DCYF home‑visiting staff detail canceled opioid‑response procurement, new awards and budget uncertainty

Renee Toolson, who leads contracting for the Department of Children, Youth, and Families’ (DCYF) home‑visiting team, told the Home Visiting Advisory Council on Feb. 11 that a competitive procurement for 6109 services — programming intended to support families affected by synthetic opioids and connected to the child‑welfare system — was canceled after agency leadership concluded it could not guarantee funding beyond June 30.

Why it matters: Toolson said the agency canceled the solicitation because implementation would have required ramp‑up and multi‑month investments that could not be sustained if state budget appropriations were not secure. “They did not wanna go forward with programming because we couldn’t guarantee that there’d be funding after June 30,” she said, adding that the home‑visiting field demonstrated strong demand: applications requested more than three times the funding DCYF could award.

What DCYF decided and funded: Despite the cancellation of the 6109 service contracts, DCYF said a separate general‑fund expansion remains in its operating budget. Toolson said six programs were selected through a separate procurement process to receive funding for a total of 84 new home‑visiting slots. The programs and the number of families noted by DCYF were:

- Catholic Charities…