This is not the official budget document.

Budget Summary FY2011

Department of Children and Families
Data Current as of:  8/6/2010





FISCAL YEAR 2011 BUDGET SUMMARY ($000)
ACCOUNT FY2011
Conference
FY2011
Vetoes
FY2011
GAA
Social Worker Services and Related Operational Support 68,066 -3,975 64,092
Roca Retained Revenue for Cities and Towns 2,000 0 2,000
Foster Care Review 2,671 0 2,671
DSS Regional Administration 7,000 -1,000 6,000
Sexual Abuse Intervention Network 698 0 698
Services for Children and Families 251,682 -4,248 247,434
Family Support and Stabilization 44,100 -3,150 40,950
Group Care Services 205,419 -3,833 201,586
Child Welfare Training Institute Retained Revenue 2,100 -41 2,059
Placement Services for Juvenile Offenders 271 0 271
Social Workers for Case Management 155,572 -440 155,132
Support Services for People at Risk of Domestic Violence 21,297 -1,203 20,094
TOTAL    760,876 -17,889 742,987

Hide line item language

account description amount
DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES 758,326,837
Direct Appropriations
4800-0015 Social Worker Services and Related Operational Support
For central and area office administration; provided, that the associated expenses of employees whose AA and DD object class costs are paid from item 4800-1100 shall be paid from this item; provided further, that no funds shall be expended from this item for the compensation of unit 8 employees; provided further, that the department shall not place a child or adolescent referred by, or discharged from, the care of the department of mental health until the latter department forwards an assessment and recommendation as to whether the child or adolescent may be appropriately placed in foster care or, if due to severe emotional disturbance, is more appropriate for group care; provided further, that if placement of a child with someone other than a parent becomes necessary, the department shall place the highest priority on identifying a family resource within the child's kinship or family circle and shall provide services and support to partner with the family resource in meeting the child's needs; provided further, that the department, in consultation with the department of mental health, shall assist the latter department in making such assessments and recommendations; provided further, that unless otherwise authorized, all funds, including federal reimbursements received by the department, shall be credited to the General Fund; provided further, that the department and the department of early education and care shall provide standards for early education and care placements made through the supportive child care program; provided further, that the department of children and families, in collaboration with the department of early education and care, shall maintain a centralized list detailing the number of children eligible for supportive child care services, the number of supportive slots filled and the number of supportive slots available; provided further, that no waiting list for the services shall exist; provided further, that all children eligible for services under item 3000-3050 shall receive said services; provided further, that notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department shall not reduce recoupment amounts recommended by the state auditor; provided further, that by October 1, 2010, the department shall issue draft revised regulations for public comment which shall ensure that the department maintains an independent, timely and fair administrative hearings system and shall issue final regulations by December 1, 2010; provided further, that not later than October 1, 2010, the department shall; (a) revise its procedures to ensure that newly requested administrative hearings are scheduled and decided upon on a timely basis; and (b) submit to the joint committee on children, families and persons with disabilities a plan for eliminating its backlog of administrative hearing requests; provided further, that the plan shall identify the number of fair hearing requests that were pending as of July 1, 2010, and shall set quarterly benchmarks for elimination of the backlog; provided further, that the department shall submit quarterly reports to the joint committee on children, families, and persons with disabilities on the status of the backlog; provided further, that the department shall employ not less than 1 full-time board-certified physician; provided further, that the department shall employ not less than 4 full-time board certified or board eligible child psychiatrists to serve the area offices; provided further, that hiring and supervision shall be done in conjunction with the department of mental health; provided further, that such physicians shall collaborate with the department's social workers; provided further, that not later than February 15 of the current fiscal year, the department shall provide to the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on children and families a report detailing the number of medical and psychiatric personnel currently employed by or under contract with the department; provided further, that the report shall include the number of foster care reviews conducted by the department and the average length of time in which each review is completed; provided further, that the report shall contain the number of the department's contracts reviewed by the state auditor and the number of corrective action plans issued; provided further, that the report shall also include the number of corrective action plans entered into by the department; provided further, that the report shall include the number of social workers and supervisors who have earned a bachelors' or masters' degree in social work; provided further, that the report shall include the total number of social workers and the total number of social workers holding licensure, by level; provided further, that the department shall file a report on the first business day of each month to the senate and house committees on ways and means and the joint committee on children and families on the caseload of the department; provided further, that caseloads provided in this report shall include: residential placements, group care, foster care, therapeutic foster care, adoption, guardianship, 51A reports, substantiated 51A reports, the number of children who die in the care and custody of the department, the number of children currently eligible for supportive child care and the number of children presently receiving supportive child care, and the number of medical and psychiatric consultation requests made by the department's social workers; provided further, that the report shall include the number of approved foster care placements; provided further, that the report shall also include the number of children in psychiatric hospitals and community-based acute treatment programs who remain hospitalized beyond their medically-necessary stay while awaiting placement and the number of days each case remains in placement beyond that which is medically-necessary; provided further, that the report shall include the number of children under the department of children and families care and custody who are being served in medical or psychiatric care provided through other publicly-funded sources; provided further, that the report shall also contain the number of children served by supervised visitation centers and the number of those children who are reunified with their families; provided further, that the report shall contain information on the total number of children served, their ages, the number of children served in each service plan, the number of children in out-of-home placements and the number of placements each child has had before receiving an out-of-home placement; provided further, that the report shall also contain, for each area office, the number of kinship guardianship subsidies provided in the month covered by the report, and the number of kinship guardianship subsidies provided in that month for which federal reimbursement was received; provided further, that the report shall also contain, for each area office, the total spending on services other than case management services provided to families for the purposes of keeping a child with his parents or reunifying the child with his parents, spending by type of the service, and the unduplicated number of families that receive the services; provided further, that the report shall also contain for each area office, the total number of families in the month residing in shelter paid for by the department, a list of where the families are sheltered, the total cost and average cost per family of those shelters, and a description of how the department determines who does or does not qualify for shelter; provided further, that the report shall include, for each area office, broken down by type of service, the number of requests for voluntary services, whether the request was approved or denied, the reasons for denying the service, and what, if any, referrals were made for services by other agencies or entities; provided further, that the report shall also contain the number of families receiving multiple 51A reports within a 10-month period, the number of cases reopened within 6 months of being closed and the number of children who return home and then re-enter an out-of-home placement within 6 months; provided further, that not later than November 2, 2010, the department shall submit a report to the house and senate committees on ways and means and the chairs of the joint committee on children and families that includes any rules, regulations, or guidelines established by the department to carry out its duties pursuant to chapter 119 of the General Laws, including, but not limited to (a) criteria used to determine whether a child has been abused or neglected; (b) guidelines for removal of a child from the home; and (c) standards to determine what reasonable efforts are made to keep a child in the home; provided further, that the commissioner of the department of children and families may transfer funds between items 4800-0030, 4800-0038, 4800-0040 and 4800-0041, as necessary, pursuant to an allocation plan, which shall detail, by object class, the distribution of the funds to be transferred and which the commissioner shall file with the house and senate committees on ways and means 15 days prior to any such transfer; provided further, that not more than 5 per cent of any item shall be transferred in fiscal year 2011; and provided further, that upon receipt of a written certification by the secretary of administration and finance, addressed to the chairs of the house and senate committees on ways and means and the comptroller of the commonwealth, that legislation extending the commonwealth's eligibility for an enhanced federal medical assistance percentage pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Public Law 111-5, not in effect as of June 1, 2010, has been duly enacted and signed into law by the President of the United States or that the federal government has otherwise obligated itself to release additional funding not available as of June 1, 2010, to the commonwealth during state fiscal year 2011, no funds shall be transferred from 4800-0040



