STATE OF TENNESSEE TENNESSEE COMMISSION ON CHILDREN AND YOUTH Andrew Jackson Building, 9th Floor 502 Deaderick Street Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0800 (615) 741-2633 (FAX) 741-5956 1-800-264-0904 BUDGET AND DATA COMMITTEE Andrew Jackson 9 th Floor Training Room Thursday, February 26, 2015 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM MINUTES Present Christy Sigler, Chair Brenda Davis Phil Acord Ashley Dunkin Bill Haynes Amy Jones Jill Grayson Stott Absent Ethan Flynn Joshua Grubb Gary Houston Petrina Jones-Jesz Staff Linda O Neal Sujit Das Fay Delk Rose Naccarato I. Welcome and Introductions Christy Sigler, Chair Sigler called the meeting to order at 1:06 p.m. II. Approval of Minutes IT WAS MOVED (ACORD) AND SECONDED (DUNKIN) TO APROVE THE AUGUST 2014 COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES. UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED. III. TCCY Budget Update Linda O Neal O Neal reported on the agency budget for the period ending December 31, 2014. Half way through the year, total expenditures for fiscal year 2014-15 equaled 33 percent of the budget. All expenditure categories are in line. Expenditures for grants and subsidies always lag behind other spending. Expenditures for the first quarter of the fiscal year (July September) were paid in October. New federal grants approved at the December meeting began January 1. Expenditures for the October through December quarter and new grant projects will be reflected in subsequent reports. 1
O Neal also discussed the Analysis of Remaining Federal Dollars distributed to the Committee. Federal Formula Grant funds available as of December 31, 2014 were $143,079.56. The Commission chose not to expend all funds on new applications this year. Remaining Juvenile Accountability Block Grant funds are $121,135. This should provide funding to publish the Compilation of Selected Laws on Children, Youth and Families for another two years. Contracts for all grants approved in December have been distributed and most signed and entered in the system. O Neal reported Diane Baham is retiring at the end of the month, and Sarah Rudd is no longer with TCCY. O Neal, Kennedy and Thomas have met with the Department of Human Resources regarding reclassifying positions for a higher skill level, since the job tasks have changed. IT WAS MOVED (HAYNES) AND SECONDED (DAVIS) TO ACCEPT THE BUDGET REPORT FOR THE PERIOD ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2014. UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED. The Department of Health has received a Maternal and Child Health Home Visiting grant and asked TCCY to partner with them. Funding would be used for the costs of a position and some operating expenses related to home visiting for approximately 18 months. The grant period begins on March 1 and continues to September 30, 2017. Among other things, the TCCY position would work on establishing and supporting a Home Visiting Collaboration and on plans for sustainable funding for home visiting programs. Acord asked the amount of money to be allotted to TCCY. O Neal said $107,000 was discussed. The money will cover salary and benefits and some other related costs, and includes some flexibility. IT WAS MOVED (STOTT) AND SECONDED (ACORD) TO APROVE A PARTNERSHIP WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH REGARDING THE HOME VISITING GRANT. UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED. IV. Resource Mapping Update Rose Naccarato Naccarato reported that data gathering and analysis is currently in progress for the 2015 Resource Mapping report. The report is due to the legislature by April 15. This is the last year data will be reported by the state departments/agencies to TCCY using the old system. The new online reporting system, made possible by one-time carryover funds from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services from their System of Care grant, is nearly complete. The data reporters for the Resource Mapping project will be able to beta test the new system in the spring, and their feedback will be incorporated into the final version to be ready by summer. Naccarato and Sujit Das continue to work 2
