CWDA had four main priorities as part of the association’s work in the 2015-16 State Budget. This section includes descriptions of each priority, CWDA Budget Updates and all budget advocacy letters.

2015-16 Priorities

• Foster Parent Recruitment and Retention
• CalWORKs Housing Support Program
• Adult Protective Services Training
• Medi-Cal Funding

Foster Parent Recruitment and Retention

Counties statewide continue to experience a shortage of available qualified foster parents and relative caregivers, exacerbated by the success of the new extended foster care program that allows youth to remain in care up to age 21. CWDA’s proposal would provide increased funding ($30.2 million General Fund) for recruitment and retention efforts to ensure the availability of quality, loving homes for children and youth who are brought into care due to abuse or neglect.

• Final budget: provides $15 million General Fund for foster parent and relative recruitment and support activities and includes budget bill language. This amount is on top of the $2.8 million General Fund already included as part of the May Revision.

CalWORKs Housing Support Program

Homelessness is a great concern among our CalWORKs families and negatively impacts parents’ ability to find and retain employment. The 2014-15 budget contained $20 million for a new rapid rehousing program for homeless families on CalWORKs. The level of funds available did not allow for every county to receive funding or to be funded at their full request levels. Due to the demand for this critical support, it was imperative to increase the funding for 2015-16 so more counties could be funded and those that were funded in the first year could receive additional funding to build on these efforts. CWDA propose an increase of $30 million General Fund for the program, to bring total funding to $50 million.

• Final budget: included $15 million General Fund, bringing total funding for the program to $35 million.

Adult Protective Services Training

Currently, the APS program budget includes only $154,000 for training efforts for APS staff, despite the growing elder population in our state. CWDA’s $5 million General Fund proposal would create a statewide training network to ensure county APS staff are prepared for the ongoing increase in demand for services to ameliorate abuse and neglect.

Medi-Cal Funding

Increased funding is needed to reflect significant increased workload for county eligibility workers due to the Affordable Care Act, including higher-than-anticipated caseloads and major ongoing problems with the state’s new CalHEERS computer system that require significant manual work by eligibility staff. 

2015-2016 Budget Updates

The CWDA Budget Updates include information about the Governor’s proposals, budget subcommittee actions, Budget Conference Committee actions, leadership negotiations, and Governor’s vetoes.

• State Budget Update #7 – Legislature Passes 2015-16 Budget
• State Budget Update #6 - Governor and Legislative Leaders Reach Budget Deal
• State Budget Update #5 – Budget Conference Committee Completes Work
• State Budget Update #4 - Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees Complete Work
• State Budget Update #3 - May Revision
• State Budget Update #2 - LAO Releases Analyses of the 2015-16 Health and Human Services Budgets
• State Budget Update # 1 – ERRATA – Governor’s Proposed 2015 - 16 Budget

2015-16 Budget Advocacy Letters

• Support $36 Million for Aging Programs - Senate Letter, April 17, 2015
• Coalition Letter: Foster Parent and Kinship Care Recruitment, Retention & Support, Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subommittee,
• Legal Representation for Children in the Dependency System - Senate Letter, March 25, 2015
• Legal Representation for Children in the Dependency System - Assembly Letter, March 25, 2015
• Coalition Letter: Foster Parent and Kinship Care Recruitment, Retention and Support Funding - Assembly Letter, March 17, 2015
• Continuum of Care Reform - Foster Parent and Kinship Care Recruitment, Retention and Support Funding - Assembly Letter, March 13
• Foster Parent and Kinship Care Recruitment, Retention and Support Funding - Senate Human Services & Senate Select Committee on M
• Support $36 Million for Aging Programs - Assembly Letter, March 6, 2015
• Adult Protective Services: $5 million for Training and Program Support - Assembly Letter, March 4, 2015
• CalWORKs Housing Support Program - Senate Letter, February 20, 2015
• CalWORKs Housing Support Program - Assembly Letter, February 19, 2015
• County Medi-Cal Administration - Senate Letter, February 19, 2015
• County Medi-Cal Administration - Assembly Letter, February 17, 2015