Bill > A4819

Introduced Session

This bill establishes the Council for Community Recovery and Family Success in, but not of, the Department of Children and Families (DCF), which council will be tasked with developing strategies to promote the well-being of infants, children, youth, and families and encourage family success. Notwithstanding its allocation within the DCF, the council will be independent of any supervision or control by the DCF or by any DCF officer or employee. The council will consist of 25 members, including the Commissioners of Children and Families, Community Affairs, Corrections, Education, Health, Human Services, and Labor and Workforce Development, and the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Commission in the Department of Law and Public Safety, or their designees, who will serve ex officio, and 17 public members, with the Governor appointing 13 of the public members and the Senate President and the Speaker of the General Assembly each appointing two of the public members. The bill specifies that the public members represent certain entities that provide services to children and families or have certain experience with receiving family services in New Jersey. The members of the council will serve without compensation but may be reimbursed for traveling and other miscellaneous expenses necessary to perform their duties, within the limits of funds made available to the council for its purposes. The council is to organize as soon as practicable but no later than 60 days following the appointment of its members. The council will be entitled to call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of the employees of any State, county, or municipal department, board, bureau, commission, or agency as it may require and as may be available to it for its purposes, and will be entitled to assistance from the Administrative Office of the Courts to provide information needed for the council's purposes. The council will be required to annually prepare its administrative budget and work plan in conformance with its duties, and will secure staff services from the State entities represented by the ex officio members, as well as from other council member organizations and from other contracted professional staffing and support services, as may be necessary for the council to carry out its duties under the bill. The purpose of the council will be to guide and oversee the development and implementation of a Statewide initiative focusing on the social and economic well-being of infants, children, youth, and families and the provision of holistic, age and developmentally appropriate services that support a child's development from birth to young adulthood. The initiative will be based on the four pillars of family success: positive family relationships and community connections; safety and financial security; high quality education and quality learning environments; and good health and infant, child, youth, and family well-being. In order to implement the Statewide initiative, the council will: (1) use the Bill of Rights for Infants, Children, Youth, and Families, which will be established under companion legislation pending in the current Legislative session, Senate Bill No. 1726 and Assembly Bill No. 3323, to provide a framework for the initiative's implementation; (2) identify policies, procedures, practices, and financial priorities relating to preventive services for at-risk infants, children, youth, and families and the gaps in those policies, procedures, practices, and financial priorities, and develop strategies to promote the well-being of infants, children, youth, and families and encourage family success; (3) review the programs, policies, and initiatives of the Departments of Children and Families, Community Affairs, Corrections, Education, Health, Human Services, Labor and Workforce Development, and Law and Public Safety, and any other departments of State government and any community-based organizations as may be appropriate, and make recommendations that will enable such departments and organizations to better coordinate and improve the effectiveness of the department or organization's programs, policies, and initiatives; (4) conduct ongoing, comprehensive cost-benefit analyses of the budgets of State departments and community-based organizations that provide services to at-risk infants, children, youth, and families, and State and local funding mechanisms for infant, child, youth, and family service systems, to identify and make recommendations on how to redirect resources and programmatic focus from distress services to preventive services for at-risk infants, children, youth, and families and for family success initiatives; (5) explore strategies to maximize and effectively utilize all State, county, municipal, and federal funding sources, as well as any funds from business and philanthropic investments as may be available, for the purpose of providing supportive and preventive services to infants, children, youth, and families and to improve family success outcomes; and (6) establish community recovery and family success councils in each county of the State, which councils will assess local infant, child, and youth demographics, including age, gender, race, socio-economic status, and ethnicity, as well as indicators of well-being; collect and analyze information concerning the services and resources that are currently available, the cost and availability of services and programs, and the met and unmet needs of infants, children, youth, and families; and develop methods that support innovative preventive services for at-risk infants, children, youth, and families and the development of local family success initiatives. The goal of the Statewide initiative will be to: promote positive family relationships, community connections, and preventive services to ensure the financial security, quality education, good health, safety, permanency, and well-being of infants, children, youth, and families through an integrated service planning and delivery system of care; develop and recommend the adoption of community-informed family success outcomes, including specified performance-based outcome measures and objectives; identify obstacles that impede or prevent family success and develop strategies to successfully overcome such obstacles; explore the role of institutional racism and bias in the delivery of services to at-risk infants, children, youth, and families, and how racism and bias can impede or prevent family success; identify policies and practices that promote the delivery of preventive services to at-risk infants, children, youth, and families and encourage family success; and incorporate input from key stakeholders, including parents, family members, community members, and children receiving preventive services from the Departments of Children and Families, Community Affairs, Corrections, Education, Health, Human Services, Labor and Workforce Development, and Law and Public Safety, as well as any other department of State government and any community-based organization, on the development of a plan to design, strengthen, or implement local family success initiatives. Subject to the availability of funds, the council will be required to implement the Statewide initiative over the course of the next three fiscal years. The council will establish criteria for the allocation of funds made available to the council, assigning priority to both the total child population and percentage of child poverty in each eligible jurisdiction. The initial funding of local family success councils will be based on an assessment of need and county readiness. All departments and agencies of the State and community-based organizations that provide relevant distress or preventive services, maintain relevant data sets, or perform functions pertinent to relevant distress or prevention programs will be required to assist the council in its responsibilities. The bill defines "distress services" to mean services intended to remediate circumstances, including but not limited to, educational, social, and parental failures, and family crises, that endanger the safety, permanency, health, and well-being of infants, children, and youth; and "preventative services" to mean services that promote the safety, permanency, health, and well-being of infants, children, youth, and their families and divert the need for crisis-related services. The council will be required to submit an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature with the council's recommendations for legislative and administrative actions regarding the use of federal, State, county, municipal, and business and philanthropic funds to support the development and implementation of innovative family success initiatives and preventive services for all infants, children, youth, and families in New Jersey. The bill appropriates from the General Fund to the council the sum of $772.6 million to implement the provisions of the bill. Of this amount, the council may expend no more than $71.4 million in State Fiscal Year 2023, no more than $280 million in State Fiscal Year 2024, and no more than $421.2 million in State Fiscal Year 2025. Unexpended amounts appropriated to the council will not be returned to the General Fund at the close of a fiscal year, and will be retained by the council in the succeeding fiscal year for the purposes of implementing the provisions of the bill. The council will be authorized to invest unexpended funds appropriated under the bill, and to use dividends and interest earned on the amount invested for the purposes of implementing the provisions of the bill.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Reginald Atkins (D)*,  Angela Mcknight (D)*,  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D)*,  Shavonda Sumter (D)*,  Ralph Caputo (D),  Linda Carter (D),  Annette Chaparro (D),  Shama Haider (D),  Mila Jasey (D),  Angelica Jimenez (D),  Robert Karabinchak (D),  Jim Kennedy (D),  Pedro Mejia (D),  Gary Schaer (D),  Bill Spearman (D),  Shanique Speight (D),  Sterley Stanley (D),  Britnee Timberlake (D),  Cleopatra Tucker (D),  Benjie Wimberly (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Community Development and Affairs Committee (on 10/20/2022)

Official Document