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This edition of Legislative Update will be longer than usual, as it encompasses the Governor’s Budget Recommendations and the 2/5 – 2/9 Committee Week.

Governor’s 2007-08 Budget Recommendations

A budget expresses priorities, and with a new Governor who only had a few weeks to determine its contents, it is a preliminary statement of interest areas and awareness. The recommendations set forth essentially paint a picture of the information being provided by the new administration’s highest ranking advisors, providing a glimpse of what they are telling the Governor about the needs of the state.

With few exceptions most children’s services have not received a realistic rate increase in the last 12 years, if any had been allocated at all, and certainly not in keeping with Florida’s population growth.  Unmet needs for children result in negative and long term expensive outcomes. Declining trends in low-birth weight babies and the infant mortality rate, nearly half a million children without health insurance, more than 95,000 youth referred to the juvenile justice system, and 43,000 children in foster care can be traced back to the lack of appropriate funding complicated by fuzzy or wrong-headed public policy.

Stakeholders and advocates across the spectrum of children’s services have gone on record that the lack of funding has made it nearly impossible to accomplish their mission.  Service providers who could turn the tables for children in a positive way are too busy triaging the most severe cases to reach out to others at risk. Florida can do better with the right priorities.

To be fair, Governor Crist has inherited the unmet needs and vast challenges facing Florida’s children. He didn’t create them but he has to deal with them.  His first attempt at a budget, though lacking in a pro-active response in many regards, does provide room for his new Agency heads to identify priorities and come forward with more complete statements of need. Supplemental budget requests are expected from the Agencies quickly with an updated release to come from the governor’s budget office in the weeks ahead.

It is time for the Governor’s closest and highest ranking advisors to give him the right and best information in order to make the right and best decisions for children.  These advisors, in turn, can’t complete that task unless the stakeholders and child advocates come forward immediately and provide the insights and counsel in the pursuit of a fiscal plan that best addresses the true needs of our state.

New executive branch appointees are trying to find their way.  Many have had barely two weeks themselves to become familiar with the status and operations of their departments or agencies.  With appropriate guidance from the troops in the field, they will be able to advise our new governor about what is and what isn’t being done. 

The budget, totaling $71.2 billion with $2.35 billion in reserve, is being dubbed “The People’s Budget” by the executive branch.  It is time, then, for the “people” to weigh in.  These “people” include nearly 4-million children who can’t do it for themselves.  They need all of us to speak up.

Roy Miller                                                        Amanda Ostrander
President                                                        Communications Coordinator

The following are highlights from the budget recommendations in each of the 5 Promises:

Promise 1 – Pre-Natal, Infant, and Child Health Care

Healthy Start, the statewide organization that provides services to pregnant women, infants and children up to age three, received the same funding as the previous year. Current funding levels allow them to serve only 47% of the total need. An additional $7.5 million to the coalitions would expand coverage to 58% of the total need while increasing the intensity of services. This would be a first step towards their 5-year funding goal which would allow the organization to serve nearly all of the need.

Florida KidCare, the state’s children health insurance program, did not receive any additional funding, although statistics show that hundreds of thousands of Florida children are eligible for the program but not enrolled. No new funding for outreach was included in the Budget Recommendations.

Governor Crist is seeking legislation that would require all students in kindergarten through fifth grade to participate in at least 30 minutes of physical education every school day.

Promise 2 – Safety, Permanence, and Services to Children in Out-of-Home Settings

Following one of Governor Crist’s priorities set during the campaign, $22.6 million is recommended for the promotion of adoption, including funding the new Office of Adoption and Child Protection, and increasing subsidies and support services to families that adopt. A $1.5 million statewide public awareness campaign to educate Floridians about adoption options and services is also included. 

Guardian ad Litem did not receive the $11-million dollars requested to meet the legislative mandate that every child in a dependency court hearing have an advocate.

Independent Living received a $9.3 million increase, for children ages 13-17. The requested increase was $18-million for children 13-23. The exclusion of 18-23 year-olds presents a problem as the state is expecting growth in the number of children in need of these services in that age range. 

Healthy Families Florida funding remained the same.  A $8-million dollar increase would grow the program into un-served counties and create pilot programs. In 2004-05 over 35,000 children were verified as being victims of abuse by the Department of Children and Families, and almost 74,000 had some indicators of abuse. 

