CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT:  COMMUNITY-BASED COLLABORATIVE PREVENTION SERVICES GRANTS

House Bill 6285

Sponsor:  Rep. Tom Meyer

Committee:  Education

Complete to 9-18-06

A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 6285 AS INTRODUCED 6-29-06

House Bill 6285 would amend the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Act to allow the State Child Abuse Neglect and Prevention Board to authorize disbursement of available money from the state General Fund and federal funds, upon legislative appropriations or interdepartmental transfers, to services for parents of children aged 0 to 3 years of age who live in school districts having a high percentage of at-risk students.  The funds would be dispersed through competitive grants.

[Note:  The bill would largely codify existing boilerplate language within the Department of Human Services (DHS) budget act and the School Aid Act for "Zero to Three" programs administered by the State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board through the Children's Trust Fund.  See the Fiscal Impact section of the summary.]

More specifically, the bill would allow the State Child Abuse Neglect and Prevention Board to fund grants for community-based collaborative prevention services and secondary prevention programs designed to do any of the following:

o                   Foster positive parenting skills, especially for parents of children under three years of age.

           

o                   Improve parent and child interaction.

           

o                   Promote access to needed community services.

           

o                   Increase local capacity to serve families at risk.

           

o                   Improve school readiness.

           

o                   Support healthy family environments that discourage alcohol, tobacco, and drug use.     

The money disbursed by the state board would be distributed through a request for proposals established in conjunction with the directors of the Departments of Community Health, Human Services, and Education.]  Projects funded would have to meet all of the following criteria:

o                   Be secondary prevention initiatives and voluntary to consumers (with no money expended in cases of substantiated neglect or abuse);

o                   Demonstrate that the planned services are part of a community's integrated comprehensive family support strategy, endorsed by the local community collaborative; and

           

o                   Provide a 25 percent local match, of which not more than 10 percent may be in-kind services (unless the maximum percentage is waived by the board in conjunction with the department directors).

Finally, the bill would require that not later than 122 days following the end of the state fiscal year, the board submit to the Governor, the department directors, and the Legislature an annual report of outcomes achieved by the providers of the community-based collaborative prevention services, for the previous fiscal year.

MCL 722.601 et al

FISCAL IMPACT:

The bill would largely codify existing boilerplate language within the Department of Human Services (DHS) budget act and the School Aid Act for "Zero to Three" programs administered by the State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board through the Children's Trust Fund.  The existing language can be found in Section 517 of 2005 PA 147 (the FY 2006 DHS budget act) and Section 32c of the 2005 PA 342 (the FY 2006 school aid act).  Existing appropriations of $4.0 million in the DHS budget, $1.75 million in the School Aid budget and $524,000 in the Department of Community Health budget are available for this program.

 

The language in the bill is consistent with the DHS boilerplate language.  The main difference with the School Aid language is that the School Aid bill includes marriage promotion as an eligible purpose for funding.  Marriage promotion is not listed in the bill as an eligible purpose nor it it listed in the DHS budget language.

 

Since the bill codifies existing budget boilerplate and does not create new programming, it would have no fiscal impact on the State or on local units of government.

                                                                                           Legislative Analyst:   J. Hunault

                                                                                                  Fiscal Analyst:   Bob Schneider

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.