Good afternoon.

I am Ward Five Councilmember Zachary Parker, Chair of the Committee on Youth Affairs.

Today is May 20th, 2026.

The time is now 105 p.m., and we are meeting in room 500 of the John A.

Wilson building and virtually via Zoom.

And I am calling to order this markup on the report and recommendations of the Committee on Youth Affairs for the fiscal year 27 budget for the Child and Family Services Agency, the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and the Office of the Umbudsperson for Children.

I want to thank my colleague who has joined me today.

I see Councilmember Robert White is with us virtually.

There will be a moment for you to speak soon, Councilmember White, if you choose to.

Today I am pleased to mark up the committee's final budget recommendations.

The committee focused its recommendations on three of the agencies under its purview.

First is the Child and Family Services Agency, which functions as the district's key agency to investigate reported child abuse and neglect.

It also serves as the chief administrator and coordinator of our foster system and plays an irreplaceable role in supporting grandparents and other family members who care for district youth.

The Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services bears the responsibility of supervision, custody, and care of young people charged with a delinquent act in the District of Columbia.

The agency is responsible for delivering robust and effective rehabilitative programming for all committed youth and maintains two secure facilities, the youth services center on Mount Oliver Road in Northeast DC and New Beginnings based in Laurel, Maryland.

And then we have the Office of the Umbudsperson for Children, which is the independent office task with improving outcomes for all children involved with CFSA, charged with receiving complaints and investigating systemic concerns.

OFC also serves an important role in tracking and monitoring crossover youth or youth that are both involved in CFSA and DRS regularly reporting previously involved with otherwise known to the Child and Family Services Agency by holding agencies accountable for fulfilling their responsibilities under the law.

This year we face the tightest district budget in recent memory.

At the same time, we are seeing a systemic dismantling of the social safety net.

As the chair on the committee on youth affairs, it is exceptionally important to me that we preserve supportive frameworks that are known to uplift children and families.

Despite significant cuts uh proposed in the mayor's fiscal year 27 budget, my team and I have worked hard to ensure that the most effective and highest performing programs remain intact and that we can continue to deliver services where they are needed most.

At CFSA, the committee's budget report recommends funding three family success centers, all of which were eliminated under the mayor's proposal.

The district currently has nine operating family success centers, largely in wards seven and eight, with one in ward five and one in ward four.

They provide primary prevention, including assistance in navigating food and clothing, housing assistance, and more.

Preserve some geographical diversity across the district.

The committee report details the data and logic in this determination, and we are hopeful that the council will allocate additional resources to restore more, if not all, of the remaining family success centers.

To be clear, we funded family success centers in wards five, seven, and eight.

The committee will also provide a $385,000 enhancement to CFSA to implement the Sole Amendment Act, fulfilling the council's commitment to older foster youth youth who help design and champion a new permanency pathway.

I continue to be inspired by the young people who develop this legislation, our lex leaders, those with lived experiences within the agency, and I'm proud to have set aside the funds to realize their vision.

The committee also funds incentive recruitment bonuses at CFSA to help address the agency's social worker shortage, ultimately reducing workloads and improving retention.

We know the agency used these bonuses last year to help close the gap, adding 28 social workers, and we heard from the director in our budget oversight hearing that this would be appreciated and helpful in this year's budget.

Finally, the committee restores 1.35 million for Safe Shores, the district's only children's advocacy center to continue its investigations of child sex abuse and support child victims and their families.

At DRS, the committee chooses to invest in sustainable rehabilitation and effective prevention rather than increasing bed capacity at the agency's secure detention facilities.

The committee redirects the mayor's proposed 2029 million dollar expansion of secure bid capacity at YSC and New Beginnings towards a psychiatric residential treatment facility at New Beginnings and the modernization of Langdon Park Community Center and New York Avenue Recreation Center.

After convening the Committee on Youth Affairs' roundtable last month, it became exceptionally clear that there is a deficit of safe supportive spaces for older teenagers in our city.

This is contributing to large gatherings that are referred to as teen takeovers, which have resulted in multiple public safety incidents.

During our round table, we received testimony from teenagers across the city calling for more access to DPR or the Department of Recreational Parks and Recreation Centers.

As we look to build out more safe spaces for our youth, investing in recreational centers serves as a key preventative tool to keep children engaged in healthy activities.

While there is no current need to expand housing units at D R S facilities, there is a need to expand the mental health treatment available to committed DRS youth.

By placing funds toward the design and initial construction of a PRTF, the committee will help create a localized treatment center for children with intensive psychiatric needs.