Promise 3 – High Quality Pre-K, Child Care, and Early Learning Opportunities

A $62.00 dollar per child increase, or 2.44%, was proposed for Universal Pre-Kindergarten, roughly half of what was requested for administration enhancement.

The larger issue for pre-k, of course, is an increase in quality which would justify a larger increase in dollars per child. To truly begin to make Florida’s Pre-k program one of high quality, the most important step that can be taken by the Governor and the Legislature is to mandate quality degreed lead teachers. Quality can be built with an educated teacher. Recognizing the importance of quality teachers, Governor Crist recommended doubling funding for teacher performance pay for teachers in grades K-12.

A $10-million dollar program that would provide Internet-based academic assistance to all public school students was included in the Budget Recommendations.

Recommendations did not include funding for the 45,000 children waiting to receive subsidized child care.

Promise 4 – Safe and Enriching Before After-School Experiences

The Governor’s Budget Recommendations do not appear to make after-school a priority any more than it has been in the past. This underscores the need for better data to provide information about the need for services in order to heighten the priority level of quality before and after-school care. 

Promise 5 – Delinquency Prevention Programs and Services to Treat Children with Problems

No recommendation was forthcoming about funding the budget gap in contracted juvenile justice services, priced at $45 million.  The juvenile justice system is on the brink of more serious problems that have been the focus of very serious discussions with the Florida Legislature and executive branch representatives and covered widely in the media.

CINS/FINS, services for children and families at risk of entering the juvenile justice or child welfare system, did not receive an increase to expand to underserved counties which are clamoring for assistance with at-risk youth.

The Girls Advocacy Project (GAP) was funded last year with non-recurring dollars, and the Governor did not include the program in his Budget Recommendations for fiscal year 2007-08.

Committee Week 2/5 - 2/9

This week began with a wonderful article about child advocates, and children’s programs. “Tailoring Public Policy to Kids”, published in the Tallahassee Democrat, began with a quote that sums up the desire of all advocates for children: “this could be the year of the child in Florida...” Interspersed with quotes from policy makers such as House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-Miami) and Rep. Loranne Ausley (D-Tallahassee), the editorial focused on the range of people and organizations working together to make Florida a better place for children.  Children’s Campaign, Inc. and our statewide group of passionate citizen leaders and volunteers was mentioned as a group “intent on keeping its agenda before lawmakers and the governor.”

Discussion quickly turned to the budget, as the press release accompanying the Governor’s Budget Recommendations was released on Monday. Not surprisingly, the rest of the week revolved around budget issues and Agency Budget requests.

Florida Healthy Start Coalitions held a press conference on Monday urging Governor Crist and the Legislature to make healthy pregnancies and birth an urgent state priority by ending the wait for Healthy Start services. Speakers such as Dr. Charles Mahan who is a former State Health Officer, Fran Close, associate profession for Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Florida A & M University, and Ann Davis, former President of Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions, provided information about infant mortality and low birth weight babies. Based on current funding Healthy Start can only serve 47% of the need. Dr. Mahon summed up the message; “Healthy babies lead to healthy communities... healthy babies should be where Florida’s pubic health priorities begin.”

The House Committee on 21st Century Competitiveness met on Tuesday to discuss education reform, specifically root causes of low achievement and its impact on high school dropouts.  Committee Chair David Simmons (R – Altamonte Springs) acknowledged a desire to look at the root causes of high school dropouts and its long term consequences, including the number of prison inmates that result.

On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Health Policy discussed Medicaid and Florida KidCare. After a presentation by the Institute for Child Health Policy, the Committee took public testimony. Testimony focused on the need for KidCare administrative reform. Workshoping off the Committees KidCare bill (SPB 7008), representatives from the Children Services Councils, Florida Legal Services, Florida Pediatric Society and advocates urged the committee to house KidCare administration under one entity, and encouraged outside researchers to maintain objectivity and independence to ensure proper evaluation of the entire program. 

The House will meet next week; the Senate has cancelled its meetings.

The next full Committee Week starts February 19th.

The next Legislative Update will be sent on February 26th.

A summary of filed bills separated by Promise:

1. Pre-natal, Infant, and Child Health Care
2. Safety, Permanence, and Services to Children in Out-of-Home Settings
3. High Quality Pre-K, Child Care, and Early Learning Opportunities
4. Safe and Enriching Before and After-School Experience
5. Delinquency Prevention Programs and Services to Treat Children with Problems