Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens) and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo (D-Binghamton) co-authored a letter to the Speaker of the Assembly urging for the restoration of Article VII funding for Child Welfare Service reimbursements in the FY 2014-2015 State Budget after recent joint Oversight hearings uncovered troubling findings. Following the death of two children in protective care in Erie County, the Assembly Members convened a joint Oversight, Analysis, and Investigations Committee and Children and Family Services Committee hearing to review Child Protective Services practices that may have contributed to these deaths. A similar hearing was held in New York City with the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) in attendance. Less than a month after the appearance by ACS, a 4 year old child in protective care was found dead in Richmond County. Testimony by both agencies highlighted a clear need for the restoration of nearly $20 million in Child Welfare Service funding reimbursements by the state that has been cut over the past few years in the State Budget. The agencies linked the declining fiscal support to resource deficiencies that had a clear detrimental effect on their ability to provide protective/preventative services.

New York State Social Service Law Section 153-k provides for a 65% state reimbursement rate for protective, preventive, independent living, after care, and adoption administration services. However, this reimbursement funding to localities has been cut by nearly $20 million, or 3% of the overall budget, over the past few years. The cut effectively shifts the burden of payments to cash-strapped localities, which cannot necessarily provide for the same levels of preventative services for children in child welfare care.

“These hearings highlighted the need to ensure that we are doing everything possible to provide for the safety of children in protective services,” Hevesi. “That effort must start with ensuring funding restoration for preventive/protective services at the reimbursement rate of 65% as outlined in New York State’s Social Service Law.”