Instead of sending these children away from their support networks due to the district's lack of an appropriate placement, these children will be able to receive treatment in the district at district-managed non-hospital environments and remain connected to parents and families.

This gives some of our most vulnerable children the opportunity to heal and make supportive transitions back to the community, reducing their chances of recidivism.

The committee also restores funding in the budget of $500,000 for the community-based credible messengers program in the fiscal year 27 budget.

Given their unique positionality and lived experience, the committee believes that credible messengers play an uh incredible role in helping youth transition out of DRS.

Without these mentors, many youth will struggle to successfully navigate their transition and could fall back into unhealthy behaviors.

While the committee did not have the resources to fully restore the $3.5 million cut included in the mayor's proposed budget, we are hopeful that the full council will be able to restore additional funds and preserve credible messages at D R S.

In addition, the committee reduces excessive overtime funding levels by more than $4 million to accurately reflect DRS's actual spending on overtime and to right-size that portion of the agency's budget.

The committee consulted the OCFO and the agency directly on this, and we were able to make the reduction without under budgeting for this line item.

Finally, the committee chooses to invest in accountability mechanisms across the juvenile justice and child welfare space.

This includes maintaining funding levels for the Office of the Ambut Person for children who delivers vital independent oversight over CRSA.

The committee will also fully fund its own legislation, the strengthening capacity and transparency at DRS Amendment Act of 2025.

This bill works to preserve DURS population data reporting, standardizing juvenile recidivism metrics, and will direct the mayor to create an action plan to reduce overcrowding at YSC.

Finally, to promote accountability and ensure proper facility oversight, the Committee on Youth Affairs also designates $500,000 to the Committee of the Whole to create a new independent DURS facilities oversight body under the council, filling the gap left by the sunsetting of the Office of the Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight.

Juvenile justice facilities require special expert oversight to ensure safe conditions and compliance with relevant laws and standards to ensure that there is consistent on the ground facility monitoring and reliable juvenile data reporting.

The committee seeks to reestablish the vital independent oversight mechanism.

The committee also makes several important investments via transfers to and from other committees that will help improve outcomes for youth and families across the district.

These investments include 100,000 for one-time enhancement to fund arts and music programming for district youth via transfer to the committee of the whole.

Thank you so much, Chairperson Parker, and uh apologize I'm with you virtually today because of a senior event.

But I want to begin by recognizing the moment that we are in for young people in the district.

It feels like everywhere we turn, young people are being blamed for failures that adults created.

When there are teen takeovers, when there is violence, when there is disruption in our communities, too often the first response is to ask how we can punish children faster, confine them longer, impose broader curfews, or try more of them as adults.

But our young people are not just a problem to be managed.

They are our future and our present.

They are children who need safety, structure, accountability, love, and opportunity, like all children and adults who are willing to listen before they judge.

That doesn't mean we ignore harm.

It doesn't mean we excuse violence.

We cannot.

It means that we tell the truth about what actually keeps communities safe.

We cannot cut prevention, weaken behavioral health, eliminate trusted community programs, and then act surprised when young people are in crisis.

That is why this committee's work matters.

This budget recognizes that the choices we make now will shape whether more young people are pushed deeper into systems or whether we build the supports that help them heal, grow, and come home stronger.

I want to recognize you and your staff for the work you have done under very difficult circumstances.

This committee was handed a budget that cut deeply into youth crime prevention while proposing a major expansion of a secure bed capacity at DYRS.

I appreciate that your recommendations take a different approach.

You restored funding for the three family success centers, restored safe shores, funded implementation of the Soul Amendment Act, and supported hiring incentives for CFSA social workers.

Those are meaningful investments in family stability, child safety, and preventing deeper system involvement.

I also want to recognize how the committee paid for these priorities.

You identified long-term vacancies at CFSA and reduced DYRS overtime to better reflect recent spending levels.

That is responsible budgeting.

It shows that even in a tight year, we can find ways to protect critical services without pretending every proposed cut is unavoidable.

The decision to reject the proposed 20-29 million dollar secure bed expansion at DYRS is especially important.

Instead of building more places to confine young people, this committee redirected those dollars toward treatment and prevention, including a psychiatric residential treatment facility and recreation center investments.

That is the right value statement.

Our answer to youth in crisis cannot simply be more beds behind locked doors.

It has to include treatment, support, safe places to go, and real pathways home.

I also appreciate the partial restoration of the credible messengers program.

