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.