Running Head: BUDGET ANALYSIS OF THE DIVISION OF CHILD AND FAMILY

SERIVES

Noemy Mijares

Southern Utah University

Budget Analysis of the Division of Child and Family Services

Introduction
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The Division of Child and Family Services is a government, state fund public agency

that is dedicated to the safety and protection of children. The agency was founded first in the

State of Illinois on January 1, 1964, it was expanded to every state in the country. The mission

and goal of the Division of Child and Family Services are to investigate and report suspected

child abuse and neglect by parents, other caregivers, or adults in authority figures for children.

This first case of supported child abuse was during the presidential term of Theodore Roosevelt,

although the agency was not officially established until 1964. Roosevelt hosted the first-ever

Conference on the Care of Dependent Children. Children’s conference focused on child welfare,

and the disadvantages of children, creating child abuse prevention and the improvement of the

quality of life.

The goal of the Division of Child and Family Services has always been the safety of

children, providing appropriate resources to strengthen and reunify families. The Division of

Child and Family Services works within community resources, family orientated programs, and

the court system to ensure children are safe and strengthen families. The mission statement of the

Division of Child and Family Services:

To keep children safe from abuse and neglect and provide domestic violence services by

working with communities and strengthening families

The Division of Child and Family Services principles are structured around providing

safety, support for children and their families. The Division of Child and Family Services is

structured to divide the entire agency into sections based on locations based on county. These

locations are divided into regions, who have directors, then are subdivided to Child Welfare

Administrators, these administrators interact directly with supervisors over the frontline

caseworkers who work directly with families.

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An overview of the Division of Child and Family Services, including the services

provided, mission statement, the yearly budget of the agency, the history of the budget changes,

and the distribution of the yearly budget. This budget will examine the political, government

factors, the expectation for the budget, limits, and analyze the flexibility of increasing the

agency’s budget. The government funding and distribution of the Division of Child and Family

Services work within providing services to the families and deter child abuse, this essay will

discuss my opinions on the distribution of the federally funded agency.

Foster Care Statistics

The Division of Child and Family Services has a unique population that it serves due to

the work in high poverty areas. Cases can be opened due to substance abuse in the home,

physical abuse, emotional abuse, domestic violence, or fetal exposure. Some of these high

poverty areas are more likely to have diverse populations, a complex family dynamic, substance

abuse, or domestic violence. Cases that are brought into the Division of Child and Family

services jurisdiction are divided into the type of services the family needs, these teams are

referred to the foster care as foster care, in-home, and transition to adult living (TAL). The

following is a breakdown of the ethnicities, age group, and the supportive finding of children

who entered foster care in 2018:

Ethnicity Age group

American Indian or Alaska Native 4.7% Ages 0 -5 5%

Asian 0.8% Ages 6 - 10 21%

Black 6.4% Ages 11 - 13 13%

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Multiracial, Other 1.5% Ages 14 - 17 23%

Pacific Islander 2.2% Age 18 and older 5%

White 90.5%

Cannot Determine / Unknown 0.4%

Supported Child Abuse Cases in 2018

Medical Neglect 1%

Other Abuse 2%

Dependency 2%

Non - Supervision 5%

Emotional Abuse 5%

Physical Abuse 5%

Fetal Exposure to Alcohol or Drugs 8%

Other Neglect 11%

Physical Abuse 15%

Domestic Violence Related Child Abuse 16%

Sexual Abuse 26%

Child Endangerment 29%

Donations

Aside from government funding, the Division of Child and Family Services collaborates

with agencies that assist with donations. Due to the limited federal funding of the Division of

Child and Family Services, the agency heavily relies on the donations of nonprofit organizations
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and the public for the service and material needs of the families. Depending on the individual

families’ needs the Division of Child and Family Services may be able to help with resources to

material objects, but the help can become limited due to the limited amount of funding. The

Division helps with connecting people with agencies that accept donations and accept donations

from the public if the families consent to share basic demographics. When donating, people can

partner with multiple agencies to donate to families and children in foster care:

● Salt Lake County Youth Services

● Christmas Box House

● The Adoption Exchange

● Utah Foster Care

● C.A.R.E.

