DISCUSSION:

The purpose of this memo is to introduce policy and procedures to implement the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD). Effective October 1, 2010, independent living services information is to be collected and reported on all youth in the served population and outcome information is to be collected from a baseline of youth in foster care. Information on NYTD and beginning plans for implementation were introduced in CD10-18. Services will be reported ongoing for all youth ages 14-21 in Legal Status-1 (LS-1) and youth who have been adopted or obtained legal guardianship after the ages of 16 that are currently receiving Chafee services. NYTD Surveys will be completed by all youth in Legal Status-1 turning 17 in FFY11 (October 1, 2010 – September 30, 2011).

Service Reporting

All Life Skills services provided to an older youth ages 14-21 must now be entered on the NYTD Older Youth Services and Expenditures screen in FACES. Chafee, Transitional Living (placements referred by Children’s Division), and Specialized Care contract providers are required to use this screen to enter all individual and group services provided by their agency. However, all youth in the served population (identified as Legal status 1) must be reported on, regardless of referral status to a contractor of life skills. If a youth is not receiving services under these contracts through the Children’s Division, the Case Manager or Children’s Service Worker will be responsible for ensuring that any Life Skills Services, regardless of cost, that is provided by the Children’s Division or the Placement Provider is entered on the NYTD Older Youth Services and Expenditures screen in FACES.

Therefore, Life Skills services may be provided in one of the following ways:

• Through the Chafee provider if the youth is enrolled.

• Through the Children’s Division (CD) Contracted Transitional Living Program (TLP) provider if the youth is enrolled through CD.
• Through TLP services provided via Foster Care Case Management Agencies and reported by the Children’s Service Worker.
• Through Missouri Alliance Specialized if the youth is enrolled.
• Through the foster parent or other community service provider if arranged by the Chafee, TLP, or Specialized Care Contracted Provider.
• Through the foster parent as part of their services and entered by the Children’s Service Worker.
• Through a community service provider if arranged by the Children’s Service Worker and entered by the Children’s Service Worker.
• Through the Children’s Service Worker.

NYTD Older Youth Services and Expenditure screen:

Each time a Life Skills service is provided to an older youth via one of the manners listed above, it must be documented on the NYTD Older Youth Services and Financial Expenditures screen. The NYTD Older Youth Services and Financial Expenditure screen is located under the new National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) Section on the Case Management Home Page.

Entering Individual Expenditures:

Services are captured on a monthly basis for each youth in the served population (Legal Status 1, ages 14-21). Upon entering the screen, the user must select the “Type of Expenditure” they are entering, individual or monthly. These “Types” are defined as follows:

• Individual: Any Life Skills service provided to a single individual older youth
• Monthly: Any Life Skills service that is provided to a group of older youth

After selecting “Individual Expenditures”, the user must select a “Provider” and “Region”. The “Provider” dropdown will contain a list of all contracted Chafee, Transitional Living, and Specialized Care providers. It will also contain a value of “Children’s Division”. All Individual Expenditures/Services provided other than through contracted services will be captured by selecting “Children’s Division”. Only employees of the contracted agencies should use the respective agency choice. The “Region” that is selected should reflect the region in which the child is currently placed.

Users must then enter the DCN of the older youth for whom the Life Skills service was provided and the month and year of the service.

Any previously added services will display for the DCN/month combination selected. If the user wishes to add a new service category, the “add individual expenditures” button will be available. When the “Add” button is selected, a section will open up for the user to enter the type of service, the number of times the services were provided and the cost.

The Independent Living Life Skills services fall into thirteen broad categories:

• Independent Living Needs Assessment
• Academic Support
• Post-Secondary Education Support
• Career Preparation
• Employment Programs Or Vocational Training
• Budget And Financial Management
• Housing Education/Home Management Training
• Health Education and Risk Prevention
• Family Support and Healthy Marriage Education
• Mentoring
• Education Financial Assistance
• Room & Board Financial Assistance
• Youth Leadership
• Other Financial Assistance

Definitions for each of these services are provided under the “Older Youth Services Definition Screen.”

