Testimony of Lisa B. Eisenbud
Chief of Staff, NJ Department of Children and Families
Before the New Jersey Commission on Capital Budgeting and Planning
Fiscal Year 2008 Capital Planning Request
October 27, 2006

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

As the Chief of Staff of the Department of Children and Families, I am charged with overseeing the management of our operational budget. Commissioner Ryan and our entire management team are committed to the planful and diligent management of the State’s resources. We are doing a thorough review of all of our resources, and wherever possible have streamlined our operations. For example, Ewing, one of our public residential treatment centers that we operate, has no on-site school. Youth are either bused to a site an hour away or attend school in a building located on the grounds of the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital (TPH) campus. To get there, the youth walk through, TPH’s residents recreation area and in the shadows of the Department of Corrections secure razor fence reception building.

In order for the State to provide an appropriate educational program for youth at Ewing, we submitted for your consideration, a request to construct an educational building at the Ewing facility. We have since identified efficiency within our current leased space, and I am deferring that request at this time.  In addition we are also withdrawing our request for cafeteria and nursery space at the Burlington Regional School Campus of our Office of Education, at this time, as we became aware of the potential availability in fiscal year 2008 of trailers manufactured for school use through the School Construction Corporation.  But despite these efforts, DCF still requires capital funding for several crucial areas.

SACWIS (NJ SPIRIT)

Our first request is for an information technology project, NJ SPIRIT. As you may recall from the last budget cycle, the original award in 2003 was to a vendor to transfer Wisconsin’s SACWIS system to New Jersey in tact. In 2005, the prior administration – after extensive discussions with the New Jersey Child Welfare Panel - determined that enhancements to the Wisconsin system were necessary in order to the meet the needs of New Jersey’s children and families. As a result, the Department of Human Services issued a change order to customize the system.

In the current FY 07 state budget, $10 million was allocated to this project. In FY 2008, we are requesting an additional $2.415 million in state funds, which will be matched by the federal government. That amount would fully fund the remainder of the project, with the end project cost to the State of approximately $35 million, and with the federal match a project budget of $70.4 million.

This project is essential for the success of Governor Corzine’s efforts to reform the child welfare system. As a result, the Commissioner has placed the management of this project at the highest levels of our organization.  The implementation of SACWIS will be a “sea change” for our organization, which is currently relying on a 20-year old mainframe system that does not do nearly enough to facilitate the work to track and ensure the safety of children.  

NJ SPIRIT is currently supporting many aspects of our work throughout the State. Our statewide centralized hotline to report child abuse and neglect has been using NJ SPIRIT for well over a year, allowing the centralized reporting, management and tracking of child abuse and neglect calls. Intake calls are tracked from the very first moment they are received – not 15 to 30 days later, which was how our previous paper-based legacy system worked. Reports are automatically generated to one of the appropriate 44 local DYFS offices across the State. Additionally, our litigation support staff is also using NJ SPIRIT to develop the legal forms that are necessary for child abuse and neglect cases. They do that in conjunction with our lawyers in the Attorney General’s Office statewide, who can also access and edit those forms through NJ SPIRIT.

The next project release, which contains the bulk of the case management features, will be ready to be field functional in April of 2007. We are designing a roll out that will allow us to manage the scale of the organizational change successfully, in a staged fashion, beginning with the Ocean County local offices and area office and then proceeding statewide. We are taking steps to mitigate, as much as we can, the inevitable challenges that arise from the implementation of a system of this magnitude. For example, we have already issued every DYFS employee a password and ensured that they can access the system. And to encourage DYFS staff to experience the new system and become comfortable with the appearance and applications, we have included the DYFS policy manual, a common reference, as a feature in an earlier release. We have also made available Web-Based Training so that employees can continually hone their skills in working with the system.

NJ SPIRIT will eliminate a fragmented and antiquated paper-based case management system while consolidating 32 existing legacy data systems into a single, modern, supportable application. This next release will also allow for more accurate and timely federal reporting, which will support increases in federal claiming and revenue for the State.

Community Based Life Safety Projects

This funding is paramount for community based agencies which provide services to thousands of at-risk children and families. The last capital funding received for DYFS community projects was the 1994 Bond Issue in March 1996. There was a total of $9 million dollars appropriated for these projects. The prior appropriation before that was a total of $5.8 million in 1989. Through many years of Request for Proposal (RFP), these funds were allocated to 196 projects, allowing for the renovation of facilities such as children’s and residential treatment centers, group homes and family visitation centers. Work included new roofs, septic systems, bathroom and kitchen replacement, environmental remediation, and facility expansion to improve conditions of care. In many cases, the capital funding allowed agencies to maintain compliance with the Department’s own licensing requirements.  The new dollars requested today, will be focused specifically on life safety and emergency projects.

Public Residential Treatment Centers

DCF operates three twenty four hour residential treatment centers that serve 96 children who have been removed from their home due to abuse and neglect.  Ewing and Woodbridge Residential Treatment Centers serve 30 children each, and Vineland Residential serves 36 children. The facilities operate at their maximum capacity throughout the year. Children are placed by DYFS at these publicly operated, adolescents’ centers where they receive critical diagnostic and treatment services, as well as guidance from a dedicated and professional staff.

Our capital request for these facilities is designed to maintain or bring the facilities in compliance with DCF regulations and the standards outlined by JCAHO accreditation (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations).  

Maintaining compliance with this accreditation allows us to draw down Federal Title 19 Medicaid funding to annually supplement state resources needed to run the centers. Since all of the residential facilities opened in 1973, they have naturally suffered from some deterioration. For example, the emergency back-up generators were installed as part of the original construction. When power goes off, which we all know happens from time to time, the emergency generators’ functionality is unreliable. New equipment will ensure that we are prepared for times of crisis. Funding for the maintenance and upkeep of the facilities has steadily declined. Entrance doors need to be replaced, windows need to be upgraded, bathrooms must be renovated, roofs need to be repaired, drainage has become a problem, and lighting is inadequate. Kitchen equipment is old and is in constant need of repair.  Items that were not considered standard in 1973, as they are today, are now needed to properly operate a residential center for youth.

In summary, our requests in this area are designed to improve the quality of life for youth for whom the state has assumed its greatest level of responsibility, and these improvements will send an important message to our youth and our communities.

Office of Education School Asbestos Removal and Septic Conversion

Seventeen of the eighteen regional schools have asbestos abatement needs to fully comply with state health and federal EPA requirements. Though we have a limited operating budget for school maintenance, we have over time, fully abated four of these schools. One additional school has been partially abated. Schools have been prioritized based upon the condition of the materials and the potential health hazard to students and staff should the material be disturbed. Twelve schools continue to require abatement. This request will enable us to abate three schools per year at a cost of $150,000-$160,000 each.

In addition, the Monmouth Regional School program has expanded and now accommodates additional students, staff and a child care center. The current septic system does not have the capacity to support the increased usage. We are requesting an upgrade of the septic system to a standard sewage system and tie-in of the school to the municipal sewer system. This is a more environmentally effective system and reduces the chance of a hazardous incident in which waste could back up into the school building.

I am fully aware of the significant fiscal challenges we all face in serving the citizens of New Jersey. At this time, let me thank you for your consideration of our requests. This funding will enable the Department of Children and Families to continue carrying out our core mission of serving the State’s most vulnerable children and strengthening to New Jersey’s fragile families.