These are community-based supports that help young people transition home, stay connected, and avoid cycling back through the system again.

And I want to recognize the committee's focus on oversight and transparency at DYRS.

After the sunset of the Office of Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight, we cannot allow conditions inside youth facilities to become less visible to the public or the council.

At the same time, there's still serious gaps.

Six family success centers remain underfunded, unfunded.

Safe Shore still needs a permanent recurring funding solution.

Credible messengers are only partially restored, and the district still has major gaps in youth behavioral health and community-based services.

Those gaps are not a failure of this committee.

They reflect the limits of what one committee can fix when the proposed budget starts from where it did.

So I want to thank you, Chairperson Parker, and thank your team for doing what you could to move this budget toward prevention, rehabilitation, oversight, and care.

I look forward to working with you and the full council to keep pushing for the investments our children and families need.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember White.

Councilmember Crawford, I'm not sure if you have comments.

Hi June, can you hear me?

Okay.

Yes.

You may provide your statement.

Forgive me also for not being there in person.

I'm at the same senior event as Council Murray.

So thank you, Chairman Parker, to you and the Committee on Youth Affairs for your hard work in preparing your committee report and recommendations for the fiscal year 27 budget.

I appreciate the care and thoughtfulness that went into this report and your continued commitment to ensuring that the district's young people are not simply treated as a problem to manage, but as residents deserving of investment opportunity, support, and dignity.

I first want to start with your proposed capital budget changes.

I especially want to commend the committee for rejecting the executive's proposed $29 million expansion of secure bed capacity and instead redirecting those funds toward more sustainable and rehabilitative approaches.

Behavioral health for our young people is one of my priorities with budget, and your investment in a new psychiatric residential treatment facility at New Beginnings recognizes a reality that many of us have raised repeatedly.

Too many young people in our system are struggling with unmet behavioral and mental health needs that confinement alone will never solve.

Likewise, investments in the Langdon Park Community Center and the New York Avenue Recreation Center reflect an understanding that prevention and positive youth engagement engagement are essential components of public safety.

I also like Councilmember White, appreciate the committee's decision to restore 500,000 for the Credible Messengers program.

I do know that there is more that we could do here as a council, but I definitely appreciate the committee's efforts to preserve at least part of this proven model.

I want to also acknowledge several important transfers included in the committee's recommendations, including support for arts and music programming that promotes youth well-being and addresses truancy through positive engagement.

And I'll also have a question on that after my statement, as well as funding to implement the Food Policy Council Procurement Amendment Act of 2025.

Better coordination of the district's food procurement systems, particularly for youth-serving agencies like DC Public Schools and DYRS, is an important investment in both efficiency and youth well-being.

I commend the committee's decision to reduce the DYRS overtime budget by more than four million to better align with actual agency spending trends over the last two fiscal years.

At a time when the district faces difficult fiscal choices, it is important that we budget responsibly and transparently.

And finally, I want to echo the committee's continued concerns regarding the absence of comprehensive independent oversight of DYRS facilities.

Oversight, accountability, and transparency are necessary, not only to protect young people in the district's care, but also to build public trust in our justice system for youth.

Thank you again, Chairman Parker, for your leadership and for advancing a budget that prioritizes rehabilitation, prevention, accountability, and the long-term well-being of the district's youth.

The two questions that I had just on your committee report, will you one share your vision for the 100,000 transfer to Cal, expanding music opportunities for youth as an anti-truancy strategy?

And second, what is the impetus for the 150,000 transfer to the Transportation and Environment Committee to fund truck traffic enforcement cameras?

This was a new issue, so I just wanted to learn a little bit more about this.

Thank you both for your statement and insightful questions.

As you know, the committee focuses on youth well-being generally as well as the agencies under our purview.

As you also know, truancy has been an ongoing issue for the district, and that 100,000 transfer to the committee of the whole is something that I worked on with the chairman who has oversight of the committee of the whole in our education programs to create a fund designated for arts and music as an avenue for our young people.

While I don't want to get ahead of the chairman, what I am a vision envisioning is that there is a pot of money or a grant that would be afforded to someone like the Levine Music Group so that they can push into schools.

They are already doing this work, but thereby expanding access to music and the arts to our young people, as many of our schools have cut or are cutting arts and music access.

This is thought to be a way of supporting youth well-being, supporting our young people's education, but also advancing another strategy to combat uh high levels of truancy.

In terms of the transfer to the transportation and the environment committee, this transfer will support the purchase of truck cameras and as a mechanism to ramp up enforcement across the district.

