Human Services Department

Chesapeake Interagency Consortium

The City of Chesapeake established the Chesapeake Interagency Consortium (CIC) in 1993, based on the enactment of the Comprehensive Services Act (CSA). The purpose of the Consortium is to create, maintain, and manage a collaborative system of services and funding that is child-centered, family-focused, and community-based when addressing the strengths and needs of youth and their families.

The Consortium strives to preserve families and provide appropriate services while protecting the welfare of children and maintaining the safety of the public. The Consortium encourages the development of services to respond to the needs of the Chesapeake community.

This is accomplished through a collaborative team approach among five (5) major child service agencies, parents, private providers, and community organizations as they work together to plan and provide services. The Community Policy and Management Team (CPMT) coordinates agency efforts, manages available funds, and sees that eligible youth and their families receive assistance. The Family Assessment and Planning Teams (FAPTs) evaluate the strengths and needs of individual youth and families, decide what services to provide, and prepare plans tailored for each family.

Funding for Chesapeake Interagency Consortium to administer the CSA program is provided by formula-based match funds from the state and local government.

The Chesapeake Interagency Consortium provides support and services to the families of children and youth with serious emotional or behavioral problems, as well as children and youth in or at-risk of going into out-of-state home placements.

What is the Comprehensive Services Act For At Risk Youth and Families (CSA)?

It is a 1993 Virginia Law that provided for the pooling of eight specific funding streams which purchased services for high risk youth. These funds are returned to the localities with a required state/local match and are managed by local interagency teams. The purpose of the act is to provide high quality, child centered, family focused, cost-effective services to high risk youth and their families. This law is designed to help trouble youths and their families. State and local agencies, parents and private service providers work together in partnership to plan and provide services. In each community, local teams decide how to accomplish this, based on available funding and community resources and services.

How did CSA get stated?

In 1989 the General Assembly became concerned because the cost of providing residential treatment to high risk youth was increasing at approximately 22% each year. Because of this a study of children in residential care was conducted. Fourteen thousand records from four different state agencies were examined. Subsequent analysis showed that services were provided to only 4,993 individual children. In addition, nine out of ten of these children returned to their home communities; and unfortunately, if necessary changes in the child’s community environment had not been made, the progress achieved at the residential facility was often lost. At that point, it was decided that high quality, less restrictive, community-based services could be provided to these children if the funds were managed at the local level. There is a local cash match required to access the state CSA funds.

Which funding streams were placed in the CSA Funds Pool?

• Department of Social Services State and Local Foster Care
• Department of Juvenile Justice
• Department of Education
• Department of Mental Health, Intellectual Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services
• Other

Children who would have been served by one of these funding streams are designated as targeted and should receive priority for services.

Who manages the money at the local level?

Each locality is required to have at least two different interagency teams, the Community Policy and Management Team (CPMT) and the Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT). The City of Chesapeake has 4 FAPT teams that work under the guidance of the CPMT.

What do the local teams do?

The Community Policy and Management Team (CPMT) is made up of at least one elected or appointed official or his designee and the agency heads or their designees from the local Department of Social Services, School System, Community Services Board (mental health), Court Services Unit (juvenile justice), local Health Department, a parent who does not work for any agency which receives pool funds and, where appropriate, a private provider. This team had administrative and fiscal responsibility for the local funds pool, is responsible for the development of local policy and procedure, and appoints the members of the Family Assessment and Planning Team.

The Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT) is comprised of the supervisory level staff from the same agencies as the CPMT as well a parent and often a private provider. These teams work with the families to develop the Individual Family Services Plan (IFSP). If the services needed are beyond what is available in the participating agencies and there are no other family or community resources available, the team may choose to purchase them with local pool funds.

Which children may be served by the teams?

Localities have control over which children and families access the teams. In general, the children who have been served by one of the funding streams placed in the pool are targeted for services through CSA. The children who would have been served by the education funds and/or the foster care funds placed in the pool are considered “mandated” for service. These special education and foster care children are the only populations state and local governments are required to appropriate sufficient funds to serve.

Are these the only children who may be served?

No! If funds are available, localities may choose to serve other children with emotional or behavioral problems, especially those with multi-agency involvement.

Why are some children considered mandated?

The mandated and non-mandated designations relate to laws which are attached to the funding streams in the CSA funds pool. The education and foster care funding streams placed in the pool have “sum sufficient” language attached to them in Federal Law and/or the Code of Virginia. This means that state and local government are required, by law, to appropriate sufficient funds to serve these populations. In order for a child to be mandated to receive CSA-funded services, at least two requirements must be met: Before CSA, they would have been served by one of the funding streams placed in the pool.

• The child is in one of the categories which have “sum sufficient” language attached to them.

Why are some children considered non-mandated?

These are children who, before CSA, would have been served by the juvenile justice or mental health funds placed in the pool. Before CSA, the judge would court order a juvenile justice child into a 286 placement. However, if all funds for the year were encumbered, the child was placed on a waiting list until additional funding became available. State and local governments are not required to provide addition funding for these children.

How do families access the teams?

Each locality has developed its own policies and procedures governing how families access the teams. The Interagency Consortium requires that all referrals be made by a case management representative from one of the five major child service agencies. This agency will serve as the lead resource guide through Chesapeake CSA process.

Who is eligible for services?

Services under CSA may be available to a child who meets at least one of the following descriptions:

• has serious emotional or behavioral problems, or
• may need residential care or resources beyond normal agency services, or
• needs special education through a private school program, or
• receives foster care services, or
• receives services to prevent foster care placement, or
• is under supervision of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, or
• is a ward of the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Eligibility is determined by various laws (in education, juvenile justice and social services) and by the Interagency Consortium. Also, there must be funds available in the community.

How does the CSA process work in Chesapeake?

The Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT) invites the family (and child when appropriate) to attend a meeting to discuss their needs. The child and family take an active part in the discussion and the decisions about what services should be provided.

If the family agrees with the service plan, they sign the plan and services begin as soon as possible.

If the family disagrees with the service plan, they may ask for a review by the Community Policy and Management Team (CPMT).

Parents may be required to make a co-payment for services according to a standard sliding fee scale based on ability to pay, unless prohibited by state or federal law (e.g., a co-payment is not permitted for services specified in a special education Individualized Education Program).

Who is responsible for laws and policies that relate to services provided through CSA?

The agencies, which place the funding streams in the pool, still have the responsibility to promulgate and interpret laws and policies relating to those funding streams. This means the Virginia Department of Social Services is responsible for law and policy relating to foster care, and the Virginia Department of Education is responsible for law and policy relating to special education issues. The Office of Comprehensive Services provides support to the State Executive Council and deals only with law and policy which relate directly to CSA.