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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Garcia, M.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/06/06

HB

SHORT TITLE Expand and Create Children’s Judicial Programs

SB 17

ANALYST McSherry

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$828.5

Recurring

General

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Companion to House Bill 64

Partially duplicates Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Children Youth and Families Department (CYFD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 17 appropriates $828,493 from the general fund to the Administrative Office of the

Courts for the purpose of funding:

1.

Children’s court mediation ($253,832) federal funding replacement in the 2

nd

, 5

th

, 6

th

,

7

th

, 11

th

, and 13 judicial districts, expansion in the 5

th

and 11

th

district programs and

new programs in the 3

rd

, 4

th

, 9

th

, 10

th

and 12 judicial districts;

2.

Supervised visitation ($376,693) expansions in the 1

st

, 5

th

, 9

th

, and 13

th

district and

creation of programs in the 4

th

, 7

th

, 8

th

, and 12

th

judicial districts; and

3.

Court appointed special advocates (CASA) expansions in the 1

st

, 3

rd

, 4

th

, 5

th

, 6

th

, 7

th

,

8

th

, 9

th

, 11

th

, 12

th

, and 13

th

judicial districts.

Senate Bill 17 – Page

2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $828,493 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

to the general fund.

Some of the proposed appropriations in this bill were included in the LFC FY07 budget recom-

mendation for AOC which was adopted by HAFC. The LFC recommendation includes $130.6

thousand of the funds for children’s court mediation and $35.4 thousand of the requested fund

for the court appointed attorney program.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

$166 thousand of the funds proposed in this bill are included in the LFC recommendation and

have been adopted in the HAFC budget for the AOC.

According to CYFD, there is anticipated involcement of protective services staff for mediation in

abuse and neglect cases. CYFD asserts that the department currently administers a federal grant

for access and visitation services. The two contracted providers of access and visitation services

are Families and youth Inc. in Las Cruces ($52 thousand in FY06) and South Western Advocates

for Kids in Silver City ($55 thousand in FY06).

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

Performance indicators for these programs on behalf of the courts have not been proposed, but

would be useful to determine the success and merits of additional funding.

CYFD reports that children’s court mediation is designed to provide mediation services for fami-

lies involved with Protective Services and that the program supports Protective Services in meet-

ing the Adoption and Safe Families Act fo permanency, child safety and well being primarily

through family engagement in the legal process and treatment plan compliance and permanency

for families.

CYFD cites department performance measures such as “Percent of families reunited within one

year of child entering custody” and “Enhance placement stability for children in custody” as

measures that may have improved outcomes resulting from access and visitation programs. The

measure “Percent of children with repeat mal-treatment within six months” is suggested by the

department as a measure that could demonstrate improvement resulting from court mediation and

court appointed special advocate programs.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

Increasing the number of districts which administer these programs will increase the administra-

tive workload for each of the districts.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

$166 thousand of the funds proposed to be appropriated in this bill are included in the AOC

budget adopted by HAFC. Senate Bill 17 is a companion bill to House Bill 64.

Senate Bill 17 – Page

3

TECHNICAL ISSUES

In order to avoid double funding of the children’s mediation and court appointed special advo-

cate programs, the appropriations in this bill should be reduced by $130.6 and $35.4 thousand in

the two programs respectively.

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

The court appointed special advocate, children’s mediation and supervised visitation programs

would not be expanded and the number of judicial districts which have these programs would not

increase. The HAFC recommendation for AOC includes funds for replacement of federal funds,

formula growth for the court appointed special advocates and a 3 percent growth factor for all

three programs (see technical issues above for amendment suggestion).

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

1.

How are districts determined to be ready to begin new supervised visitation, children’s

mediation and court appointed special advocate programs. How is relative need for the

programs determined.

2.

What measures of success would be appropriate for these programs. How should the leg-

islature prioritize funding based on future demand and merit of program growth.

3.

What if any other agencies are involved in these programs. What is the role of CYFD, if

any.

4.

What other funding sources are used by these programs. How have the levels of funding

changed (other than lapsing federal funds for children’s court).

EM/mt:nt