Independent Living Program - Florida's Center for Child Welfare

Report No. 10-30Current Status __________The department has implemented our 2007recommendations to better overseeIndependent Living Program expendituresfor young adults age 18 and over and betterensure that state and federal funds for thisage group are spent in compliance withfederal law. In addition, the department hasimplemented our recommendations tobroaden the scope of its contract monitoringand quality assurance systems.However, the department continues to lackan effective mechanism to track whether13- to 17-year-old youth receive services. Thedepartment also does not routinely monitorwhether lead agencies meet standards forindependent living services, and it has notestablished an effective mechanism to holdlead agencies accountable for programoutcomes.DCF has improved fiscal oversight of theIndependent Living programThe department provided lead agencies withguidance on program budgetaryrequirements and recently began to moreroutinely monitor whether lead agenciesexceed federal spending limits. Thedepartment also created a fiscal monitoringunit to track and analyze lead agencyexpenditures.The department has provided lead agencieswith guidance on state and federal budgetaryrequirements for the Independent LivingProgram. Our 2007 report noted that somelead agencies had not used all of theiravailable federal Education and TrainingVoucher funds and had charged eligibleexpenditures to other funding sources, andwe recommended that DCF provide moreguidance to lead agencies on proper use ofprogram funds.Consistent with our recommendation, DCFhas adopted a manual for lead agency budgetProgress Reportstaff that provides budgetary guidelines forstate and federal program funds and serves asa guide for coding payments correctly withinthe department’s data system. Lead agencieshave subsequently expended all federalEducation and Training Voucher fundsreceived since Federal Fiscal Year 2006-07 andhave reduced the frequency of codingviolations for voucher funds. 4The department has recently implemented aprocess to more routinely monitor federal perclientspending limits for Education andTraining Voucher funds. Our prior reportnoted that the department lacked thecapability to determine whether lead agenciesexceeded federal Education and TrainingVoucher fund limits; some data indicated thatmore than half of the lead agencies hadexceeded per-client spending limits. Toensure that funds are spent appropriately, werecommended that the department bettertrack the amount and fund sources leadagencies use for payments to young adults.To address this problem, DCF began tomonitor Education and Training Voucherfunds by analyzing Integrated Child WelfareServices Information System data on amonthly basis. When DCF staff identifiedproblems, they sent a notice to contractmanagers requesting that the lead agenciesthat had overspent these funds take correctiveactions.However, DCF administrators reported thatthe department did not perform this routineoversight between October 2007 and January2010 due to staffing limitations. During theperiod when this monitoring was not done,lead agencies exceeded limits for voucherfund payments for 8% of the young adultswho received these funds. Specifically, leadagencies exceeded the $6,250 annual per-4 Coding violations have decreased from 96 in Fiscal Year 2007-08to 36 for Fiscal Year 2008-09.3