Children & Youth asks for $52.5M budget

The York County Office of Children, Youth & Families is predicting it will need a budget of $52.5 million for its 2017-18 fiscal year.

At their weekly Wednesday meeting, the county commissioners approved, as required by law, the local child welfare office's budget submission to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

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Meredith Schreffler, the fiscal officer for the county children and youth department, explained that budget included a 2.5 percent staff pay increase, in accordance with a collective bargaining agreement, and a dozen new staff positions.

CY&F asked for 25 new staff positions in 2016-17, bringing the total of potential new hires to 35.

Department director Terry Clark acknowledged that the budget request was "pretty big." But, he explained, the number was arrived at by considering what the department needed, "not what we wanted." Clark said that was a concerted attempt "to be efficient in what we do."

Clark said a goal for the department, which is operating under its fourth consecutive provisional license, is to lower caseloads per caseworker by "bringing on more staff."

"There's no other way to do it," he said, adding that he was "mindful of the cost of bringing on more staff."

 The state Department of Human Services cited recurring problems of "staff turnover" and incomplete mandatory paperwork as reasons for the provisional license. 

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The commonwealth pays 80 percent of each CY&F employee's salary, with the county picking up the rest.

Schreffler also apprised the commissioners of the department's 2015-2016 fourth quarter expenditures and revenues, telling the commissioners "we are on track where we need to be."

Schreffler said the department did overspend that final quarter by 2 percent. She said that money would be reimbursed by the state after the other 66 counties submit their invoices for the fiscal year.

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The overage came, Schreffler said, when the office made retroactive staff pay increases, again in line with a bargaining agreement, back to January 2015.

The fourth quarter expenditures also were affected by the department transitioning its foster care to outside, paid providers.