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Children’s Cabinet Recommendations

Children’s Cabinet Recommendations. DSS Mission. Effectively and efficiently guiding individuals, children and families toward independence and safety through integrated quality services and partnerships in an environment of opportunity and accountability. Office of Family Support.

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Children’s Cabinet Recommendations

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  1. Children’s Cabinet Recommendations

  2. DSS Mission Effectively and efficiently guiding individuals, children and families toward independence and safety through integrated quality services and partnerships in an environment of opportunity and accountability.

  3. Office of Family Support • OFS continuation budget allows for prevention services: • Improvement in Quality Day Care • TANF supported initiatives

  4. Anti-Poverty Strategies • Earned Income Tax Credit-Outreach Project • OFS Strategic Plan-Inclusion of Poverty Reduction as Agency Objective • Focus on Collaboration as Strategy • Community Mobilization and Outreach-New Project Focused on Deputy Assistant Secretary and Regional Community Specialists

  5. Early Learning and Care • Child Care and Development Fund • Head Start • Quality Initiatives

  6. DSS has prioritized the Office of Community Services Needs • Mental health services • Residential treatment • Foster Care Board Rate and Adoption Subsidy equalization • Full funding of OCS T.O.

  7. Prevention and Early Intervention Services • Legislative Mandate • Focus on Prevention • Need for Early Intervention Services

  8. Below Average FosterCare Board Payments • USDA average cost for urban south = $570 per month • Current foster care board rate = $374 per month • Adoption subsidy rate is 80% of board rate = $299 per month • A disincentive to adoption

  9. Residential Treatment • The percent of Louisiana’s foster care population requiring residential care is increasing significantly without the resources to adequately support such treatment • Approximately 1,762 foster children are served annually in OCS residential facilities, most needing mental health services.

  10. Children’s mental health needs continue even after leaving foster care whether they are: Returning to family Adopted Placed in custody of relatives or others Moving into independent or semi-independent living situations such as vocational school or college programs After Care andTransition Services

  11. Reduction in Staff Funding • OCS has lost 255 positions over the last 5 years • This impacts: • Timeliness of investigations • Provision of services necessary to move children into permanent families in a timely manner • Provision of support services to foster and adoptive families • Loss of prevention services staff • Currently 3 staff positions are dedicated to prevention services

  12. Critical Priorities • Increased funding for residential treatment, mental health and substance abuse services • Increased foster care board payments and adoption subsidy • Increased salary dollars for T.O. authority to allow for growth of prevention services and to adequately address current need

  13. OCS Budget Request • Continuation budget allows for expansion of Family Group Decision Making, Infant Mental Health programs, Circle of Security • New and Expanded budget requests funding for new infant mental health program for foster care parents and staff

  14. The test of the morality of a societyis what it does for its children-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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