WISHING YOU A JOYOUS HOLIDAY SEASON!

                                         Katie   Susannah  Peg

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CAFCA General Membership Meeting

Friday, January 20, 2006, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. at Excelsior Youth Center 15001 E. Oxford, Aurora 80014

“Partnering Towards Permanency:

Keeping Your Doors Open in the Face of Change”

Presented by Heidi Hendricks,

Community Liaison for Adams County

Former Mountain Plains Regional Director of the Child Welfare League

of America

CDHS BUDGET BRIEFING

Joint Budget Committee (JBC) Staff Analyst Eric Myers presented the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2006-07 budget for the Child Welfare Division and Division of Youth Corrections on Wednesday, December 14^th. The Department of Human Services will present its response to all JBC questions regarding this portion of the budget on December 22, 2005. The JBC members have also asked counties to answer questions at that hearing. Identified Priority Decision Items in the Budget Brief included the following:

• A 3% community provider rate increase or Cost of Living (COLA) has been requested; counties may exercise discretion in passing this on to providers
• A review of the county share of Residential services; unless a 2006 session bill assigns a specific county share of the residential care program, the county share will default to the general statutory 20%.
• The DYC commitment Average Daily Population (ADP) has increased to 1500 youth, with 65.4% of youth being served in contracted beds
• Caseload projections have increased for both Child Welfare (1.23%) and Youth Corrections (36.6 ADP) with commensurate increased funding

CAFCA Committee Notes

Adoption, Kurt Olsson, LDS Family Services, Chair
The Adoption Committee is working with the Department of Human Services to incorporate two issues in the Department’s Licensing bill for 2006. These address establishing cradle care as separate from foster care with less onerous license renewal requirements and the ability of a family with a day care license to also hold a foster care license. CAFCA is awaiting a draft to review. The Adoption Committee generally meets every other month, but may convene more frequently during the legislative session. Next meeting: Thursday, January 12^th, 2006 at LDS Family Services located at 3263 Fraser St., Ste. 3 Aurora, CO 80011.

Foster Care Committee, Keith Hughes, Lost & Found, Inc., Chair
The committee’s salaried foster parent bill will be carried by Representative Fran Coleman. It will be introduced in the House in the second group of bills. This bill will permit, but not require, CPAs to pay foster parents a salary and benefits.  Currently foster parents may not be employees of the CPA. CAFCA is seeking an exception to the current statute in those situations where the foster parent’s sole employment relationship is that of salaried foster parent. Several CPAs would like to engage in such a relationship with very experienced foster parents willing to serve special populations of foster children, e.g., sibling groups. The salary and benefits may act as incentives for attracting and retaining more experienced foster parents.   Next meeting: Thursday, January 26^th, 2006 at 11:00 a.m., Check the January CAFCA calendar for location.

Children’s Treatment Services (CTS), Patty Erjavec, El Pueblo, Chair
Much of the activity regarding residential services for children has been focused on the RTC Redesign process. This process is being driven by two different, but overlapping requirements. The first is CAFCA’s HB 05-1084, which calls for collaboration among the state, counties and providers to develop a new rate methodology for RTC care. The second results from policy changes regarding which existing RTC services will no longer be eligible for Medicaid reimbursement. This has been an intensive process with numerous committees and subcommittees looking at different aspects of the redesign, including services, funding and related statutory and regulatory changes.  A group of CTS committee members drafted a letter to the Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB), outlining concerns regarding implementation of the Juvenile Standards for Sex Offenders. On December 12^th, the CAFCA board approved the sending of this letter on CAFCA letterhead to Keri Fitzpatrick.  Next meeting: January 20^th, 2006. Location: Excelsior Youth Center, 15001 East Oxford, Aurora 80014.

Public Policy, Cyndi Dodds, Namaqua Center, Chair
The 2006 CAFCA legislative luncheon is scheduled for Wednesday, February 15, 2006 at the Colorado History Museum. A hot buffet will be served. We may see an omnibus bill that addresses all of the RTC redesign changes, including funding and county share, use of seclusion and restraint and other topics. CAFCA favors placing the statutory creation of Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities, if the JBC and Department determine they are needed, in a stand alone bill, rather than in an omnibus bill. This would permit emergency passage of the PRTF bill. That would then allow CDHS to draft and submit proposed rules much more quickly than if the PRTF piece is part of a larger bill that takes longer to pass. Mendez Steadman will conduct bill review meetings every Friday morning at 8:00 a.m., commencing January 13^th and continuing until the majority of bills have been introduced.  Proposed rules temporarily reducing the CDHS $35 background check fee to $10 are scheduled for hearing by the Human Services Board on January 6^th.  This reduction is due to the TABOR impact of collecting more in fees than the cost of the service.  Fofi reported that the JBC will be looking closely at all fees collected by the state government. All seats in Colorado’s House of Representatives and half of the Senate seats are up for election in November 2006. Colorado will also elect a new Governor. The committee will continue to implement CAFCA 2010, the Public Policy Strategic Plan.  Next meeting: Tuesday, January 3^rd, 2006, noon-2:00 p.m. at 1120 Lincoln St., law library conference room.

Training Committee, Renee Johnson, Third Way Center, Chair

A Home for the Holidays – The Joys of Adoption

CBS is airing a holiday special celebrating the joys of adoption. This one-hour special will air at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 21^st. The show is a joint project of CBS, the Children’s Action Network, Wendy’s International, Triage Productions, Goldsmith Entertainment and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

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BUDGET WORKS 2006

STATE REVENUE AFTER FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS AND REFERENDUM C

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2006

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

 COLORADO HISTORY MUSEUM

1300 Broadway, Denver, Colorado 80203

The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute is hosting its annual budget workshop. Cost: $15.00.

Presentations and speakers will include:

Federal Budget Cuts—What do they mean for Colorado? Nick Johnson—Director, State Fiscal Project, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington DC.

Referendum C—What does it mean for Spending? Jim Zelenski, Economist, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, Carol Hedges, Senior Fiscal Policy Analyst, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute.

TO REGISTER:Send an email to kwhite@cclponline.org with the following information and pay at the door or request a registration form by return email. 

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