FY 2016 Appropriation

The state makes available several forms of financial assistance to families adopting children from state custody: 1) one-time assistance for legal costs; 2) a Medicaid card for the child; 3) monthly adoption subsidies; and 4) supplemental, special needs subsidies for out-of-home placement care, specialized therapy, dental and medical care not covered by the Medicaid card, and other occasional needs. Subsidies are also available for guardianship cases.

Funding History
Appropriation Overview

During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $14,232,500 from all sources for Adoption Assistance. This is a 0.8 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $9,020,200 from the General/Education Funds, a reduction of 1.2 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.

Appropriation Adjustments

In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:

DescriptionOngoingOne-Time Fed Medical Assistance % Rate Change$10,700$0
OngoingOne-TimeFinancing Source
$28,000$0General Fund
($17,300)$0Federal Funds
The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) represents the federal share of the programmatic costs for Medicaid and federal Title IV-E (of the Social Security Act) programs. Title IV-E funds are used to support foster care and adoption assistance in the Division of Child and Family Services. The federal government utilizes a formula to determine its annual percent of FMAP. The projected FMAP rate for State Fiscal Year 2016 for Utah is 70.32 percent. This represents a 0.185 percent decrease from the State Fiscal Year 2015 FMAP rate. Of the $537,100 total FMAP rate change, $431,200 or 80 percent is within the Division of Services for People with Disabilities.
Staff Analysis

For the most recent completed fiscal year, the following information represents the purposes for which the money was used:

DCFS Adoption Assistance Detailed Purposes

With regard to the Adoption Assistance program, "The money is split up between the five regions. The program administered by DCFS is statewide through the five regions of the State. The regions fund services that cover every county in the State." With regard to the methodology used to distrube the funds, the division states that it is done, "based on expenditure history in the region." The divisions believes that "over time this method takes into account shifts in need by region not by population."

Percentage of adopted children receiving adoption assistance who came back into custody during the year

Regarding the positive trend greater than 5% in the percent of Children Exiting Custody with a Subsequent Custody Episode within 12 Months from the DCFS Adoption Subsidy program performance measures, the agency states (with regard to the reverse of this measure), "DCFS can provide the information for the Percent of Children Exiting Custody with a Subsequent Custody Episode within 12 Months: 2009: 14.1%, 2010: 10.3%, 2011: 11.4%, 2012: 10.9%, 2013: 12.2%"

"Carve Out" for Treatment

Since 1998, children in foster care have been carved out of the capitated Medicaid mental health plan operated by community mental health centers (CMHC) allowing each family, in conjunction with the case worker, to determine the appropriate mental health provider based on the needs of the child. DCFS pays the "match" on these children rather than the CMHC. The Legislature furthered that policy by allowing adoptive parents to carve out for treatment services as long as the provider would accept Medicaid clients. This was done to retain consistency with a treatment provider.

Intent Language

HB0003: Item 92

Under Section 63J-1-603 of the Utah Code, the Legislature intends that any remaining funds provided for the Division of Child and Family Services, in Item 41, Chapter 13, Laws of Utah 2014 not lapse at the close of FY 2015. The Legislature further intends that these non-lapsing funds are to be used for Adoption Assistance, Out of Home Care, Service Delivery, In-Home Services, Special Needs, and SAFE Management Information System modernization consistent with the requirements found at UCA 63J-1-603(3)(b).

SB0002: Item 85

The Legislature intends the Department of Human Services' Division of Child and Family Services use nonlapsing state funds originally appropriated for Adoption Assistance non-IV-E monthly subsidies for any children that were not initially Title IV-E eligible in foster care, but that now qualify for Title IV-E adoption assistance monthly subsidies under eligibility exception criteria specified in P.L. 112-34 [Social Security Act Section 473(e)]. These funds shall only be used for child welfare services allowable under Title IV-B or Title IV-E of the Social Security Act consistent with the requirements found at UCA 63J-1-603(3)(b).

SB0002: Item 85

The Legislature intends to reinvest non-lapsing state funds originally appropriated for Out of Home Care to enhance Service Delivery or In-Home Services consistent with the requirements found at UCA 63J-1-603(3)(b). The purpose of this reinvestment of funds is to increase capacity to keep children safely at home and reduce the need for foster care, in accordance with Utah's Child Welfare Demonstration Project authorized under Section 1130 of the Social Security Act (Act) (42 U.S.C. 1320a-9), which grants a waiver for certain foster care funding requirements under Title IV-E of the Act. These funds shall only be used for child welfare services allowable under Title IV-B or Title IV-E of the Act.

SB0007S01: Item 30

The Legislature intends that the Department of Human Services report on the following performance measures for the Child and Family Services line item: (1) Administrative Performance: Percent satisfactory outcomes on qualitative case reviews/system performance (Target = 85%/85%), (2) Child Protective Services:  Absence of maltreatment recurrence within 6 months (Target = 94.6%), and (3) Out of home services: Percent of children reunified within 12 months (Target = 74.2%) by January 1, 2016 to the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

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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.