The primary mission of the Department of Social Services (DSS) is to protect children from abuse and neglect; and to ensure that each child has a safe, nurturing, and permanent home. DSS also provides prevention services to help support and strengthen families. The Department serves approximately 22,000 families by providing services and programs that will allow children to remain safely in their homes. These include crisis intervention, counseling, family skills training, and therapeutic services. For children whose families are unable to care for them, DSS seeks alternative permanent homes through adoption, guardianship, or independent living services.

For the past two years, the Department of Social Services has enhanced the out of home placement continuum by incrementally developing small community-based models between family foster care and intensive residential care. In Fiscal Year 1999, DSS has added new Family Residences to the continuum. At the most intensive end of the continuum, DSS has expanded the Commonworks Program to serve 800 adolescents, or roughly half the adolescent residential placement population. Commonworks provides focused treatment and improved transition planning in an outcome-based setting, and has been shown to reduce lengths of stay in residential care.

The Cellucci/Swift Administration continues to support adoption as a means to find permanent homes for the nearly 3,200 children in foster care and group care who cannot return to their homes of origin. Additional funding for adoption subsidies will allow the Department to finalize 1,000 adoptions in Fiscal Year 2000.

The Department will also continue to support services for families affected by domestic violence by including funding for crisis intervention, short-term shelter, and transitional services. Additional funding will support community education to prevent domestic violence and increase public awareness of the program.

Additional funding provided in Fiscal Year 1999 allowed the Department to hire 50 new social workers and two new domestic violence staff. In Fiscal Year 2000, increased funding will support the Department’s continuing efforts to maintain the 18:1 social worker caseload ratio. To further reduce the time necessary to resolve cases, 47 new social workers will be hired in areas where social workers have the highest caseloads.

The Fiscal Year 2000 funding recommendation includes $3 million for additional social workers to further support the Department’s efforts to reduce social worker caseloads (4800-1101); $9 million for caseload growth in permanency, adoption, and foster care services (4800-0031); and $5.6 million for caseload growth in the group care population (4800-0041).

This recommendation also includes several account transfers: $8 million of tiered subsidies for foster parents from the Child Protection Initiatives account (4800-1997) to the permanency adoption and foster care account (4800-0031); $3.4 million in social worker travel from the administration account (4800-0015) to the Social Worker account (4800-1100); and $11.4 million from the administration account (4800-0015) to a new Information Technology account (4800-0026).

This recommendation also includes $1.8 million to improve salaries for the Department’s lowest paid, contracted, direct care workers. In Fiscal Year 1999, this funding was appropriated as part of a reserve account in the Executive Office for Administration and Finance.

Additionally, the Department’s state appropriations will be funded in part with $88.6 million in federal funds from the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). In Fiscal Year 2000, the Social Services Program minor fund will be eliminated and SSBG funds collected by the Department will be deposited as unrestricted revenue to the General Fund. This change will enable the Department to spend all of the awarded federal funds without creating a deficit in the state’s accounting system.

Budgetary Direct Appropriations

REVENUE MANAGEMENT CONTRACT
4800-0014	For costs of revenue management contracted services; provided, that said costs shall be funded entirely from this item; and provided further, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $1,360,000 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	3,400,000

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES CENTRAL AND REGIONAL OFFICE ADMINISTRATION
4800-0015	For the operation of the central and regional offices of the department of social services; provided, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $5,306,485 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	41,359,974

FAMILY PRESERVATION AND STABILIZATION SERVICES
4800-0018	For family stabilization services and family unification services for non-placement families and for families whose children are expected to return home after placement, including, but not limited to, school and community-based young parent programs, parent and home health aides, education and counseling services, shelter services, substance abuse treatment, and respite care; provided, that the department shall pursue the establishment of public-private partnership agreements to fund family stabilization and family unification services from sources other than the commonwealth; provided further, that the commissioner of social services is hereby authorized to transfer a total amount not to exceed 15 per cent of the funds appropriated herein to items 4800-0031 and 4800-0041; and provided further, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $11,770,596 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	37,589,123

FOSTER CARE REVIEW
4800-0025	For foster care review services	2,214,966

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
4800-0026	For the operation and maintenance of the information technology systems of the department, including the costs of hardware and software for social workers hired under the provisions of item 4800-1101	11,588,959

