Don't Cap NYC's Child Welfare Funds, Queens Senator Urges State

EAST ELMHURST, QUEENS -- Queens Senator Jose Peralta is urging Gov. Cuomo to reverse a proposed funding "cap" to the city's child welfare agency that would shave an estimated $129 million off its budget in the coming year.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo received backlash from the Administration for Children Services after proposing a $320 million cap on the city's child welfare service funds in his 2018-19 Executive Budget proposal. The "cap" translates to budget cuts to agency, which was projected to receive $449 million under the state's current funding formula, ACS Commissioner David Hansell wrote in a letter to Cuomo and the Senate.

The letter concerned Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), who on Thursday penned a letter of his own to Cuomo expressing his concerns that in an attempt to save the state money, the cap "will yield grave fiscal consequences" to those who rely on ACS.

"The current reimbursement system has contributed to lower child protective caseloads and a decrease in juvenile justice detentions and placement," Peralta wrote.

Peralta said he feared the proposed cut could reverse that progress and put more kids into the state's foster care and juvenile justice systems. He pointed to past years where foster care placement actually spiked after caps were implemented.

"In 2017, there were 157 more placements than there were in 2016," he wrote. "This is not the time to cut off the very funding that can prevent more children from being institutionalized."

He urged the governor to meet with Hansell and other child welfare advocates and reverse the "dangerous" proposal.

This isn't Peralta's first qualm with the proposed 2018-19 Executive Budget. He last week penned a letter to his colleagues in the Senate encouraging them to more than double the budget's funds for Adult Literacy Education classes to $15.3 million.

The proposed Executive Budget carved out $6.3 million for ALE programs, but Peralta claimed more is needed this year. Changes to the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act means $8 million that was once available for English Language Civics classes can now be spent elsewhere, which runs the risk of cutting 17,000 adults' access to those programs, he said.

Budget cuts aside, Peralta said ALE funding has remained stagnant for the last 10 years and it's time for a boost. He noted in his letter that only 2.5 percent of those who need language development classes can actually get them from the state and estimated more than 50,000 New Yorkers are on the waiting list for the classes.

"More than two million adult New Yorkers lack a high school diploma and 2.3 million lack English proficiency," Peralta said.

Lead photo by Mike Groll/Associated Press.