General Fund 94.161%

FMAP Budget Relief Fund 5.839%
64,091,716
4800-0025 Foster Care Review
For foster care review services
2,671,274
4800-0030 DSS Regional Administration
For the continuation of local and regional administration and coordination of services provided by lead agencies through purchase-of-service contracts; provided, that flex services man dated by this item and provided by these agencies shall be funded from this item; and provided further, that funding shall only be expended in the MM object class



General Fund 85.714%

FMAP Budget Relief Fund 14.286%

6,000,000
4800-0036 Sexual Abuse Intervention Network
For a sexual abuse intervention network program to be administered in conjunction with the district attorneys
697,508
4800-0038 Services for Children and Families
For guardianship, foster care, adoption, family preservation, and kinship services provided by the department of children and families; provided further, that services funded through this item shall include shelter services, substance abuse treatment, young parent programs, parent aides, education and counseling services, foster care, adoption and guardianship subsidies, tiered reimbursements used to promote the foster care placement of children with special medical and social needs, assessment of the appropriateness of adoption for children in the care of the department for more than 12 months, protective services provided by partnership agencies, targeted recruitment and retention of foster families, respite care services, post-adoption services, support services for foster, kinship and adoptive families and juvenile firesetter programs; provided further, that $298,000 may be expended for alternative school students aged 14 to 16, inclusive, who are determined to be children in need of services or CHINS; provided further, that the regional offices shall work with the contracted entities for children placed in the intensive foster care system and with the receiving communities of these children to ensure all necessary services are provided; provided further, that funding may be expended on the young parent support program, supervised visitation programs, children's advocacy centers, services for child victims of sexual abuse and assault, family support and stabilization services, and community-based support and education programs helping low-income, female-headed families break the cycle of poverty; provided further, that funds may be expended on programs that received funding in fiscal year 2010; and provided further, that upon receipt of a written certification by the secretary of administration and finance, addressed to the chairs of the house and senate committees on ways and means and the comptroller of the commonwealth, that legislation extending the commonwealth's eligibility for an enhanced federal medical assistance percentage pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Public Law 111-5, not in effect as of June 1, 2010, has been duly enacted and signed into law by the President of the United States or that the federal government has otherwise obligated itself to release additional funding not available as of June 1, 2010, to the commonwealth during state fiscal year 2011, no less than $298,000 shall be expended for alternative school students aged 14 to 16, inclusive, who are determined to be children in need of services or CHINS



