Center (Non Secure) will be merged with Taberg Residential Center (Limited Secure) (-25 beds)

-        Lansing Residential Center will close one wing and be downsized from 50 beds to 25 beds.  Lansing currently has a census of 26 youth, but is staffed for 50.  It appears that Lansing will maintain this enhanced level of staffing.

·        An additional $5.8 million reduction in OCFS operations which will be managed through various Personal Service and Non Personal Service actions including:  not backfilling 33 non-health and safety positions and reducing costs associated with supplies, travel, equipment and contractual services.

·        Authorization for Personal Income Tax bonds in the amount of $19 million to continue the CONNECTIONS Architecture Modernization Project (CAMP).  This will allow for the continuance of infrastructure improvements and continuance of user improvements to improve navigation, reduce data entry time and maximize accuracy, thus allowing caseworkers to spend additional time with children and families.

·        The appropriation for contractual services decreases by $2.9 million (-1.8%) from the 2009-10 enacted budget, or $4.9 million from the adjusted appropriation (including a reduction of $2 million in the Youth Facilities Program).

·        OCFS employed an estimated 251 employees under consultant contracts in SFY 2009-10 at a cost of $8.2 million and will employ an estimated 252 contract employees at a cost of $8.2 million in SFY 2010-11. These employment numbers are not calculated on an FTE basis, so it is difficult to draw conclusions about the costs.

·        Mandate relief measures include allowing a district to send an erroneously assigned SCR report back to the State for reassignment, providing relief from current practice whereby affected districts must resolve erroneous assignments at the local level (does not require legislation or regulatory change).

·        Article VII legislation provides for an extension, until January 1, 2014, of the current exemption for employees of the Department of Mental Hygiene, the Office of Children and Family Services, and local government operated, regulated, funded or approved programs from certain social work and mental health professional licensure requirements.

·        Article VII legislation would give OCFS’ authority to collect past due youth facility chargeback payments from social services districts (districts) for costs associated with OCFS operated youth facilities. It would also clarify that OCFS may modify facility rates based on changes in the federal funds available for facility costs