Fiscal Year 2004 Proposed Budget

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DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
COMPREHENSIVE SERVICES FOR AT-RISK YOUTH

PROGRAM MISSION: To ensure coordination of high quality, cost effective services to families whose children are at risk of placement outside of their homes and community by facilitating collaboration among families, child serving agencies, and private providers. The goal of this coordinated effort is to preserve and strengthen families, to maintain children in the community, and to identify at-risk youth and intervene as early as possible.

Services offered are mandated by state law under the Comprehensive Services Act for Youth and Families, frequently referred to as CSA. Separate federal mandates also affect state law and policy. Services include family counseling, case management, foster care, special education and a variety of support services. The populations served, as defined by state statute, are divided into "mandated" and "non-mandated" categories. The mandated category includes youth in imminent danger of out-of-home placement, youth in foster care, and youth whose special education needs cannot be provided within the public schools. The non-mandated category includes all other youth whose behaviors or family situations put them at-risk of out-of-home placements, especially youth involved with the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. The five components of the program are detailed below.

• CSA Administration provides interagency coordination for CSA implementation, through organization and facilitation of Community Assessment Teams; utilization management and review of active cases; monitoring of regulatory and policy changes; education of agency case management staff; support of Community Policy and Management Team; facilitation of the CSA Management Team; and assessment of community services and development of services missing from the continuum of care.

• The Alternatives to Residential Treatment Program prevents the placement of youths in expensive residential facilities and transitions youths back into the community who had been placed in residential care by ensuring intensive community-based, family-focused services are provided for youths and their families.

• The Foster Care Prevention Program prevents the need for foster care placement by providing or purchasing services that will stabilize the family situation based on needs assessment and defined treatment plans as approved by the Community Assessment Team. The Family Services Teams ensure the safety of abused and neglected children by assessing, developing, and implementing appropriate goal-directed and timely safety, service, and permanency plans. The Family Services teams have access to this program to purchase services to remedy family situations. Purchased services include individual/family/group therapy, home-based services, and psychological and psychiatric evaluations.

• The Child Placement Program provides temporaryfoster care by working towards family reunification and the resolution of permanent placements for children within 20 months of placement. This program was incorporated into the Family Services Teams during FY 2003. A separate budget narrative is provided for the Child Placement program.

• The Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court serves children whose severe emotional and/or behavioral problems place them at-risk of more serious placement by the Courts; services funded include family counseling, case management, and, as a last resort, placement in a residential facility.

• The Arlington Public Schools provide children with severe behavioral and/or emotional problems with a more intensive level of service than can be provided within the special education program; this includes placement in private therapeutic day schools or residential facilities. The budget and performance measures are included in Arlington Public Schools' budget.

The state requires localities to fund mandated services and guarantees a reimbursement based on a complex funding formula. For Arlington, the required local share is approximately 46 percent of the costs, based on the revised funding formula.

Following are two budget charts. The first chart labeled "Program Budget Summary" shows the budgets by program for all the subprograms included in the County (DHS) budget for CSA. The second chart, "Comprehensive Services Act for At-Risk Youth – County Only", shows the standard budget format used in the proposed budget narratives for the non-Schools portion of the CSA budget.

• Foster Care Prevention includes $37,946 in funding for the Healthy Families program.

• A new category of care entitled Non-Custodial Foster Care was included in FY 2003 as a separate category for the CSA program. Its purpose is to avoid taking youth into Foster Care and at the same time provide funds for their care. The youth remain in the legal custody of their parents while receiving the services to which they would be entitled in agency custody. These costs were previously absorbed in Foster Care actuals and are currently being tracked separately.

SIGNIFICANT BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS:

• Personnel increases due to normal step increases and a new hire at pay above entry.

• Purchase of Service revenue increases due to a change in accounting for the Medicaid match.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

CSA Administration Objective: To manage utilization of CSA funds and maximize use of revenues from other sources.

Alternatives to Residential Treatment (ART) Objective: To prevent unnecessary placement of youths in expensive residential facilities and transition youth back into the community who had been placed in residential care by ensuring intensive community-based family focused services are provided for youths and their families.

• The decrease in the number of clients with residential placements in FY 2002 and FY 2003 is due to the ART Program's ongoing improved outcomes.

• Cost avoidance is the projected amount of residential cost if the client had not remained in the community.

Foster Care Prevention Objective: To prevent the need for foster care placement by providing or purchasing services to stabilize the family situation based on needs assessment and defined treatment plans approved by the Community Assessment Team.

• Targets are internally set.

• Purchase of services was reduced in FY 2001 and FY 2002 to reflect budget limitations.

• Decrease in number served by Parent Aide is due to a vacancy in FY 2003.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Objective: To maintain in the community 90 percent of identified at-risk youth who are receiving Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court purchased services.

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