ACS Commissioner Outlines Foster Care Savings and Career Choice Program
ACS Commissioner Rebecca Jones Gaston details foster care budget adjustments, the expansion of Fair Futures, and the launch of the Career Choice program for youth pursuing vocational training.
When ACS was created 30 years ago.
Our work at ACS centers on continuing to reduce the number of children in care, both by preventing children from entering in the first place and from intensifying efforts to reunify children more quickly.
I am committed to working with the ACS team and our providers to continue this reduction.
For those children and youth in our care, it is essential that we provide them with the resources and skills that they need to become successful and thriving New Yorkers.
This budget includes important actions that will enable us to do this.
The executive budget includes a number of budgetary reductions in the foster care area that will have no impact on children, youth families, or providers, as the savings are from underspending or surpluses in specific budget codes, which I'll explain in more detail.
As you recall, last fiscal year, ACS's budget included the Youth Safety and Success Initiative, which was a $40 million investment in programs for youth and foster care and the justice system.
Specifically as it relates to foster care, the initiative funded an expansion of the number of youth who could be served by Fair Futures coaches and tutors, the number of youth participating in the College Choice program, and the creation of a new program, Career Choice.
As a result of this investment, we see more youth getting connected to Fair Futures coaches, and there are over 470 youth enrolled in college choice, up from 430 last year.
In addition, we've created and launched Career Choice, a new program that builds off the success of college choice by connecting young people in foster care to similar financial, social, and academic support when they elect to attend a vocational program or a job readiness program instead of college.
The program was launched in October, and the first 10 youth are now enrolled in career choice programming.
In addition, we are on track for 136 youth to participate in the Department of Youth and Community Development's Advance and Earn program this fiscal year, which is also a part of Career Choice.
The executive budget better aligns anticipated spending levels of both Fair Futures and Career Choice with no impact on services to better match programmatic ramp up and allocated funding.
Specifically for Fair Futures, we plan for the program to grow in budget and youth served in both FY27 and 28, while saving about 2 million CTL in FY26 and 27 and 1.1 million in FY28.
We still anticipate full ramp up to 42.7 million and 54 youth by FY29.
Similarly, there is a 405,000 CTL and 1.1 million gross reduction in career choice in the current fiscal year 2026 due to the savings from the initial startup time needed for the program.
All residential and specialized family foster care providers receive $3,500 for each youth ages 14 to 21 in their care for independent living services, referred to as preparing youth for adulthood.
These services help youth develop life skills through workshops and programs such as financial literacy, resume writing, college applications, grocery shopping, banking, and driver's education.
The executive budget includes an annual reduction of 1.4 million CTL, 3.75 million gross due to a surplus in the budget code.