RD68 - Residential Services for Children in the Comprehensive Services Act - Utilization, Length of Stay and Expenditures Statewide and by Locality - Program Year 2008


Executive Summary:
The 2008 Appropriations Act (Item 283, B 2.d) requires the Office of Comprehensive Services for At Risk Youth and Families (OCS) to report to the Governor and Chairs of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees on utilization rates and average lengths of stays in residential care statewide and by locality. Each locality is required to submit to OCS “information on utilization of residential facilities for treatment of children and length of stay in such facilities.”

This report defines residential care as group homes, residential treatment facilities, and psychiatric hospitals. It provides utilization, length of stay, and expenditure data on residential placements statewide and by locality for Program year 2008, compared to 2007, 2006 and 2005. Program year (PY) is defined as all children’s services that were provided using CSA funds from July 1 through June 30 of each year. The written report provides statewide data. Locality data is included in the following attached schedules:

* Number of children, average length of stay (number of days during the year), and expenditures on residential care during the program year by locality for 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 (Schedule 1).
* Number of children and average length of stay (number of days during the year) for children in residential care placed through foster care, special education and non-mandated categories by locality for PY08 (Schedule 2)..
* Number of children and expenditures for residential treatment facilities, group homes, and psychiatric hospitals by locality for program years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 (Schedules 3-5 respectively).
* Utilization rates by locality for program years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 (Schedules 6-9 respectively). Utilization defined as:

o Percentage of CSA children in residential care;
o Percentage of the total youth population in the community that was in residential care;
o Percentage of all CSA services that were residential services; and
o Percentage of all CSA expenditures spent on residential care.