Office of Children and Family Services

The Enacted budget passed by the Legislature on May 1, 2003 made the following changes to the Executive Budget:

·         Denied the Executive Budget proposal to move the Commission on the Blind and Visually Handicapped to the Department of Labor and Office for the Aging.

·         Accepts the move of the Council on Children and Families into the Office of Children and Families.

·         Rejects the transfer of 20 year olds to the Department of Correctional Services.

·         Provides funding for the Evidenced Based Community Initiative.

·         Makes the following changes to the Executive Budget proposal to the agency’s State Operations budget: increase All Funds funding by $8 million, this is the result of cuts in the General Fund -$740,000, the Special Revenue-Other -$4,750,000 and increases in the Special Revenue Fund-Federal $12,772,000 and Fiduciary Funds $814,000.  Most of this is a result of full-year funding for the Commission on the Blind and Visually Handicapped ($17,951,000). 

·         Other program specific changes include:

            - An additional $145,000 for the Administration program (a $32,000 increase in the      Maintenance Undistributed appropriation and an $113,000 increase in Fiduciary Funds).

            - An additional cut of $10 million in the Systems Support program ($5 million in the       Maintenance Undistributed appropriation and $5 million in the Special Revenue-Other         CONNECTIONS Account) for a total cut of $21.1 million from last year’s             appropriation, $20 million of which is in the maintenance undistributed appropriation.     DOB claims that the additional $10 million reduction could lead to layoffs in OCFS, however, there is no indication in any other budget materials that at any of this reduced       appropriation is currently used to fund state employee positions.

·        Article VII legislation (S1406-B, section I2) establishes the Child Care Pilot program in the Capital Region and Oneida county.  The union child care coalition of the NYS AFL-CIO Workforce Development Institute will develop and submit a plan to OCFS for each program site.

Updated analysis as of February 7, 2003:

·         The Budget also includes State and local initiatives to improve the quality of child care programs, including the implementation of the Governor's Quality Child Care and Protection Act of 2000. This measure requires mandatory fingerprinting of child care providers, doubles provider training requirements and increases inspections of registered providers.

The Executive Budget recommends (analysis as of January 31, 2003):

·        An FTE level of 3,703, which represents a decrease of 577 FTEs from the Governor’s current estimated FTE level for 3/31/03 of 4,280 and includes 611 position abolitions in SFY2003-04.  Most of the position abolitions will likely occur in the Youth Facilities program.  This year’s Executive Budget (SFY 2002-03) estimated there would be 4,389 FTEs so the OCFS lost 109 positions during the current fiscal year.  Current fiscal year losses occurred in the following programs:  Youth Facilities (-62), System Support (-25), Family and Children Services (-8), and Central Administration (-11).  SFY 2003-04 reductions will occur in the following programs, Youth Facilities -375, Family and Children Services -13, Central Administration -12 and System Support -4.  The SFY 2003-04 reduction also includes 178 FTEs from the Commission on Blind and Visually Handicapped that will be transferred to the Department of Labor.  The Training and Development program will have 5 additional FTEs during SFY 2003-04.

·        Moving the Commission on the Blind and Visually Handicapped to the Department of Labor, which requires the transfer of 178 FTEs.  This will allegedly result in improved program coordination and will lead to enhanced cost effectiveness for vocational rehabilitation programs but no dollar amount was identified for savings.  According to the Executive Budget, all but one General Fund FTE is transferred to the Department of Labor.

·        Merging the Council on Children and Families into OCFS.  This move is expected to save $500,000 during SFY 2003-04 and will provide $1 million per year in savings every year thereafter.  It appears that the program is transferred into the Administration Program.  If that is the case, 6 of the 7 FTEs funded by the Special Revenue Funds-Federal are transferred and it is unclear what happened to the 14 FTEs funded by the General Fund.  This is because the Administration program’s General Funded FTE total is reduced by 19, so either all 14 Council on Children and Families FTEs were reduced, the reduction occurred within the Administration program, or some combination thereof.

·        Initiating a multi-year reform of the juvenile justice program.  The program will be a targeted expansion of community-based intensive supervision programs designed for non-violent youth.  The program will be run by local non-profit agencies and will provide services ranging from family-based counseling to specialized after-school programs.  This is expected to reduce capacity by 250 beds in the 2003-04 fiscal year and will save $11.6 million by 2004-05.  Beginning in 2005-06, the State will explore privatizing the remaining state-operated facilities.

·        The following changes were made to the Office’s State Operations budget:  an All Funds decrease of $56 million, a General Fund decrease of $40.7 million, a Special Revenue Funds-Federal decrease of $25.6 million, an increase of $10.8 million in Special Revenue Funds-Other, and a decrease of $511,500 in Fiduciary Funds.

·        An increase of $803,500 in the Administration Program.  This includes cuts of $712,900 in personal services and $700,600 in nonpersonal services and an increase of $2 million in Special Revenue Funds-Federal.  This increase breaks down to $1.4 million in the Department of Education Fund and $600,000 in the Head Start Grant Account.

·        Eliminating funding for the Child Care Program.  This is a reduction of $17.6 million, including a decrease of $1.9 million in personal services, a decrease of $951,600 in nonpersonal services, and a decrease of $14.8 in Special Revenue Funds-Federal.  The Executive Budget shows no decrease in staffing.  We are investigating this conundrum.

·        A reduction of $450,200 in the Family and Children Services program.  This breaks down to a decrease of $74,200 in personal services and a decrease of $340,000 in Maintenance Undistributed that was used for expanded institutional abuse investigations.

·        A decrease in the Systems Support Program of $11.1 million.  This breaks down to a decrease of $1.9 million in personal services, an increase of $775,000 in nonpersonal services, a decrease of $15 million in Maintenance Undistributed that was the state’s share for the continued development of the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System, and an increase of $5 million in the Special Revenue Funds-Other Connections Account.

·        A decrease of $5.7 million in the Training and Development Program.  This breaks down to a decrease of $1.9 million in Maintenance Undistributed that is used for training contracts and a net decrease of $3.8 million in Special Revenue Funds-Other; the latter breaks down as a decrease of $6 million in the Multiagency Training Contract Account, an increase of $1.4 million in the State Match Account, and an increase of $773,000 in the Training Management and Evaluations Account.

·        A decrease of $4 million in the Youth Facilities Program.  This breaks down as a decrease of $4.4 million in personal services, a decrease of $1.1 million in nonpersonal services, and a new appropriation of $1.4 million in Maintenance Undistributed that is used for contracts with not-for-profit community based organizations.