As you know, many of our streets, including streets surrounding our school communities are high traffic truck routes.

And many of those trucks don't originate in the district and therefore don't often feel compelled to comply with district laws or our speeding requirements.

And so this is yet another avenue to improve street safety for our young people and our families.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Crawford.

I'm now going to turn uh to Councilmember Pinto.

Great.

Thank you so much, Chairman Parker, and congratulations to you and your team and the budget office for putting together this committee report.

And for all these recommendations and all the hard work that has gone into, especially a very difficult budget year.

I am very heartened to see your prioritization for 1.35 million dollars for Safe Shores, which does such important work to support children who are survivors of abuse.

And I appreciate your investment funding the SOL Act, which was designed in partnership with youth advocates to ensure that older youth in foster care can create a permanent family and establish legal relationships with multiple caregivers and supporters.

And so congratulations to you on that effort.

I'm glad to see the committee was able to allocate some funds for hiring bonuses for CFSA workers.

CFSA is significantly understaffed, and hiring bonuses are one tool that we need to be utilizing to attract excellent talent to this agency and ensure that our workforce is recognized for their crucial contributions to our city.

I am interested in learning more about the number of caseworkers.

The committee believes the agency will be able to hire this year and how those funds are envisioned to be distributed.

So maybe we can start there.

Absolutely.

So as you may recall, last year the committee provided roughly 200,000 for incentive bonuses for social workers, and the director testified that they were able to hire 28, which is transformative.

The problem is they also lost 28 social workers.

And so it was a neutral benefit.

But without that investment, they could have lost social workers.

And so we weren't able to fully meet that 200,000 benchmark, but wanted to invest again in hopes that they can better improve their retention but also attract more social workers to the agency.

Great.

And can you confirm what the amount of funding Sasha Bruce will receive to support services for unhoused youth?

That is an open question.

There has been some discrepancy about what the actual investment amount needed is.

But in terms of this committee report, is there any funding out there?

Oh, I'm sorry, no.

We were not able to support the investment there because in part we were told that it was taken care of through the Committee on Human Services, or will be.

Got it.

And their markup is tomorrow, I think.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

I will follow up with them.

And then, you know, there was some discussion about the psychiatric treatment facility.

And I know that overcrowding in YSC is a shared concern of ours.

But in the meantime, we still do have overcrowding, and young people do need a place to be placed.

And so, what is the plan in the interim year or two until we have a psychiatric facility to address the overcrowding so that there is enough space because right now I worry there is not enough space.

Yeah, um, great question.

Um I will answer that in a couple of ways.

One, the committee has been working with the agency on less carceral approaches and strategies, making sure they uh can place young people faster.

And we've been moving that number in the right direction, although advocates would be quick to remind me that it's not moving fast enough.

Also, there are certain decisions the agency is making, like holding Title 16 youth at YSE that they could shift on.

And so right now we are below the 98 bit capacity.

We are at 92 youth at YSC.

That number has trended in the right direction as well.

And so we don't believe there's a compelling need right now for more bids at YSC and New Beginning.

It's also worth noting at our budget oversight hearing, we heard overwhelming testimony against expanding bid capacity.

And we are persuaded that the strategy to handle overcrowding at YSE, where is the real chronic issue is faster placements.

We are working with the agency to fully implement the Road Act to do that, but also focus on some of these other strategies like faster placements.

But in terms of the Title 16 youth, where do you envision them going if not YSE?

So previously they were at New Beginnings.

The director made a choice to move them to YSE.

At the time, he mentioned he was concerned about culture and I guess their influence of the culture at New Beginnings.

I totally respect that decision.

But I I think there is more space at New Beginnings, and that is a strategy that we could revisit.

But even with the Title 16 youth at YSC, we are under the 98-bit capacity now.

We've hovered below the capacity this calendar year, while we are moving in the right direction with placements.

And so again, I think instead of letting young people languish at YSC, we should be focusing with the agency on faster placements.

And one thing I would just say about the psychiatric rehabilitation treatment facility, that contributes to our delayed placements because the district doesn't have a juvenile uh facility, and they are often, and by they meaning the young people are often waiting while the agency is trying to find a placement across the country for them, which oftentimes takes longer than other placements, I'll say.

So we think this will fill a critical gap while we work with the agency on other strategies to drive down the placement timeline.

Okay, I guess I would just say I do have some concerns about this.

