Independent Living Program - Florida's Center for Child Welfare

Progress Report Report No. 10-30young adult federal cap for Education andTraining Vouchers for 132 of the 1,590 youngadults who received these funds between July2007 and June 2009.The department has established a fiscalmonitoring unit to track and analyze leadagency expenditures. Our prior report notedthat several lead agencies had not spent theirallocation of state and federal independentliving funds for Fiscal Year 2005-06. We alsonoted that DCF had not required leadagencies to submit finalized invoices detailingexpenditure information prior to receivingcontract payments, and it was unable todetermine how the lead agencies usedgeneral revenue funds.In October 2008, the department created afiscal monitoring unit to determine whetherlead agencies use proper funding sources forvarious child welfare services. 5 Thedepartment now requires lead agencies tosubmit invoices and actual expenditurereports for all programs within 20 days of theend of each month. Lead agencies mustreconcile their invoices with data in thedepartment’s Integrated Child WelfareServices Information System in order toreceive funding from DCF for the nextmonth. 6 The fiscal monitoring unit uses leadagencies’ monthly expenditure reports andprogram performance indicators to compilequarterly fiscal indicators reports. DCFcircuit administrators review these reportswith the lead agencies and then notify themonitoring units of any problems that needadditional follow-up.DCF has enhanced its quality assuranceand contract monitoringThe department has broadened the scope ofits quality assurance and contract monitoringreviews to better address key elements of theIndependent Living Program.The department has implemented a newquality assurance system. Our prior reportnoted that DCF’s quality assurance data toolsfocused on compliance rather than the qualityof services provided to foster children, anddid not address key elements of theIndependent Living Program. In July 2008,the department replaced its compliancefocusedquality assurance system with aRegional Quality Management System. In thenew system, staff conduct quarterly qualityassurance reviews of a sample of case files foreach lead agency using a statewide core set of70 quality assurance standards. 7 Unlike theprevious system, the new system includesfour standards that assess quality ofindependent living services, includingwhether youth receive needed services anddiscuss their educational goals with their casemanager. DCF and the lead agencies usedthis system to complete reviews for eachquarter in Fiscal Year 2008-09 and the secondquarter of Fiscal Year 2009-10. 8DCF has also conducted a series of specialquality assurance program reviews at therequest of an advocacy group. DCFpublished its initial special review inDecember 2009 which focused onmanagement of services for 18- to 22-year-old5For more information on the fiscal monitoring unit, see DCFImproves Contract Oversight of Lead Agencies; Fiscal, Quality,and Performance Assessment Are Undergoing Change,OPPAGA Report No. 08-39, June 2008.6Lead agencies receive funding in 12 monthly increments.47Lead agency staff review 25 cases each quarter; the lead agencyreviews 17 and the department and lead agency staff conduct aside-by-side review on the remaining 8 cases. In Fiscal Year2008-09, DCF examined two standards for the program, and thedepartment added two additional standards in Fiscal Year2009-10.8The department did not complete a quality assurance reviewfor the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2009-10 because it used itsquality assurance staff to assist in the Report on the GabrielMyers Workgroup.