Child Welfare: Financing is Looking Beyond the New York State Family and Children’s Services Block Grant
Issue Reports & Briefs
January 1, 2000
New York State’s child welfare system is feeling pressure from the increasing number of children entering foster care and insufficient State dollars available in the Family and Children’s Services Block Grant (Block Grant). Signed into law in 1995, the Block Grant consolidates funding streams for various child welfare services and caps the amount of State funding available for these services. Since its inception the number of reports of abuse and 1 neglect statewide have increased by 13. 5%. Recognizing this increase in demand for investi- gations of suspected abuse and neglect, the Governor and the Legislature agreed to remove child protective services from the Block Grant and create uncapped funding for these services in 1998. This allowed the counties to pay for addi- tional caseworkers needed to properly investigate all reports of abuse and neglect. At the same time, and in part because of increased numbers of investigations and reduced spending on preventive services, the number of children being admitted to foster care has increased by 21.2%. Yet funding for foster care services remains capped as part of the Block Grant.
At the same time that the demand for child welfare services has increased statewide, the State has decreased its use of general fund dollars to finance the Block Grant and has replaced State dollars with federal welfare surplus money, forgoing an important opportunity to strengthen child welfare services. Changes in federal and State law with the passage of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)are placing new requirements on New York State to expedite permanency for children in foster care by shortening their length of stay in out-of-home placement. This requires intensive casework and a range of support services available to reunite children with their families or to facilitate an adoption. The successful implementation of ASFA is dependent on more, not less State funding than is now available in the Block Grant. At the local level, the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) is redesigning New York City’s child welfare services by creating a neighborhood-based system of service delivery, which should create stronger community supports for families and facilitate reunification for families with children in the foster care system. New York City accounts for the majority of children and families served by the State’s child welfare system. Again, these changes will require additional funding to expand child welfare services in communities.
More children entering the foster care system, the new federal requirements under ASFA, and the shift to neighborhood-based services all add pressure for additional funding, that should be shared by all levels of government. At the State level, the Governor and Legislature have relied on the Block Grant as a new method of payment for the child welfare system that promised to create efficiencies and improve the provision of services for children and families. Instead of promised improvements, the Block Grant increased tension between the counties, child welfare providers, 3 foster parents and New York State. The original sunset date for the Block Grant was March 31, 1999, however it has been extended for another two years, until March 31, 2001. In the interim, the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) is required to submit a report to the Legislature by July 2000 that proposes a new funding structure for child welfare services.
Recognizing the opportunity to shape the State’s strategy for funding child welfare services, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC) convened a Task Force comprised of preventive service and foster care providers, child welfare fiscal experts and advocates to examine the strengths and weaknesses of this Block Grant and to review innovations in child welfare financing in other states. We also consulted managed care and federal fiscal experts to develop a funding proposal that would be politically savvy as well as achieve long overdue changes in the child welfare system. We prepared this policy brief for the Governor’s office, the Legislature and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) as the first step to assist in developing a new method of financing child welfare services.
Note: This publication was published in 2000. Language used in CCC products continues to evolve over time. Words used when this was published could be out of date and/or incorrectly frame an issue area when compared to today's standards.
