Out-of-Home Care Senate Proposal has TANF Problems
The shift of $2,500,000 of state funds from Out-of-Home Care to Family Violence could have some unintended consequences, which includes the reduction in services that the State must provide to foster children and loss of match for much needed Federal matching dollars.
TANF rules specify what the State can do and can not do with Federal and State dollars that are tied to TANF. There are two types of money in TANF funds:
1) TANF Federal funds that can be used for operating expenses
2) TANF State MOE funds that have to be tracked to the client.
The latest Federal TANF reauthorization added more specific client reporting requirements to TANF MOE (State funds). TANF MOE funds have to be tracked to the TANF client. In light of this rule change, it is actually more advantageous for the domestic violence shelters to receive TANF funds (Federal funds), which do not have to be tracked to clients but can be used for operating expenses, etc.
This rule change impacts the Senate recommendations in the AFY 2011 budget.
The Senate swapped $1,845,000 in TANF MOE (State funds) for TANF funds (Federal funds) in the Family Violence program. The shift from state funds to TANF from the Out-of-Home Care program would reduce TANF MOE (State Funds) by approximately $2,500,000. This would not entirely be offset by the State funds moved to Family Violence.
DHS is currently maximizing TANF in the Out-of-Home Care program. The services currently utilizing state funds in this program are limited to non-Title IV-E eligible traditional foster care payments, which are not TANF eligible services. If the $2.5 million state funds reduction in Out-of-Home Care funds is not restored, it will affect well over 800 kids who the state could not afford to have in a family setting for foster care. DHS has no way of caring for these children in foster care if these funds are shifted.
We have never used the state funding for sexual assault centers for TANF MOE - thus we would lose a net of $655,000 in MOE. In addition, the shift of the $1,845,000 in Family Violence program to state funds (for TANF MOE reporting) would require the contracts with Family Violence service providers to be modified to better track TANF clients. Client specific tracking is not required for TANF spending (that is not "assistance" under federal regulations), but client specific tracking is required on state spending for TANF MOE purposes. This creates more of a burden and less flexibility for Domestic Violence Shelters. The restoration of State funds to Family Violence contracts will actually tend to adversely impact the Family Violence providers (though they may not understand it) since using these state funds as TANF MOE will require the institution of client tracking, which seems to be impractical to impossible to achieve in SFY11 given that we are 7 months into the current contract cycle.
Pulling the funds from Out-of-Home Care will create a TANF MOE impact -- the net impact across both areas would likely be a loss of $2.5 million in TANF MOE for SFY11. Our recommendation is to not do the shift of State and TANF funds between Family Violence Services and Out-of-Home Care programs in the amount of $2,500,000.
Senate Disagrees with House on RTF Education Grants
Yesterday, the Senate passed their legislative proposal for the Budget. One item of disagreement with the House proposed budget concerns the Non Quality Basic Education Formula Grants Continuation Budget. The purpose of this appropriation is to fund specific initiatives, including: the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship, children in residential education facilities, compensation for high performance principals, grants for migrant education, sparsity, low incidence special education, and one-time projects for local education boards.
Our Residential Treatment Facilities depend on this grant every year to fund the "local share" for their educational programs. The Governor in his budget had recommended in the amended budget for 2011 a cut of $154,804. The House restored this cut. The Senate chose only to restore about half of the cut.
With a disagreement between the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on the Budget, this budget legislation will go to a Conference Committee for reconciliation.
Our advocacy now is targeted to the six House and Senate Conference members.
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