● Fostering Agencies ( Pioneer Youth Services, Utah Youth Village, etc. )

● General in Person Donations

Overview of the System and Programs

The Division of Child and Family Services has a system that divides tasks and cases to

different teams, these teams follow distinct guidelines from one. These tasks are divided due to

the position the team holds in working with families and the agency, the Division of Child and

Family Services has multiple teams that contribute to the functioning of the agency:

● Administration: This part of the agency oversees the front lines caseworkers.

Administrators provide directions, supervision, and the implementations of policies and

regulations that are set by the state or federal government.

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● Intake: This part of the agency is the first step in opening a case, the suspected child

abuse is called to the hotline, then staffed for consideration in opening a Child Protiived

Services case that needs more investigation to fully determine if the allegation is

supported.

● Child Protective Services: Once the allegation has been made, the case is assigned to a

worker. Depending on the propriety level, that agency has only a few hours to locate and

speak to the child who is the alleged victim. Once the investigation is completed that

worker will have to staff with a case with program managers and state attorneys who will

determine if the child abuse is supported or unsupported based on the finding facts.

● Out of Home / Foster Care: Once the agency has made the finding of supported child

abuse and the child is removed from the home, an ongoing caseworker is then assigned to

offer reunification services, monitor progress, and assess the child’s safety. These

caseworkers work with community agencies to ensure reunification services are being

provided and reported to the court along with recommendations on the reunification

process of the case. Once the custody the child is restored to the parents’ and children

return home if the parent has not made enough progress the court terminated their

parental rights and the child is put up for adoption.

● In-Home: These cases are for those families who need extra support, whose children have

not been removed from the home, and still have custody of their children. This team

typically follows a voluntary case without court jurisdictions due to the custody of the

child begin with the parent. These families need extra support such as recreational

activity for the children, mental health services, parenting classes, or materialistic things.
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● Support Staff: These teams are set aside to work alongside frontline caseworkers to

determine the level of care, approved cost, mediate between the Division, conduct home

studies, complete adoption processes, and support caseworkers in finding permanency for

children in foster care.

○ Kinship Family Consultant

○ Resource Family Consultant

○ Permanency Specialist

○ Clinical Consultant

○ Assistant Caseworkers

Revenue

The Division of Child and Family Services is solely funded through government funding,

that is distributed among the different areas of the state. The funding is based on the demand of a

certain county. For example, the Salt Lake Region receives 35% of the annual budget, while

some areas such as Washington County might only receive 10% to 15%, this is based on the

population, demand for investigations, the need for resources, and services. The following is a

table that shows the percentage of the budget for the Division of Child and Family Services

divides by region that includes the number of foster care cases:

Children in Foster Care Average percentage of the

annual budget

Salt Lake Valley 815 35%

Northern 660 26%

Southwest 306 10%

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Western 613 21%

Eastern 296 8%

2,690 100%

In 2018, the Division of Child and Family Services received a total of $173,000,000

government funding. Of this amount, about $92,000,000 for staff-related costs, about

$76,000,000 for contracts to community providers, and the remaining about $5,000,000 for

office expenditures. In the number context, it seems the agencies receive a great amount of

funding due to provide services to the public and compensation to their employees. However,

with a limited budget and resources, it creates a difficult dynamic in serving the public with the

same amount for each family. With serving the public it is important to understand, we are trying

to create a safe and healthy environment that allows people to not end up in the cycle of foster

care.

Political influences

When considering the funding that the agency receives, it is only through the federal and

states government, if the agencies allowed for there to be donations form private agencies, public

agencies would be able to rely on the revenue of the other sources. This can create agencies to

want to donate funds, due to the tax break and the funding going straight in the community. The

political problems that come with taking other agencies funding as donations would be that the

yearly budgets would become inconstant, agencies could jeopardize political support and public

image. The Division of Child and Family Services is a controversial agency due to the work, the

intention is publicly correct, but the system creates controversies.

