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Tags Posts tagged with "office of children youth and families"

office of children youth and families

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The Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) has released Policy Clarification #3490-25-03, which provides guidance on how to address concerns involving privately run camps that do not allege “child abuse” committed by a “perpetrator,” as defined by the Child Protective Services Law (23, PA C.S., Chapter 63). View Policy Clarification #3490-25-03 here. Questions regarding this Policy Clarification may be directed to your applicable OCYF Regional Office, or to Erik Walters, Human Services Analyst in OCYF’s Bureau of Policy, Programs and Operations.

Contact RCPA Policy Associate Emma Sharp with any questions.

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Trauma-informed care in the Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) has emphasized the importance of trauma-informed approaches in providing technical assistance, training, policy, guidance, support, and monitoring procedures. OCYF has developed and collected many trauma tools and resources that may be helpful for child welfare stakeholders and providers as they proceed on their trauma-informed care continuum, such as their monthly Trauma Tip Sheet.

In the January 2025 Trauma Tip Sheet, the US Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Wellbeing was introduced, and different topics have been explored in the following months. The May 2025 Trauma Tip Sheet highlights the topic of “Mattering at Work,” and can be read here.

Contact RCPA Policy Associate Emma Sharp with any questions.

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The Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) has released Policy Clarification #3490-21-05 that includes a “Quick Reference Guide.” This Policy Clarification addresses questions surrounding the completion of Child Protective Services investigations when law enforcement officials request a delay of notification pursuant to §§ 6368 (l) (relating to notice of investigation) and (m) (relating to delay of notification) of the Child Protective Services Law.

Questions regarding this Policy Clarification may be directed to your applicable OCYF Regional Office or to Erik Walters, Human Services Analyst in OCYF’s Bureau of Policy, Programs. and Operations. You can also contact RCPA Children’s Policy Director Jim Sharp.

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As part of the ongoing implementation process for the Family First Specialized Setting, this alert serves as a reminder that if you are planning to request certification as a Specialized Setting Provider for FY 2020–21, the following due dates apply:

  • March 15: Letter of intent is due to this email from the legal entity with the following:
    • Certificate of Compliance Number(s) for each facility requesting a certification
    • The category(ies) of specialized setting certificate that is being requested
  • April 15:
    • Application package is due to this email which includes all referenced items in Appendix B of the bulletin.
    • Pre-contractual budget documentation due to this email.

For your reference, the OCYF Family First Specialized Setting bulletin can be found here, and the Q&A from the Specialized Settings webinar from last week is available here.

If you have questions related to Family First implementation in PA, please send via email. If you have any other questions, please contact RCPA Children’s Division Director Jim Sharp.

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The Family First Prevention Services Act will dramatically change the federal funding priorities for child welfare. There will be a host of new requirements and some new opportunities in the areas of prevention and older youth. There is more of a push toward evidence-based programs. Pennsylvania is working to implement the provisions of the Family First Act in October of this year.

The Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators would like to invite you to join them for an update regarding the Family First Act and Transition Act, as well as hear the latest of where Pennsylvania is at regarding implementation. The Office of Children, Youth, and Families (OCYF) has once again graciously agreed to present and to answer what questions they can. This training is open to commissioners, CYS agencies, providers, and others interested in learning more about Family First and Pennsylvania’s implementation efforts.

The training will be Monday, February 24, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm at the CCAP Office: 2789 Old Post Road, Harrisburg, PA 17110. See the flyer for registration details.

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The Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) Notification Protocol for Formal Licensing Actions and Incidents, is currently outlined in Bulletin #00-19-02 released in August 2019. On October 21, 2019, OCYF convened a meeting to bring together representatives from entities covered within the scope of OCYF Bulletin #00-19-02, to discuss the intent of the notification protocol, and to develop recommendations for improvements to the process.

From the meeting, the following improvements were agreed upon and will be released in new bulletins as described below.

  • A new bulletin will be issued promptly to remove the issuance of a notification regarding removal of staff under an approved plan of supervision. These notifications are no longer being sent. This bulletin will also remove any notifications listed that are duplicative of one another, specifically those that would equate to a citation and issuance of a licensing inspection summary (LIS), as those already trigger a notification.
  • Pending the implementation of CPSL amendments, another bulletin will be issued to include a quarterly report that will be provided to county agencies and dependency and delinquency judges, providing aggregate child abuse and substantiation data for child residential or day treatment facilities, approved foster or pre-adoptive homes, and youth development centers and youth forestry camps. If/when the CPSL is amended to permit the release of specific aggregate data, a new bulletin will be issued that will provide for county agencies and dependency and delinquency judges to receive substantiation information at the conclusion of an investigation, regardless of whether they are the placing county for the child or youth for these same placement settings.

RCPA was grateful to participate in this process and commends OCYF and the systems stakeholders for the collaborative partnership on this initiative The Department of Human Services (DHS) is moving forward with implementing these changes to ensure the safety and well-being of Pennsylvania’s children and youth. If you have any questions, please contact RCPA Children’s Division Director Jim Sharp.

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The Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) has released Bulletin 3490-19-02, entitled “Statewide General Protective Services (GPS) Referrals.” The purpose of this bulletin is to transmit to public children and youth agencies the requirements related to a statewide policy, establishing when a referral can be designated as a GPS report, screen-out protocols, and response times for GPS report assessments. This bulletin rescinds and replaces OCYF Bulletin #3490-12-01, “Statewide General Protective Services Response Times,” which was issued in April 2012. Please note the bulletin effective date has been established to align with the timeframe needed for making modifications to the Child Welfare Information Solution and county case management systems to support full implementation of the policies and procedures outlined in the bulletin.

Training for public children and youth agency staff who make decisions regarding response times, are a part of assigning response times, or respond to reports, will be made available through the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, Child Welfare Resource Center E-Learn system, and is scheduled for release in spring 2020.

Questions regarding the bulletin should be directed to your OCYF Regional Office. You may also reach out to Ms. Ashleigh Brunsink, Executive Assistant in the OCYF Deputy Secretary’s Office.

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As a result of the Rate Methodology Task Force of 2014 and 2016, one of the key recommendations was the implementation of a statewide standardized time study process. The purpose is to ensure consistency across providers, as well as eliminate challenges experienced by private providers whose own time study process or other quantifiable methodology is not accepted by the Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) during the review of the budget documentation, which ultimately reduces Federal Title IV-E funding.

The implementation of a standardized time study should reduce provider time and resources spent on developing, conducting, and analyzing methodologies to support the allocation of time spent on the Title IV-E program. Additionally, it should improve the efficiency of the budget documentation review process.

Over the next several weeks, providers will begin to receive communication from OCYF regarding their individual staff requirements for time study participation. Training on the standardized time study process will be provided January through March 2020. The initial time study periods will be conducted in April/May 2020. The time study data collected in 2020 will be used to support the budget documentation reviews for state fiscal year 2021/22. Please review the full correspondence from Acting OCYF Deputy Secretary Jon Rubin for all details of the Standardized Time Study Process.

For questions on this process, OCYF has set up an RA account. Please copy RCPA Children’s Division Director Jim Sharp on submitted questions or feedback.

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