A service is defined as all of the activities related to obtain the service. For example, if a youth is receiving driver’s education, it is reported as one service. The phone calls and other work that goes into arranging the service is not reported as individual services.

Once a service is added, that particular service type will no longer appear in the drop down box for any new services being added. Services may still be entered for that category by updating the total number of services and total cost. Any new expenditures being added must be totaled into any previously added expenditures. Services may be entered up to one month following the service end month. For example, all August services must be entered by the end of September.

Invalidating a service entered in error:

Individual services can be updated up to the time the expenditure report is submitted for approval. If a service is entered under the wrong DCN and needs to be removed in its entirety, the “Invalid” checkbox can be selected. Once a service is invalidated, it will not be included on the Expenditure Report or the NYTD Federal Report.

Entering Monthly Expenditures: Monthly Expenditures are only to be entered by Chafee, Transitional Living, and Specialized Care contract providers for the purposes of reporting. Children’s Division and Foster Care Case Management staff entering Individual Services provided by a worker or placement provider under the “Children’s Division” selection do not need to complete Monthly Expenditures.

The monthly expenditures are not youth specific, rather provider specific and must be completed at the end of each month. When adding a Monthly Expenditure, an amount must be entered in the “Other Expenses” boxes for Chafee only and Leveraged Resources. Enter $0.00 if you are a Transitional Living or Specialized Care contract provider as you are not required to report this information. The number of youth in referral base must also be entered. This is the number of youth receiving services for TLP and the number of youth eligible to receive services for Missouri Alliance Specialized and Chafee.

Once all Individual and Monthly Expenditures are entered, the “Submit” button should be selected on the Monthly Expenditures screen. Only Chafee, Transitional Living, and Specialized Care contract providers are required to submit a report for approval. The report cannot be updated by the provider once submitted. Once submitted, a worker alert will go to the Older Youth Transition Specialist to review the report and approve or deny it.

Viewing the Expenditure Report prior to submitting:

The NYTD-Older Youth Services Monthly Expenditures Report can be viewed and printed from FACES by selecting Report Management and clicking on NYTD-Older Youth Services Monthly Expenditures Report. A link is also available at the top of the Monthly Expenditures entry screen. Chafee, Transitional Living, and Specialized Care contracted staff should view their completed Expenditure Reports prior to submitting for approval.

Outcome Survey

NYTD federal requirements specify that each state must report outcomes for youth at age 17, 19 and 21. For the first reporting period (October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011), the state will survey all youth in Legal Status 1 who turn age 17 during this reporting period, or entered foster care between his or her 17^th birthday and 45 days after this date. The number of youth who participate in the outcome survey at age 17 become part of the baseline group and will be surveyed again at ages 19 and 21.

The state will survey youth who reach their 17^th birthday every third year thereafter. The table below illustrates an example of the timeframes:

The survey consists of 21 questions in which the answers must come directly from the youth. For those youth still in care, the Case Manager or Children’s Service Worker will be responsible for ensuring that a survey is completed via one of the methods outlined below and entered into FACES. For youth who need assistance completing the survey, the Case Manager or Children’s Service Worker should assist with this to ensure survey completion. For example, if a youth is incarcerated and can be located, the youth could be interviewed by phone.

Survey at age 17- creating a baseline:

Surveys must be completed within 45 days of the youth turning 17. A monthly listing will be sent out from Central Office via email of all youth turning 17 within the month to aid in survey completion. However, this listing may not be reflective of all youth coming into care or leaving care on or around their 17^th birthday, therefore staff may not rely completely on this listing. Staff must be aware of youth they are working with eligible to complete the survey and use other means to track youth coming into care or exiting care in addition to the listing such as the NYTD Survey Online Response Tracking Screen or Outlook Calendar.

Options for youth to complete survey:

• Completed electronically by the youth within 45 days of the youth’s 17^th birthday from web-based link sent to the youth’s email account.
• Completed electronically by the youth within 45 days of the youth’s 17^th birthday from a letter sent to the youth’s last known address containing information on an electronic link to complete the survey.
• Paper copy sent to youth and completed by the youth within 45 days from 17^th birthday and sent to Central Office for entry in a postage paid envelope.
• Paper copy completed by the youth during home/office visit and entered by the Case Manager or Children’s Service Worker.