General Fund 98.312%

FMAP Budget Relief Fund 1.688%

247,433,594
4800-0040 Family Support and Stabilization
For family preservation and reunification; provided, that services shall include family support and stabilization services provided by the department; and provided further, that no funds shall be expended from this item for the compensation of administrative employees and associated administrative costs of the department



General Fund 92.857%

FMAP Budget Relief Fund 7.143%

40,950,000
4800-0041 Group Care Services
For group care services; provided, that funds may be expended from this item to provide intensive community-based services, including intensive in-home support and stabilization services, to children who would otherwise be placed in residential settings; and provided further, that the department shall oversee area review teams that shall evaluate the feasibility of maintaining the child in the community in this manner wherever possible before recommending placement in a residential setting



General Fund 98.134%

FMAP Budget Relief Fund 1.866%

201,586,480
4800-0151 Placement Services for Juvenile Offenders
For a program to provide alternative overnight non-secure placements for status offenders and nonviolent delinquent youths up to the age of 17 in order to prevent the inappropriate use of juvenile cells in police stations for such offenders, in compliance with the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended; provided, that the programs which provide the alternative non-secure placements shall collaborate with the appropriate county sheriff's office to provide referrals of those offenders and delinquent youths to any programs within the sheriff's office designed to positively influence youths or reduce, if not altogether eliminate, juvenile crime
270,919
4800-1100 Social Workers for Case Management
For the AA and DD object class costs of the department's social workers; provided, that funds shall be directed toward mitigating social worker caseloads in those area offices furthest above the statewide weighted caseload standard and toward achieving a social worker caseload ratio of 18 to 1 statewide; and provided further, that only employees of bargaining unit 8 as identified in the Massachusetts personnel administrative reporting and information system shall be paid from this item



General Fund 99.717%

FMAP Budget Relief Fund 0.283%

155,132,354
4800-1400 Support Services for People at Risk of Domestic Violence
For shelters and support services for people at risk of domestic violence; provided, that the department shall pursue the establishment of public-private partnership agreements established for family stabilization services funded from sources other than the commonwealth; provided further, that services shall include supervised visitation programs, and scattered site transitional housing programs, including programs to assist victims of domestic violence in finding and maintaining permanent housing; provided further, that participants in battered women's programs shall be provided with information regarding local transitional housing resources; provided further, that funding shall be made available to enhance counseling services for children who have witnessed domestic violence; provided further, that funding shall be made available for emergency shelters for substance abusing battered women; provided further, that funding shall be made available for a statewide domestic violence hotline; provided further, that the department shall continue to provide any match funding required by federal program regulations; and provided further, that domestic violence prevention specialists shall be funded from this item



General Fund 94.353%

FMAP Budget Relief Fund 5.647%

20,094,458

account description amount
Retained Revenues
4800-0016 Roca Retained Revenue for Cities and Towns
For the department of children and families which may expend for the operation of the transitional employment program an amount not to exceed $2,000,000 from revenues collected from various state, county and municipal government entities, as well as state authorities, for the costs related to the provision of services by the participants and the overhead costs and expenses incurred by the not-for-profit managing agent selected by the commissioner for administering the program; provided, that notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the commissioner of the department of children and families may enter into a contract with Roca, Inc., a not-for-profit community-based agency, to manage the transitional employment program and to provide services to participants from the aging out population, parolees, probationers, youth service releases, or other community residents considered to have employment needs
2,000,000
4800-0091 Child Welfare Training Institute Retained Revenue
For the department of children and families which may expend not more than $2,100,000 in federal reimbursements received under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act during fiscal year 2011 for the purposes of developing a training institute for professional development at the department of children and families with the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Salem State College; provided, that for the purposes of accommodating discrepancies between the receipt of retained revenues and related expenditures, the department may incur expenses and the comptroller may certify for payment amounts not to exceed the lesser of this authorization or the most recent revenue estimate as reported in the state accounting system; and provided further, that notwithstanding section 1 or any other general or special law to the contrary, federal reimbursements received in excess of $2,100,000 shall be credited to the General Fund



General Fund 98.035%

FMAP Budget Relief Fund 1.965%



For the department of children and families which may expend not more than $2,058,735 in federal reimbursements received under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act during fiscal year 2011 for the purposes of developing a training institute for professional development at the department of children and families with the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Salem State College



; and provided further, that notwithstanding section 1 or any other general or special law to the contrary, federal reimbursements received in excess of $2,058,735 shall be credited to the General Fund


2,058,735

account description amount
Federal Grant Spending 15,339,799
4800-0005 Children's Justice Act
For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Children's Justice Act
332,604
4800-0007 Family Violence Prevention and Support Services
For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, The Family Violence Prevention and Support Services Act
1,820,998
4800-0009 Title IV-E Independent Living Program
For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Title IV-E Independent Living
2,813,371
4800-0013 Family Preservation and Support Services
For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Family Preservation and Support Services
4,737,454
4800-0085 Education and Training Voucher Program
For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Educational & Training Voucher Program
949,875
4899-0001 Title IV-B Child Welfare Services
For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Title IV-B Child Welfare Services
4,182,270
4899-0022 Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Treatment
For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Treatment
503,227