Key Strategies to Strengthen New York’s Child Welfare System

Over the past 20 years, there has been tremendous progress in New York’s child welfare system. There has been a significantdecline in the number of children in foster care, while the number of children and families receiving preventive services has increased. More children are now remaining safe in their homes rather than being traumatically separated from their families.Despite these gains, there is more to be done to improve safety, permanency and well-being outcomes for New York children and families.

  • Abuse and Neglect Unchanged: The number of reports of child abuse/neglect and the number of indicated reports has remained relatively constant showing that while the system’s response has changed, abuse and neglect have not declined.
  • Long Lengths of Stay in Foster Care Remain:New York’s children have some of the longest stays in foster care in the country (for children reunified, adopted and in legal guardianships with relatives).
  • High Rate of Aging Out without a Family: Too many NY youth age out of foster care without a permanent family.
  • Too Many Poor Outcomes: Unfortunately,outcomes for foster children and youth are often poor compared to children who were never in foster care. These outcomes include those related to education, homelessness, income security, health and mental health.

To Better Promote Safety, Permanency and Well-being and Strengthen NY’s Child Welfare System,We Propose the Following Package of

Child Welfare Reforms for 2014-2015

  • Restore the State’s Commitment to Protective and Preventive Services: Restore the State’s reimbursement for preventive and protective services back to the statutory level of 65% (up from the current reduced level of 62%). Require counties use the increased funding to supplement rather than supplant current investments.
  • Investin Services that Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Before it Occurs: State reimbursement for preventive services requires a case to be opened for a family to receive services. To do this, there must be a documented risk of foster care, which does not allow a local social service district to invest in primary preventive services. Ideally, local social service districts would use data to target services tolocations with high rates of reports (such as public housing complexes, homeless shelters or schools in areas with high rates of reports.) The State should either expand COPS or create a new program that allows districts to more strategically invest in services to prevent abuse and neglect.
  • Fund Post-Permanency services: The State needs to invest in post-permanency services, which will assist families in achieving more timely permanency and maintaining permanency once it is achieved. This investment will ultimately save funding by expediting permanency and preventing children and youth from returning to foster care. The funds would include reimbursing counties for the trial discharge period (currently unreimbursed), post-adoption services and post-KinGAP services.
  • Make Legislative Changes to Enhance KinGap (subsidized relative guardianship):

The State should provide financial support for the subsidy and thus remove State reimbursement from the Foster Care Block Grant and fund it like adoption subsidy. In addition, the State should amend the statute to allow subsidy payments to: a) continue until age 21 regardless of age of finalization; b) enable payments for the child to continue if the relative dies; and c) use the same definition of kin as is used for kinship foster care.

  • Invest $3 million in Kinship Navigator and Services: Children live with grandparents or relatives for similar reasons that they may go into foster care and these families face similar challenges. To ensure kinship caregiversare supported, the state should fund the kinship navigator program at $300,000 and Kinship services at $2.7 million.
  • Strengthenthe Housing Subsidy Program: To ensure the housing subsidy program is better able to stabilize housing for families and youth aging out of foster care, the State should make the following changes:
  • Increase the monthly limit to $600 (from $300) and increase the 3-year limit accordingly so that the subsidy provides enough support for youth and families to find an apartment.
  • Increase the upper age limit of subsidy eligibility from 21 to 24 so that youth who age out of foster care from ages 18-21 can avail themselves of the subsidy for up to 3 years.
  • Allow youth receiving the housing subsidy to live with unrelated roommates.
  • Promote Improved Educational Outcomes for Foster Children and Youth by implementing the following:
  • Require districts to conduct an assessment regarding educational stability at the time of removal and at every placement change. Support districts with funding for transportation.
  • Invest in a comprehensive college support initiative for foster youth that includes expenses at all New York colleges and universities, as well as support in applying and once enrolled.
  • Meet the Needs of the Most Vulnerable Youth Including Sexually Exploited Youth: Currently, the only State funding for sexually exploited youth is provided by the legislature, which has limited the ability of districts to develop a real system or infrastructure since they do not know if they will receive the funding from one year to the next. It is imperative that the Governor’s Budget restore the $3 million for Safe Harbor and add $9 million.
  • Promote Good Health and Wellness Outcomes for Foster Children by ensuring the move to Medicaid Managed Care strengthens their access to high quality, timely health and mental health care services. This will require ensuring foster care agencies are appropriately reimbursed; care is coordination is funded; role clarity exists for agencies, insurance companies and health homes; investments in infrastructure and technology are made; and quality services are funded and expanded.