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New Office of Family Representation and Advocacy expanding staff, says fuller funding needed to realize savings in foster care
Summary
OFRA described 18 months of operations, interdisciplinary legal and navigator services, and argued that funding its staffing plan helps shorten time in foster care—creating savings to CYFD. Analysts proposed slightly different mixes of personnel and contractor authority; the subcommittee adopted the LFC operating recommendation.
The Office of Family Representation and Advocacy (OFRA), created to provide legal representation and interdisciplinary support to parents, children and eligible adults in child‑welfare cases, briefed the subcommittee on early operations, staffing and budget needs.
Executive Director Beth Gilia described OFRA’s model: interdisciplinary teams combining attorneys with social workers and peer navigators who have lived experience. She said OFRA represents parents and children in abuse and neglect proceedings and in Fostering Connections cases, provides peer navigator interdisciplinary services in Bernalillo County, and aims to expand offices statewide. OFRA noted it has collected federal Title IV‑E reimbursement at a higher rate than budgeted and reported roughly 22 current staff with plans to expand to 37–49 positions as offices are built out in Albuquerque and Las Cruces.
Gilia and agency CFOs explained budget choices: the LFC recommendation funds about 41 FTE and more recurring personnel than the executive, which funded more contractual attorney spending and left more flexibility for contract attorneys; both recommendations provide bar authority language for IV‑E drawdowns. OFRA said the executive recommendation for contractor funding is roughly equal to what it spent in FY24, and said the executive recommendation is closer to the agency’s realistic contractual needs; LFC funds personnel more aggressively and would still enable OFRA to reach staffing targets by adjusting start dates.
Gilia argued that the interdisciplinary model shortens children’s time in foster care and will yield long‑term state savings that will accrue to CYFD and other state systems if OFRA is fully staffed and implemented; she cited national models that project fiscal savings when time in care is reduced. Committee members discussed recruitment and retention challenges for social workers and the relationship between OFRA’s work and CYFD operations. Members asked about reversions and the agency explained inflated perceived fund balance at one point led to a reversion after a state Board of Finance grant partially covered anticipated needs.
The subcommittee adopted the LFC operating recommendation; analysts and OFRA will continue to provide implementation detail and track federal IV‑E drawdowns and contractual spending.
