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 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.

Additional funding in Fiscal Year 1997 allowed the Department to expand services for the 13,000 children in the foster care and group care programs by establishing:

• six regional foster care bridge homes that will provide short-term diagnostic assessment services to children under twelve years of age with health and behavioral problems;
• two additional regional recruitment units that will screen and license approximately 200 new foster homes, and provide Massachusetts Approaches to Partnership and Parental (MAPP) training to foster and pre-adoptive families; and
• the new Commonworks residential group care program that will provide residential, clinical and family support services to adolescents, ages twelve through seventeen, so they may return to their families as quickly as possible, or live independently within the community.

Objectives

The Weld/Cellucci Administration will continue to support the promotion of adoption as a means to find permanent homes for the nearly 4,000 children in foster care and group care who cannot return to their homes of origin. The Department will finalize over 1,000 adoptions in Fiscal Year 1997. Additional funding for adoption subsidies will allow the Department to finalize 1,000 more adoptions in Fiscal Year 1998.

The Administration will continue to support the Child Protection Initiatives by providing full year funding to support bridge homes, foster and adoptive parent recruitment units, and a tiered reimbursement system for foster care. The goal of these initiatives is to expand the pool of foster homes available to the Department, including foster homes that can care for children with medical and behavioral problems.

Additional funding provided for the Collaborative Assessment Program (CAP) will allow the Department to implement five additional assessment teams throughout the Commonwealth. The goal of this program is to enhance access to services for children with serious emotional problems by coordinating intake and assessment services for clients who seek intensive high-cost services from either the Department of Mental Health or the Department of Social Services.

The Department will implement the new FamilyNet information system that will provide computers to all social workers and supervisors in the Department's area offices. The goal of FamilyNet is to centralize information for decision makers. This will provide more accurate tracking and monitoring of client placements; improved case management procedures; better evaluation of program outcomes; and more effective resource allocation and utilization.

The Department will collaborate with the School of Social Work at Salem State College to establish the Child Welfare Training and Leadership Institute. The Institute will provide expanded higher education and training opportunities for DSS social workers. The Institute's activities will also include training for foster parents and for staff at provider organizations within the Commonwealth.

Budget Recommendations

The Fiscal Year 1998 funding recommendation includes $5.59 million for caseload growth in adoption and guardianship services (4800-0020); $7.44 million to support the Child Protection Initiatives (4800-1997); $3.21 million for the FamilyNet information system (4800-0015); $2.8 million for expansion of services to families affected by domestic violence (4800-1400); $2.06 million to support the Salem State College Child Welfare Training and Leadership Institute (4800-1998, 4800-1100); and $809,000 to expand the Collaborative Assessment Program. Additionally, the Department's state appropriations will be funded in part with $85.87 million in federal funds from the Social Services Block Grant and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Block Grant (TANF). These block grant funds are deposited into a newly established Social Services Minor Fund.

Budgetary Direct Appropriations

REVENUE MANAGEMENT CONTRACT
4800-0014	For costs of the revenue management services contract; provided, that said costs shall be funded entirely from this item	3,400,000
	General Fund 65.00% Social Services Fund 35.00%

CENTRAL AND REGIONAL OFFICE ADMINISTRATION
4800-0015	For the central and regional office administration of the department of social services	27,323,679
	General Fund 74.89% Social Services Fund 25.11%

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; and provided further, that the commissioner of the department of social services is hereby authorized to transfer a total amount not to exceed fifteen percent of the funds appropriated herein to items 4800-0020, 4800-0030 and 4800-0041	38,478,282
	Social Services Fund 70.00% General Fund 30.00%

ADOPTION AND GUARDIANSHIP SERVICES
4800-0020	For the delivery of permanency services to children in the care of the department, including the provision of adoption and guardianship subsidies; 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 twelve 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; and provided further, that the commissioner of the department of social services is hereby authorized to transfer a total amount not to exceed fifteen percent of the funds appropriated herein to items 4800-0018, 4800-0030 and 4800-0041	53,157,468

FOSTER CARE REVIEW
4800-0025	For foster care review services	2,050,488

FOSTER CARE SERVICES
4800-0030	For foster care services, including foster care subsidies, services to foster families, and reimbursements to foster parents for extraordinary expenses incurred; provided, that the commissioner of the department of social services is hereby authorized to transfer a total amount not to exceed fifteen percent of the funds appropriated herein to items 4800-0018, 4800-0020 and 4800-0041	65,121,981
	General Fund 65.00% Social Services Fund 35.00%

SEXUAL ABUSE INTERVENTION NETWORK
4800-0036	For sexual abuse intervention network services to be administered in conjunction with the district attorneys	682,500
	Social Services Fund 100%

