This program provides various services focusing on protecting children while supporting, strengthening, and preserving their families. These services are designed to allow children to stay in their homes or facilitate their return to their natural families. In addition to in-home services provided by DCFS staff, other contractual services are provided for families that require less structured intervention to prevent disruption of the family.
During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $2,864,200 from all sources for In-Home Services. This is a 0 percent change from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $2,645,900 from the General/Education Funds, an increase of 5.4 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.
For the most recent completed fiscal year, the following information represents the purposes for which the money was used:
With regard to the In-home Services program, "Region offices provide services to all areas of the State." With regard to the methodology used to distrube the funds, the division states that it is done, "based on existing contracts and expenditure history in the region." The divisions believes that "over time this method takes into account shifts in need by region not by population."
The services include:
- Homemaker Services: Provide short-term assistance to parents unable to give basic care and homemaking needed for the well-being of a child.
- Youth Advocate Program: Work one-on-one with youth who have been neglected or abused and who are at risk of becoming delinquent or ungovernable.
- Parenting Skills Training: Provide classes that teach appropriate communication and discipline skills.
- Protective Day Care: Provide day care for children at risk of abuse or neglect if left at home during the day.
- Sexual Abuse Treatment Services: Provide assessment and treatment to sexually abused children and their families and treatment for sexually reactive children and juvenile perpetrators who have been identified by DCFS as sex abuse victims.
- Day Treatment Services: Provide therapeutic management services for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children and adolescents. Services include education, therapy, crisis management, social and daily living skills training, and recreational services.
- Drug Testing: May also include drug testing for parents when assessing safety for children.
COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.