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Mayor Fenty's Proposed FY10 Budget For CFSA: Child and Family Services Agency

This is the testimony of Dr. Roque Gerald on the FY 2010 proposed budget for the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA).

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Susie Cambria
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113 views

Mayor Fenty's Proposed FY10 Budget For CFSA: Child and Family Services Agency

This is the testimony of Dr. Roque Gerald on the FY 2010 proposed budget for the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA).

Uploaded by

Susie Cambria
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Government of the District of Columbia

Child and Family Services Agency

Testimony of
Roque R. Gerald, Psy.D.
Acting Director

Mayor Fenty’s Proposed


FY10 Budget for CFSA

Committee on Human Services


Tommy Wells, Chair
Council of the District of Columbia

April 3, 2009

John A. Wilson Building


1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Hearing Room 412
Washington, DC 20004
1 p.m.
Good morning, Chairman Wells and members of the Committee on Human Services. I am Roque
Gerald, Acting Director of the DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA).

Mission
CFSA’s mission is to improve the safety, permanence, and well being of abused and neglected
children and to strengthen troubled families in the District of Columbia.

Like all public child welfare agencies, CFSA is responsible for four critical functions:
 Investigating reports of child abuse and neglect and acting to protect children;
 Helping families to remain intact, whenever possible, while assisting them in
overcoming difficulties that place their children at risk;
 Providing temporary havens in foster care for children who cannot remain at home
safely; and
 Achieving timely permanence for all children and youth we serve through reunification
with birth parents, guardianship with extended family, adoption into a new forever
family, or life-long connection with caring adults.

In addition to comprehensive case management, we partner with public and private organizations
throughout the city to offer a broad range of services to our clients in the areas of mental and
behavioral health, physical health, education, substance abuse treatment, intervention for
domestic violence issues, homemaking, mentoring, parenting and life skills training, child and
youth development, and housing.

At the end of January 2009, the District’s child welfare population was 4,654 children and youth.
This included 2,048 children, or 44 percent, who we monitor regularly in their birth homes and
2,237, or 48 percent, in foster care. We are intensely focused on furthering child welfare reform
and providing what children and youth need most: safety, well being, strong families, and
permanent homes.

Page 1 of 5
FY10 Budget Request
Mayor Fenty’s proposed FY 2010 budget for CFSA reflects the District’s continued commitment
to achieving full child welfare reform. This proposal provides the level of resources necessary to
sustain performance achievements to date and to support additional progress in strengthening the
local safety net for abused and neglected children and troubled families.

In summary, the FY 2010 budget request is $284,083,300, of which $213,083,000 is local


funding, an 8.3% increase. This increase is necessary to maintain services to children and is a
direct result of some significant changes we are making related to Federal claiming. As you
know, recent internal audits of Medicaid claiming resulted in large disallowances of claims made
under the Medicaid Targeted Case Management (TCM) and Rehabilitative Option programs.
Given these results and an examination of current Medicaid claiming practices, it became
apparent that future disallowances would more than likely occur unless we substantially changed
practices. In response, CFSA in concert with the Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF)
has undertaken the following:

 First, we stopped claiming for Medicaid TCM and Rehabilitative Services;


 Second, we shifted a portion of this claiming to Title IV-E (Foster Care) federal grant;
 Third, we engaged with the DHCF to restructure how we claim for services under the
Rehabilitative Option program. We anticipate completing this work in FY 2009 and re-
starting claiming for these services by the second quarter of FY 2010.

Recognizing the transitions in our Federal claiming and ensuring that our planning for future
claiming is done in a manner that maximizes Federal revenue while adhering to Medicaid’s
program rules, the FY 2010 budget includes an increase of $19,415,079 in local funds. This
funding is intended to serve as a “bridge” and ensure that services to our children and families
are not disrupted.

Page 2 of 5
FY10 Highlights
The proposed FY 2010 budget supports CFSA efforts to improve the quality of practice and to
provide a diverse array of supports for children, youth, and families. Here are the highlights.

 Co-location with Safe Shores/DC Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC)--$596,073


The CAC is a key partner in providing services to child victims of physical and sexual abuse.
In early FY 2010 when the new CAC opens at the former Bundy School, CFSA will co-
locate two special abuse units with the Multi Disciplinary Team (MDT). The co-location of
the MDT staff to a central site will strengthen the quality and increase the capacity for joint
investigations of child abuse cases.

In addition to $500,000 of baseline operating funding to the CAC, the proposed FY 2010
budget includes one-time funding of $246,073 for moving and build-out costs and an
additional $350,000 in operating funds. These additional funds will support additional child
abuse prevention education and outreach and increase the length, depth and breadth of
service to each child victim of abuse referred to Safe Shores/CAC by the MDT through the
expansion of existing programs (i.e., therapy, victim services, and forensic services).

 Establishment of the Youth Transition Center--$818,959


For older youth in foster care, transition centers are a best practice for supporting successful
transitions to adulthood. Establishment of the Youth Transition Center is a key initiative in
CFSA’s overall efforts to strengthen services for older youth and in ensuring all youth in care
achieve permanence. In FY 2010, CFSA, other youth-serving District agencies, and
community-based organizations will move into the former Merritt School. This facility is
being re-purposed into a one-stop service that will provide life skills training, employment
services, and a range of supports for older District youth. The proposed budget includes
$818,959 in one-time funds for moving and build-out costs.

Page 3 of 5
 Additional Funding for In-Home Services and Adoption Subsidies--$1,500,000
While the foster care population has remained about the same over last year, the population
of children and families that CFSA serves in their homes has grown by 61 percent. Projecting
that this trend will continue, the proposed budget includes $500,000 in additional local funds
to support rental assistance, furniture and clothing vouchers, and other emergency assistance
to families we serve at home.

In FY 2009, CFSA kicked-off new permanency initiatives associated with the LaShawn
Stipulated Order. We anticipate taking work begun this year to scale in FY 2010, with an
associated increase in demand for adoption subsidies for children reaching permanence
through these initiatives. Additional funds of $1 million in the proposed budget will support a
projected increase in adoptions subsidies as a result of the initiatives and increased
contractual costs of expanding these services to all children and youth with the goal of
adoption.

It is also important to note that the proposed budget supports a level of staffing that will maintain
best-practice caseload standards, grants for evidence-based prevention programs, and the
Grandparent Caregivers Program.

Conclusion
At our oversight hearing last month, I closed by asking that as a community, we work together to
achieve the bottom line, which is protecting, serving, and helping our most vulnerable children
and families. The Mayor’s proposed FY 2010 budget is one that we can all be proud of because
it demonstrates commitment to a strong safety net for District children, youth, and families.

We appreciate the support and confidence that the proposed FY 2010 budget represents and
respectfully request your approval of this budget for CFSA.

Page 4 of 5

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