CFS-45-11-00005-A Youth Development and Delinquency Prevention Program Fees
2/15/12 N.Y. St. Reg. CFS-45-11-00005-A
NEW YORK STATE REGISTER
VOLUME XXXIV, ISSUE 7
February 15, 2012
RULE MAKING ACTIVITIES
OFFICE OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
NOTICE OF ADOPTION
I.D No. CFS-45-11-00005-A
Filing No. 66
Filing Date. Jan. 30, 2012
Effective Date. Feb. 15, 2012
Youth Development and Delinquency Prevention Program Fees
PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following action:
Action taken:
Amendment of section 165-1.2(b) of Title 9 NYCRR.
Statutory authority:
Executive Law, section 419
Subject:
Youth Development and Delinquency Prevention program fees.
Purpose:
To allow Youth Development and Delinquency Prevention programs to charge a fee to participate in recreational services programs.
Text or summary was published
in the November 9, 2011 issue of the Register, I.D. No. CFS-45-11-00005-P.
Final rule as compared with last published rule:
No changes.
Text of rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from:
Public Information Office, NYS Office of Children and Family Services, 52 Washington Street, Rensselaer, N.Y. 12144, (518) 473-7793
Assessment of Public Comment
The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) received one comment from a youth bureau on the proposed amendment to Title 9 of the NYCRR 165-1.2 that would allow municipalities (counties, cities, towns and villages) to charge a fee to participants for recreational services programs.
The commenter opposes the proposed amendment. The commenter expressed concern that over the past several years state funding to youth bureau afterschool services has been significantly reduced. The commenter feels that a decrease in state funding coupled with the charging of fees will cause undue harm to the already limited services and overburdened working families who primarily utilize their afterschool programs.
The commenter also believes that the amendment may be overly burdensome and unduly costly by requiring localities to create new responsibilities and standards for collecting funds and to determine the ability of parents to pay for these services. The commenter believes that they do not have systems in place to implement the necessary changes that the proposed amendment would require. The commenter stated that, not unlike other state agencies, many of their afterschool services are maintained through contracts with various nonprofit agencies and the amendment would require providers to amend contracts in order to implement the change.
The Office reviewed the regulations and decided not to revise the regulations based on these comments. The proposed amendment allows municipalities to charge a fee but does not mandate that a fee be charged. The amendment further provides that youth who cannot pay the fee must be provided access to the programs through sliding fee schedules, scholarships or waivers. The regulation will allow youth programs to be eligible to receive State funding even if they charge fees for recreation projects which is intended to help municipalities serve more youth without an increase in funding.
The regulation will also not require a youth bureau to charge fees for the programs they contract with locally. Instead, those individual municipalities who decide to implement a fee for their youth recreational programs or activities may incur nominal costs in establishing the fee amount, collecting and accounting for such fees and for documenting participation in the scholarships, tiered fee schedules or waiver policies, which will likely be absorbed into the costs of administration of their existing programs.