with the Office of Information Resources (OIR) and its contractor NIC to complete this transition. V. KIDS COUNT Update Rose Naccarato Naccarato reported TCCY participated in the release of the Casey Foundation s fall policy report, Creating Opportunities for Families: A Two-Generation Approach. We prepared a Tennessee-specific release that was distributed by the Casey Foundation as well as by Fay Delk. Linda O Neal prepared an op-ed column for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which ran on the day of the release. As a result of the op-ed, O Neal received an email message from former Commission member Susan Lawless Glassman of Memphis expressing appreciation for TCCY continuing to advocate for children. Media coverage for the release was good and is summarized in the media report. Sujit Das has added several Tennessee indicators to the KIDS COUNT data center website, including ACT and TCAP scores, a breakdown of the number children receiving special education services by type of diagnosis, youth drug and alcohol abuse and drug-related arrests, and babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). He is working with state agencies to obtain good data on other indicators we hope to add, including childhood obesity, lead exposure and vaccination rates. The 2014 KIDS COUNT publication will be a County Data Book, tentatively scheduled for completion the first half of 2015. We would like to release a 2015 book before the end of that year, and have recently begun discussions about focusing an essay in it on adolescence. There are increasingly new research and publications about the importance of adolescent development, including brain plasticity and development during that time. Naccarato also reported a new policy brief on the evidence about academic and socialemotional gains for children attending pre-k and the importance of this social investment was at the printer and would soon be ready for distribution. We hope it will help clarify issues around pre-k during this legislative session. Rose continues her work with the Annie E. Casey Foundation s Leadership Institute for State-Based Advocates (LISA) group. Their next summit is the first week of March here in Nashville. VI. Web Stats Sujit Das Das presented statistics for TCCY s website for October, November and December 2014. Based on total hits, the most activity was in October. The Compilations are no longer included in total hits as the HTM files are not captured by TCCY' websites. However, the change did not affect the report on TCCY webpages visited. Ombudsman program showed the highest percent of total hits among top 10 visited areas. About 60 percent of total hits were to the Ombudsman, The Advocate and Juvenile Justice sections of the website combined. The remaining major areas included KIDS COUNT, 3
Children s Advocacy Days Presentations, Press Releases, the Commission and the Council on Children s Mental Health (CCMH). VII. Media Report Fay Delk Delk reminded the Committee the agency s print newspaper clipping service ceased to provide clippings at the end of October. TCCY has signed up with an online clipping media service and also receives Google alerts. The numbers for the first half of the year look in line with earlier years, but there was an unusual level of activity during the first quarter of the year. Delk said it was difficult at this point to assess the effect in the change on our efforts to measure our media. The agency continues to attempt to stay up with social media changes. She thanked Dunkin and Noblit for their efforts to increase Facebook reach. Delk also reported on the state s website revision, scheduled to go into effect May 1. The state is also going through a rebranding process, which will coincide with the web update. VIII. The Advocate Fay Delk Delk reported the release of a newsletter on health care in December, one on food security in January and one on Black History Month in February. An edition on the state budget and legislative information will be released in March, and one on Child Abuse Prevention Month in April. She reported the agency has been looking at email communications platforms to improve the use of email to communicate. IX. Making KIDS COUNT Media Award (ACTION) Fay Delk At Children s Advocacy Days, TCCY awards John Seigenthaler Making KIDS COUNT Media Awards. Delk presented three nominations for TCCY s media awards: Tom Humphrey, recently retired Capitol Bureau chief for the Knoxville News Sentinel and part-time reporter and commentator, for a large-market Print Media award; Rachel Kinney, digital producer of Knoxville television station WBIR, for a large-market Broadcast Media award; and Scott Wilson, communications director of The Urban Child Institute, for the New Media award for use of social media and its website to educate parents and advocates. No nominations, which can only be made by TCCY Commission members and staff, were received for small-market print or broadcast media. IT WAS MOVED (STOTT) AND SECONDED (DAVIS) TO AWARD THE JOHN SEIGENTHALER MAKING KIDS COUNT MEDIA AWARDSAS FOLLOWS: LARGE-MEDIA PRINT TO TOM HUMPHREY; LARGE- MARKET BROADCAT TO RACHEL KINNEY; AND NEW MEDIA TO SCOTT WILSON, THE URBAN CHILD INSTITUTE. UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED. 4
X. Other Business There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 2:09 p.m. Minutes Prepared by: Minutes Approved by: Fay Delk, Publications Editor Christy Sigler, Committee Chair 5