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DCYF and First 5 outline allocation plan to protect services amid cuts; First 5 reserve strategy detailed
Summary
Department of Children, Youth and Their Families presented a three‑year allocation plan prioritizing early care, after‑school and targeted neighborhood supports while meeting a $1.4M FY12/13 reduction largely through grantee savings; First 5 described Prop H/Prop 10 balances and contingency uses including capacity building and adding PFA slots.
Maria Sue, director of the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, told the Budget and Finance Committee that DCYF will meet the mayor’s 5 percent general‑fund reduction target for FY12/13—about $1,400,000—largely through one‑time savings in grantee and work order accounts rather than by cutting community contracts. "We are proposing to use those funds, to meet the 12/13 target," Sue said, adding the department prefers preserving funded services while adjusting allocations in later years.
DCYF presented a three‑year children's services allocation plan built around an "index of need" at the ZIP‑code level that draws on census, school district and human services data. The department said roughly 66 percent of its budget goes to community‑based organizations, 23 percent to departmental work orders providing direct services, and 11 percent to operations. DCYF emphasized strategies for early care and education, expanded before‑ and after‑school slots, summer programming, and targeted supports for high‑need neighborhoods such as Bayview and the Tenderloin.
First 5 San Francisco executive director Laura Klumach reviewed First 5's strategic plan and fund balances. Klumach reported roughly $15,000,000 in Prop H funding for FY11–12 and about $22,000,000 in Prop 10 reserves overall, with about $11,000,000 designated as sustainability funds. First 5 plans to use a portion of reserves to shield preschool slots and support quality improvements if the state reduces early‑childhood subsidies.
Program details: DCYF and First 5 proposed a mix of investments that would preserve or expand early childhood subsidies (DCYF cited $3.7 million for direct child‑care subsidies), professional development for early‑childhood workers, a center for inclusionary practices, after‑school expansion (baseline proposal to raise the minimum set aside for comprehensive before/after programs), and youth summer credit recovery programs that officials said had strong results in prior years (a school‑district statistic cited 92 percent credit attainment for participating students).
Community reaction: Public commenters included Francisco de Costa, who urged attention to neighborhood disparities, and Jody Schwartz of Lyric, who praised the preservation of community contracts but said her organization has lost more than half its city funding since FY08/09 and remains strained serving high‑need youth.
Next steps: DCYF will continue vetting the allocation plan with city commissions and the board, and First 5 said it will share its sustainability plan and a more detailed breakdown of Prop H/Prop 10 uses. The committee continued the item to the call of the chair for final action.