ADOPTION, GUARDIANSHIP, AND FOSTER CARE SERVICES
4800-0031	For the delivery of permanency, adoption, and foster care services to children in the care of the department, including foster care, adoption, and guardianship subsidies, services to foster families, reimbursements to foster parents for extraordinary expenses incurred, and a tiered reimbursement system for foster care, so called, to promote the placement of children with special medical and social needs who otherwise would be placed in structured group care facilities; provided, that no funds shall be expended to provide subsidies to adoptive parents for children no longer in their care; provided further, that the department shall assess all children in its care for longer than 12 months for the appropriateness of adoption; provided further, that the department shall maintain a central registry and tracking system to monitor the progress of such children in the adoption process; provided further, that the department may contract with community-based agencies for the purpose of providing adoption and special needs adoption services; provided further, that not more than $648,000 shall be expended on a contract with Massachusetts Families for Kids; provided further, that the commissioner of social services is hereby authorized to transfer a total amount not to exceed 15 per cent of the funds appropriated herein to items 4800-0018 and 4800-0041; and provided further, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $20,647,617 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	165,844,313

SEXUAL ABUSE INTERVENTION NETWORK
4800-0036	For sexual abuse intervention network services to be administered in conjunction with the district attorneys	694,699

GROUP CARE SERVICES
4800-0041	For group care services, including the Commonworks program, so called; provided, that the commissioner of social services is hereby authorized to transfer a total amount not to exceed 15 per cent of the funds appropriated herein to items 4800-0018 and 4800-0031; and provided further, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $26,650,424 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	121,138,291

NEW CHARDON STREET TEMPORARY HOME
4800-0050	For the operation of the New Chardon Street home for women located in the city of Boston; provided, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $809,643 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	809,643

PLACEMENT SERVICE FOR JUVENILE OFFENDERS
4800-0151	For the provision of alternative overnight non-secure placements for status offenders and non-violent delinquent youth 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 in 1988; provided, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $772,297 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	772,297

SOCIAL WORKERS AND CASE MANAGEMENT
4800-1100	For case management services, including the payroll compensation and travel costs of social workers	90,017,186

SOCIAL WORKER CASELOAD MITIGATION
4800-1101	For social worker caseload mitigation; provided, that funds from this item shall be expended for the payroll compensation of social workers added for the explicit purpose of mitigating social worker caseloads in those area offices furthest above the statewide weighted caseload standard, so called; and provided further, that no funds from this item shall be expended for any purpose not specifically stated herein	3,714,869

PARTNERSHIP AGENCY CONTRACTS
4800-1200	For community-based services for linguistic, ethnic, and cultural minority clients, mentally retarded clients, and handicapped clients, including service delivery, service referral, and resource development, to be provided by community-based organizations with a demonstrated capacity to serve said clients; provided, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $1,359,727 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	3,041,215

SERVICES FOR BATTERED WOMEN AND CHILDREN
4800-1400	For shelters and support services for women and children at risk of domestic violence, including supervised visitation programs; provided, that the department shall pursue the establishment of public-private partnership agreements for family stabilization services funded from sources other than the commonwealth; provided further, that not less than $892,000 shall be made available for visitation centers; provided further, that not less than $1,420,000 shall be made available for residential transitional living services; provided further, that not less than $630,000 shall be made available to enhance counseling services for children who have witnessed domestic violence; provided further, that not less than $700,000 shall be made available for emergency shelters for substance abusing battered women; provided further, that not more than $270,000 shall be made available for short term shelter programs for underserved populations; and provided further, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $15,436,293 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	15,436,293

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION SPECIALISTS
4800-1500	For domestic violence prevention specialists in the department`s area and regional offices	608,236

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
4800-1997	For programs to improve the quality of services provided by the department to children in the care of the commonwealth, including, but not limited to, foster care and adoption recruitment units, post-adoption services, bridge homes, child care and respite services, and training of social workers and investigators; provided, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $2,753,815 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	9,179,382

LEGAL SERVICES
4800-2000	For legal services and related expenses; provided, that the General Fund shall be reimbursed in the amount of $769,239 from the federal Social Services Block Grant for expenditures from this item	7,692,385

Federal Grant Spending

CHILDREN`S JUSTICE ACT
4800-0005	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Children`s Justice Act	184,904

FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND SUPPORT SERVICES
4800-0007	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Family Violence Prevention and Support Services	1,299,190

TITLE IV-E INDEPENDENT LIVING PROGRAM
4800-0009	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Title IV-E Independent Living Program	635,852

FAMILY PRESERVATION AND SUPPORT SERVICES
4800-0013	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Family Preservation and Support Services	3,978,886

TITLE IV-B CHILD WELFARE SERVICES
4899-0001	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Title IV-B Child Welfare Services	4,683,476

CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT PREVENTION AND TREATMENT
4899-0022	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Treatment	443,683

Trust and Other Spending

4800-3110

PRIVATE DONATIONS

50,000

4899-8102

NEW CHARDON STREET TEMPORARY HOME

2,038

4899-8103

SCHOLARSHIP TRUST FUND

5,000