CLM FY2012 Budget Testimony

 TESTIMONY

JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEES PUBLIC HEARING

FY12 STATE BUDGET

Presented by Barbara Talkov, Executive Director

March 4, 2011

I am here today on behalf of the Children’s League of Massachusetts.  We are a statewide association of more than 70 public and private organizations who together advocate for public policies in the best interest of children, youth and their families.  Our members serve kids who are being, or have been, adopted, are living in foster homes, residential schools and group homes, those living with their own or kinship families, and those older youth living independently. Some of our members serve children and families by providing early education and care programs.  And others provide a variety of supportive services to the families of children and youth.

Over the years, the Legislature has recognized the importance of providing services to these children and their families.  Some of the services and programs that our Commonwealth has provided originated through the advocacy of our legislators.  And some have become national models.

We all know and understand that the current financial climate has made it difficult to maintain the level of services needed.  We now triage needs based on revenues, rather than allotting what is needed to maintain the safety and health of some of our most vulnerable families.  The result has been that more and more families are being forced into crises so that they can become eligible for services that are more expensive than what they originally requested.

It is not in the best interest of the Commonwealth, let alone these children, youth and families, to continue to turn them away when they ask for help. It hurts them now, and will only cost us more later.

The Children’s League of Massachusetts has adopted as its budget theme for FY12 “No More Cuts to Kids.”  We have seen what has been happening to children and their families.  It is our mission to “Stand Up for Kids” and fight for their rights.

Three specific priorities, all relating to families asking for help, were identified:

Services to Kids & Families in Crisis Requesting Services from DCF (aka “voluntaries”) - Restore $3.5M to the Services to Children & Families account (4800-0038) and the Group Care account (4800-0041) from the Governor’s proposal.

These services, which the department estimates have already been reduced by 80% since FY08, are necessary to help families before their problems become crises, requiring more costly and extensive services. The department believes that under the Governor’s proposed budget it would have to further reduce the number of families receiving voluntary services by somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 families in FY 12.

Child/Adolescent Mental Health Services at DMH 5042-5000:  Fund this account at $71,773,509, which represents FY 11 level funding.

The proposed $2M reduction in DMH's Individual and Family Flexible Supports Program decreases capacity in provider organizations to accommodate at least 175 youth with serious mental health conditions and their families. Services lost will be community-based, individualized interventions that are not available through other DMH or community programs and which enable children to remain at home.  They are intended to prevent out-of-home placement, enable youth to attend school in the community, and assist the youth who are returning home from residential and hospital environments. Without these supports, residential treatment and hospitalizations will result for many.

Early Intervention Services at DPH 4513-1020: Fund at $28.4M, 

The Governor’s budget cuts funding for the Early Intervention Program by 27% ($7.9 million below the current Fiscal Year 2011 funding of $29.4 million).   A cut of this magnitude would bring Early Intervention funding to its lowest level in over 10 years.   It would eliminate parents’ rights to services under federal law (Part C of IDEA – the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by dismantling the current Early Intervention system and replacing it with a bifurcated system which will be subject to appropriation and place children on waiting lists.  The Early Intervention Consortium estimates that the Governor’s proposed funding level could jeopardize services and/or impact as many as 1 out of 2 children or 15,000 children statewide.

All of these services are aimed at ameliorating a range of physical and emotional challenges that these families are facing.  Help now reduces both the human and financial costs that will be required if these needs are not addressed now.  Turning our backs on these vulnerable and, in many cases at risk, families and children will produce increased costs to the Commonwealth as well as to the health, safety and stability of these families and communities.   

Additionally, we ask that you also support the following items:

• The League is a member of the Coalition to Restore Special Education Funding, and we support $230M (FY09 level) for the Circuit Breaker account (DESE 7061-0012).

According to DESE’s Annual Report to the Legislature on Students with Disabilities 2008-2009:  Longitudinal Enrollment, there has been “a steady rise in the overall percentage of students with disabilities” during the same time period that the state’s “total enrollment has declined.”  For 2008-2009, the percentage of students with special needs was 17.1 percent.  And, according to the report, “There appears to be no one clear reason for this rise…”  This is the highest percentage for the decade.

 MA Early Intervention Services for moderately to severely disabled children has also been increasing – it has quadrupled over the past two decades.  These children are the 0-3 population, being readied for entry into the public school system.

Declining Circuit Breaker funding has, not unexpectedly, occurred at the same time that funding for DMH consultation to the schools has been eliminated and that the Department of Children and Families is narrowing services to its core mandate – leaving many families seeking help voluntarily to be turned away.  Decreases to services provided by state agencies and consequently community service providers raises demands on the public school system.  While in the past non-school services could help ameliorate some of the special needs of this population, cutbacks in those funded services have limited the resources for the schools.

• On the deep end of the spectrum of need is the Department of Youth Services.  The Department has done an admirable job of decreasing the number of kids in detention.  They have been able to divert low risk youth from DYS without increasing the risk to public safety.  And these youth are at less risk of moving deeper into the juvenile justice system and then the adult corrections system. We are hearing that detention services are near 100% capacity, and DYS cannot turn these kids away. They received $1M in a FY11 supplemental budget to shore up this capacity, but the Governor has proposed cutting this account 29%.   We urge you to fund it (DYS 4200-0200) at the maintenance level of $18,720, 503. 

• DYS must also serve those who are adjudicated to the Department, and they do this through their residential units.  They rehabilitate these kids, the most disturbed and violent in the state, through educational and health and behavioral health services.  Cuts to this account can only be taken by reducing those critical rehabilitation services, not by limiting who is adjudicated.  We ask that you fund the Residential Services account (DYS 4200-0300) also at the maintenance level of $102,408,747.

We realize the difficultly of the current fiscal situation.  We realize some very hard budget decisions are being made.  We know there are many competing needs.  But the state budget is the Commonwealth’s annual major public policy statement, reflecting the values of our residents.  We support the value of government caring for the vulnerable and less fortunate, for those who cannot speak or care for themselves.  We believe that preventing abuse and neglect in families and ensuring that mental health services are available for those in need are important functions of state government.  We know that diminished funding for services for children in conflict with the law will only lessen the positive outcomes of rehabilitative services and decrease the public safety. 

We know that services and support to vulnerable families and kids WORK.  Support and services for families in crisis make a difference in a family’s ability to protect their children.

For many years, the League has worked to protect significant services from being cut.  We have supported the efforts of state government and private providers to reduce inefficiencies, to collaborate beyond simply coordinating, and to focus on maximizing resources.  But due to the revenue shortfalls, we no longer have the proper resources to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable families. 

In these times, when the Commonwealth must triage its resources, what we do have must be directed towards those most in need of our help.  In order to do so, we collectively must look at the state’s total budget and revenue sources, not just those resources apportioned to human services.  We must examine all that the state does in order to identify what is not as critical as the health and safety of those in need.

Thank you for your attention to these important issues.