I mean, for one, I don't want the agency to move in a direction where we aren't housing our own Title 16 youth, because the next step of that is that those kids either go to our adult jail, which I don't think is the right place for them, or go to facilities across the country, which I don't think is the right place for them.

And so while I hear you on the broader goal of not having so many of our youth be in custody, we also have kids who are being prosecuted and charged with violent crimes, and we have to have space for them at home in a juvenile facility in a place that will empower their families to come visit them and make their reentry better.

And so I don't want the goal of hopefully not having any young person commit a crime or any young person be in this situation outweigh the reality that we we do have a population that we have to house somewhere.

Yeah.

No, I think that point is well taken.

I just would note by no means am I suggesting we should not house our Title 16 youth.

I'm with you that they should be within district uh custody and responsibility.

Uh what I was offering is that move by moving them to new beginnings, that would free up two units at YSC.

Um there was a uh a leadership decision to move them, but that could change.

Uh, but even still, um, I just see this as uh a choice.

And our focus is faster placement, which is proven to be more effective.

We're moving in the right direction there, versus saying we will continue to let young people languish at YSC, and instead of fixing that, we're gonna just add more bids.

Um, it's worth reminding folks for every day that a young person stays at YSC.

That is often not counting towards their total detention timeline, and every day spent incarcerated is further damaging to our young people.

So it is beneficial to everyone that we accelerate that timeline as fast as possible.

Okay, well, I appreciate that.

And I know I think that some deference does need to be made to the director of DYRS who was experiencing several instances of very um dangerous fights that broke out at New Beginnings, that put all of the other kids who are there at risk.

And so while, yes, it is a choice, it's a choice that was made because of some very specific instances that could have cost kids their lives.

And so that I worry about.

But I appreciate the conversation and I agree with you that we should definitely focus on quick placements, and so you can count on my my partnership on that.

Um, I think the agency is making progress.

Again, advocates will remind me it's not nearly fast enough, but we're moving in the right direction.

Okay.

Well, I'm glad to hear that.

Um, you know, this is this committee is an interesting one because it's uh youth affairs, but has a couple of specific agencies under it.

Um, and we'll just add that you know, our young people across the district are doing amazing things, and I think that this budget has a lot of great investments and opportunities to support our young people not only in next year's budget, but also in the supplemental budget, um, to make sure that there's a lot of activations going on this summer, um, and to make sure that all of those the behavior that we're promoting and advancing for young people is safe for every child.

Um, and we we cannot have people be committing violence against one another, what regardless of what age you are.

Um, and so I know these issues are especially difficult to deal with, and so I appreciate your attention to them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I just want to underscore two things.

Uh, one is the SOL Act.

I again want to thank the Lex leaders uh who have uh been with us every step of the way.

They helped write the legislation, they testify for the legislation.

I even got an email last night from one of the Lex leaders that said, I hope you all are going to fund the SOL Act.

Um, and the reason why that piece of legislation is inspiring and important, in addition to the fact that our young people authored it, is because it's putting more of our older youth within our child and family services agency on a path towards well-being and success.

Um, so again, I just want to tout this as a huge win, and I want to thank our lex leaders.

I also want to thank you, Councilmember Pinto, for your partnership and collaboration via JPS and making sure we can get it across the finish line.

And then last thing is the designated funds to reestablish an independent oversight office.

The question has been asked: well, if the council is doing oversight, why do we need an independent office?

And the fact remains, and I just want to make clear that our office uh engages in routine and in-depth oversight with frequent visits.

We are asking questions about data and forms and procedures.

We're talking directly to our young people who both are incarcerated and or are have recently been released, we're talking with parents.

The committee will continue to engage in robust oversight.

The fact remains the council is not equipped currently to engage in the necessary oversight of an agency as expansive as DRES.

Uh, there are young people spread across this country in placements.

Uh, there are young people uh in various conditions within our secure detention facilities.

Um, and even though I'm very proud of the oversight work our committee is leading, again, as I mentioned earlier, there is a need for more persistent on the ground, around the clock, oversight, uh, as well as eyes and ears on the ground across the country to ensure our young people are receiving the support they need.

I'll leave it there.

So with that, um I want to move the committee print and report for report and recommendations of the Committee on Youth Affairs on the fiscal year 2027 budget for agencies under its purview with leave for staff to make technical editorial and conforming changes.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

The ayes have it unanimously.

And with that, that concludes the business before the committee today.

Again, I want to thank my colleagues for joining for partnering with us along this way and for your commitment to ensuring that we can continue to support our young people.

Thank you.