Audit Report on the Oversight of the Close to Home Program Non-Secure Placement by the New York City Administration for Children’s Services

June 2, 2016 | MD15-056A

Table of Contents

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

    The objective of this audit was to determine whether the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has adequate controls in place to monitor the Close to Home (CTH) Non-Secure Placement (NSP) Program.  ACS is responsible for protecting the safety and promoting the well-being of New York City’s children and strengthening families by providing child welfare, juvenile justice, child care, and early education services.  In 2010, ACS took over many of the responsibilities of the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice, including principally services for children and families involved in the New York City’s juvenile justice system.  Through its Division of Youth and Family Justice (DYFJ), ACS manages, funds and oversees various services for youth including detention and placement, intensive community-based alternatives and support for families.

    CTH legislation, passed in March 2012, allows youth found by the New York City (City) Family Court to have committed a delinquent act to be ordered into ACS’ custody and placed into a residential placement program close to their families and communities1 .   ACS oversees two types of residential placement services for these adjudicated youth: NSP and Limited-Secure Placement (LSP).  Youth who are considered lower risk are generally placed in the NSP program, the least restrictive setting, while higher risk youth are typically placed in the LSP program, where the facilities have more security features to ensure the safety of both the residents and the communities.

    ACS contracts with non-profit providers to operate NSP group homes in or immediately adjacent to the five boroughs.  Each residence is supposed to be designed to look and feel like a home environment.  Youth in the NSP program receive individualized educational services through the New York City Department of Education.  Youth also receive medical, mental health and substance abuse services as needed, and participate in recreational, cultural and group activities within and outside of the group home.  As of July 1, 2014, nine CTH NSP providers were contracted with ACS to provide a total of 32 NSP sites.

    During Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015, 334 and 226 delinquent youths, respectively, were transferred into the CTH program and placed in an NSP residence.  The total cost paid to NSP vendors in Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015 was $52.3 million and $42.6 million, respectively, which comes to approximately $169,480 per youth2.

    Audit Findings and Conclusion

    The audit found that ACS has inadequate controls in place to effectively monitor the CTH NSP Program.  We found weaknesses in ACS’ monitoring of the specific services provided to the youth while in residential placement and in the performance of the CTH NSP providers overall.  The deficiencies identified in this report have diminished the effectiveness of ACS’ efforts to ensure that the non-profit providers are delivering the required services to youth in CTH residential placement.

    With regard to monitoring the cases of youths in the program, we found limited evidence that ACS verifies that services reportedly provided by the contracted non-profit providers to the youth in ACS’ care were actually provided, or that all required contacts with the youth and their parents or legal guardians took place.  In addition, there was inadequate evidence that ACS Placement and Permanency Specialist (PPS) staff discussed all reported incidents, such as AWOLs, assaults, and altercations, with the youths involved and verified that the CTH NSP providers documented their efforts to debrief youths involved in incidents.

    With regard to monitoring the performance of NSP non-profit providers overall, we found inadequate evidence that ACS performed all required site visits, which include conducting periodic unannounced visits as mandated by the City’s Procurement Policy Board (PPB) Rules.  For those site visits that did take place, we found that ACS did not adequately assess the NSP sites’ operations.  We also found that ACS management did not adequately track the CTH NSP providers’ implementation of corrective actions identified and requested by ACS to address deficiencies in their performance.  In addition, we found that ACS does not take the necessary steps to adequately assess CTH NSP providers’ performance and lacked adequate documentation to support the performance evaluations it recorded in the City’s Vendor Information Exchange System (VENDEX)3.

    Because we found that ACS does not effectively assess the non-profit providers’ compliance with their contracts, ACS has limited assurance that youths in residential placement receive the services for which the City is paying.  Thus, ACS has not provided adequate assurance that City funds are being properly spent.  Further without adequate oversight and assurance that required services are being provided, there is an increased risk that youth will not be rehabilitated, which could result in the youth committing future criminal acts when released from the program.

    Audit Recommendations

    Based on the audit, we make 14 recommendations, including:

    • ACS should ensure that the ACS PPS periodically independently verify that required services are being provided to their assigned youth.
    • ACS should develop a mechanism whereby supervisors can more readily track the performance of ACS PPS staff to ensure that the staff: (1) conduct the required monthly youth contact/visits to assess the services being provided; and (2) discuss incidents with the youths involved and confirm that the CTH NSP providers are also appropriately discussing the incidents with the youth.
    • ACS should develop a tool whereby supervisors can more readily track monitoring visits to ensure that the monitors perform the required number of monitoring visits each year, including unannounced visits.
    • ACS should ensure that the site visits include a more comprehensive review that assesses providers’ operations and that follow-up is conducted for any deficiencies identified.
    • ACS should ensure that the corrective actions of CTH NSP providers on Heightened Monitoring Status and Corrective Action Status are adequately tracked to ensure timely compliance.
    • ACS should establish a means of formally assessing and evaluating CTH NSP provider performance and contract compliance.
    • ACS should maintain adequate documentation to support its annual VENDEX Contractor Performance Evaluations of CTH NSP providers.

    Agency Response

    In its response, ACS generally agreed with the audit’s findings and recommendations.

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    1 A delinquent act is an act that if performed by an adult would be deemed criminal.

    2 The 2014 figure includes payments to two CTH NSP providers whose contracts were terminated in September 2013.

    3 VENDEX is a computerized contract database used by City agencies to obtain information necessary for them to make vendor responsibility determinations as part of the procurement process.  Among other things, VENDEX contains information about vendors, their principals and affiliates, City performance evaluations and cautionary information about the vendors such as debarments and government investigations.  As part of their contract administration, City agencies are required by the PPB rules to complete performance evaluations not less than once a year for each contracted vendor (Contract Performance Evaluations).

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