GROUP CARE SERVICES
4800-0041	For group care services; provided, that the commissioner of the department of social services is hereby authorized to transfer a total amount not to exceed fifteen percent of the funds appropriated herein to items 4800-0018, 4800-0020, and 4800-0030	97,747,150

NEW CHARDON STREET TEMPORARY HOME
4800-0050	For the expenses and operation of the New Chardon Street home for women located in the city of Boston	713,941
	General Fund 71.07% Social Services Fund 28.93%

AREA OFFICE ADMINISTRATION
4800-0150	For the administration of the area offices	21,300,948
	General Fund 73.66% Social Services Fund 26.34%

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 seventeen 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 nineteen hundred and seventy-four, as amended in nineteen hundred and eighty-eight	750,880
	General Fund 65.00% Social Services Fund 35.00%

SOCIAL WORKERS AND CASE MANAGEMENT
4800-1100	For case management services, and social workers and their expenses	84,443,985

PARTNERSHIP AGENCY CONTRACTS
4800-1200	For partnership agency contracts, for the provision of protective services	3,018,368
	General Fund 65.00% Social Services Fund 35.00%

SERVICES FOR BATTERED WOMEN AND CHILDREN
4800-1400	For battered women shelters and support services for women and children 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 not less than four hundred fifty thousand dollars shall be expended for visitation centers; and provided further, that not less than sixty-five thousand two hundred five dollars shall be expended for the North Quabbin Domestic Violence Prevention Program	12,665,257
	Social Services Fund 100%

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION SPECIALISTS
4800-1500	For domestic violence prevention specialists in the area offices	586,500
	Social Services Fund 78.32% General Fund 21.68%

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, bridge homes, child care and respite services, a tiered reimbursement system for foster care, so called, to promote the placement of children with special medical and social needs who would otherwise be placed in structured group care facilities, licensing of social workers, and training of social workers and investigators	15,607,991
	General Fund 69.81% Social Services Fund 30.19%

Budgetary Retained Revenues

FOSTER CARE RETAINED REVENUE
4800-1111	The department of social services, for purposes of foster care and subject to the provisions of item 4800-0030, is hereby authorized to expend an amount not to exceed twenty million dollars from federal revenues collected pursuant to the provisions of Title IV-E and Title XIX of the Social Security Act; provided, that for the purpose of accommodating timing 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 lower of this authorization or the most recent revenue estimate therefor as reported in the state accounting system	20,000,000

SUBSTITUTE CARE AND SOCIAL WORKER EXPENSES RETAINED REVENUE
4800-1115	The department of social services, for the purposes of permanency, foster care, group care and social worker expenses and subject to the provisions of items 4800-0020, 4800-0030, 4800-0041 and 4800-1100, is hereby authorized to expend an amount not to exceed five million dollars from federal revenues collected pursuant to the provisions of Title II, Title IV-D, Title IV-E, Title XVI, and Title XIX of the Social Security Act and from the department's sliding fee collections; provided, that for the purpose of accommodating timing 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 lower of this authorization or the most recent revenue estimate therefor as reported in the state accounting system	5,000,000

CHILD WELFARE TRAINING AND LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE RETAINED REVENUE
4800-1998	The department of social services, for the purposes of the Salem State College Child Welfare Training and Leadership Institute, is hereby authorized to expend an amount not to exceed one million three hundred eighteen thousand six hundred sixty-nine dollars from federal revenues collected pursuant to the provisions of Title IV-E and Title XIX of the Social Security Act; provided, that for the purpose of accommodating timing 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 lower of this authorization or the most recent revenue estimate therefor as reported in the state accounting system	1,318,669

Federal Grant Spending

CHILDREN'S JUSTICE ACT
4800-0005	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Children's Justice Act	194,148

FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND SUPPORT SERVICES
4800-0007	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Family Violence Prevention and Support Services	505,639

TITLE IV-E INDEPENDENT LIVING PROGRAM
4800-0009	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Title IV-E Independent Living Program	639,370

FAMILY PRESERVATION AND SUPPORT SERVICES
4800-0013	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Family Preservation and Support Services	3,672,860

TITLE IV-B CHILD WELFARE SERVICES
4899-0001	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Title IV-B Child Welfare Services	4,644,107

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	385,321

CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT PREVENTION AND TREATMENT - BABY DOE DISABLED INFANTS
4899-0024	For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Treatment - Baby Doe Disabled Infants	59,113

Trust and Other Spending

4800-3110

SOCIAL SERVICES - PRIVATE DONATIONS

70,000

4899-8103

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES - SCHOLARSHIP TRUST FUND

50,000