The state government oversees the agency as a public service, therefore those who work

for the public must ensure their commitment to the public. This creates a difficult dynamic in
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wanting public employees to priorities quality over quality in order to use taxpayers’ funding is

being apparently handled. It creates a difficult dynamic in want to increase the budget because it

was mentioned before the amount of funding looks somewhat high, but with considered that

amount of services to the public, employee compensation, and office maintenance it can be hard

to justify, especially within a controversial agency. In considering those perspectives that can be

some of the reasoning for the lack of an increase of the budget from the federal government.

Expenditure

The majority of the funding for the Division of Child and Family Services is used for the

ongoing financial assistance of families who adopt children in foster care, residential treatment

centers for clients, and Procter homes for children with high needs. Division of Child and

Family Services serves families, children both in and out of foster care. These services involve

substance abuse treatment, mental health services, one-time financial assistance, applications to

programs that are only accessible through an active open case. The agency is divided into regions

by state demographics, due to the difference in the population served in the budget for these

agencies change. The following is a table that breaks down of the twelve most expensive services

that the Division of Child and Family Services pays for:

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Due to the nature of the Division of Child and Family Services taking temporary custody of

children, the agency spends more money in assistance families who have adopted children from

foster care making up about 15% of the money that agency set aside for services. This number

can become higher as adoptions become more common, this assistance is an additional monthly

income until the child turns 18 years old. The next most expensive factor is the cost or residential

treatment centers for the youth, the costs of mental health treatment centers make up about

another 15 % of the entire budget. These can become costly due to the additional services,

salaries of caregivers, and the essential expenses that treatment centers provide. The third most

expensive services are the payment of Procter homes of children in state custody. These homes

are types contracted through fostering agencies that provided ongoing recreational and

nonrecreational services they cover about 10% of the overall budget. From what the budget tells

the Division of Child and Family Services spends about 30% of its annual budget to Provided

home and mental health services to its children clients and for ongoing assistance to adoptive

families.

Alongside working with families in providing services the agency needs to monetarily

compensate its employees, this funding also comes to form the years federal funding employee

salaries make up about 35% over the overall budget. The following is a list of employee

compensation, including frontline workers, support staff, and administrators:

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Profits

Due to the Division of Child and Family Services being a federally funded agency there

is claimed profit. The Division of Child and Family Services is a no-charge public agency,

however parents may be required to pay for child support. Child support is processed through the

collaboration of the Division of Child and Family Services and the Office of Recovery Services

(ORS). Child support is only charged and court-ordered to pay for parents whose children are

currently placed in a foster home and under the custody of the Division of Child and Family

Services. The funds that are collected from child support are used to help with the payment of the

child’s foster home, food, clothing, or other essentials. The Division of Child and Family
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Services has the majority income from the federal and state funding, however, a collaboration

between resources provides long term and affordable support for families.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Division of Child and Family Services serves the public in

investigating potential child abuse, reporting to the courts, providing series for families, provide

children in foster care with Permamncy, and help families create a safe and stable environment.

In my opinion, the Division of Child and Family Services has a big role to fill in providing

permanency for children and needed services for families, there for sometimes limiting them

with the funding they receive and limited resources. The Divison of Child and Family Services is

seen as a service to the public but can become difficult to understand due to the nature of the

work and the public funding that it receives from the taxpayers’ which can sometimes lead to

prioritizing quantity over quality. The Division of Child and Family Services receives about

$176,000,000 a year to provide services and compensating staff, however the lack in the

openness and acceptance of donations of other outside agencies can limit the growth this agency

has for the future. In my work experiences, problems with child abuse continue to grow while,

the budget can remain the same, therefore limiting the use of resources and fulfilling the role of

effectively serving families and the community.

References
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ANNUAL REPORT | FY 2019 UTAH CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES; Retrieved April 13,
2020
https://dcfs.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2019-Annual-Report-EDITED-3.3.pdf

ANNUAL REPORT 2018 CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES | STATE OF UTAH ; Retrieved
April 13, 2020
https://dcfs.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2018-FINAL-ANNUAL-REPORT.pdf

A Systematic Review of the Division of Child and Family Services ; Retrieved April 13, 2020
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18HZ8YirfFCFS_kGJLYV5tZpYPZOCYF_F/view

MANAGING THE $173 MILLION DCFS BUDGET ; Retrieved April 13, 2020
https://le.utah.gov/interim/2016/pdf/00004098.pdf