Regardless of method of completion of the survey, the Case Manager or Children’s Service Worker should talk to the youth once the youth turns 17 about the method of completion. The Case Manager or Children’s Service Worker, to ensure survey completion, may also print a copy of the survey (available on E-forms) and have youth complete it while on a home/office visit. All completed paper surveys must be manually entered into FACES via the NYTD Older Youth Survey screen, located on the Case Management Home Page. In addition to entering the survey from the paper copy, the date that the survey was completed is entered as well. This is the date indicated on the bottom of the completed survey, not the date that it is entered into FACES. It is critical that the correct date is entered as any survey’s completed beyond 45 days after the youth’s 17 birthday will not be counted in the state’s baseline.

Surveys completed via the internet link will be processed nightly and uploaded to FACES. They can be viewed the next day on the NYTD Older Youth Survey Screen. Electronic surveys cannot be saved to complete at a later date. Once submitted, the survey is saved, regardless of the completion level of the survey. Youth may go in during the reporting period and complete the survey again by accessing the same internet link or completing another paper survey. FACES will report the last survey received prior to the end of the reporting period or 45 day timeframe for 17 year olds.

Follow-up Survey at ages 19 & 21:

Youth who participated in the survey within 45 days after turning age 17 will again be surveyed at age 19 and 21 (follow-up population). Surveys will be sent at the beginning of the reporting period to all youth in the baseline population using the same methods as described for the 17 year old group. The 45 day timeframe does not apply to the follow- up 19 and 21 year old population. The state will report on all surveys received by the end of the reporting period. NYTD requirements indicate that the state must successfully survey at least 80% of the youth in care and 60% of youth no longer in care at ages 19 and 21 or a penalty of Chafee funding could occur. Therefore, every effort should be made to encourage youth participation.

Because surveys are conducted at ages 19 and 21, many of these youth will no longer be in state custody. It is vital that anytime the youth submits an address change or the case manager becomes aware of an address change for youth that are no longer in care that this information is updated in FACES. The address for the youth needs to be updated on the Contact List of the youth’s most recent closed AC function. Address Change Cards will be available and can be sent to Central Office to be entered for youth no longer in care. If the youth cannot be reached by the last known address, the survey is mailed to the youth’s three permanent contacts, so it is vital that this information is kept up to date, even after the youth leaves care.

NYTD Survey Online Response Tracking:

The NYTD Survey Online Response Tracking screen in FACES was developed to track surveys being sent out and received by age group and reporting period. Older Youth Transition Specialists and Staff can use this screen to check on the status of survey completion. This screen will track automatically the date(s) surveys were sent and the dates completed surveys were received, either electronically or entered on the NYTD Older Youth Survey screen.

This screen will also track the reason for non-participation to assist with the monitoring of survey completion. Options for non completion of the survey include: Parent Declined, Youth Incapacitated, Youth Incarcerated, Runaway/Missing, Unable to Locate, and Death. If the survey is not completed because of one of these options, information will need to be entered into the NYTD Survey Online Response Tracking Screen. States will not receive credit for surveys with any non-completion reason. Staff will not be sent reminders but will need to monitor this screen to ensure survey completion for youth they work with turning 17 that will take part in the baseline survey.

Additional Marketing and Outcome Survey Tools

Consent to Access Administrative Data release forms will also be discussed and offered to youth during transition planning by the Case Manager or Children’s Service Worker. The consent release form gives our agency permission to search other agency databases in order to locate youth. This will assist in efforts to reach youth that are transient after they are no longer in care. These forms are completed at exit from care and then sent to the Older Youth Transition Specialist in the youth’s Case Manager Region. The Older Youth Transition Specialist will maintain a file of releases to be used in searching for the youth if all contact information becomes invalid.

As an incentive to encourage youth completion of the survey and continued participation at age 19 and 21, all youth who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing for a prize. A youth will randomly be selected and will win a laptop computer. This incentive will be available again to this first cohort of youth completing the survey at age 19 and again at 21. The incentive will be available to the second cohort at age 19 and age 21 and will continue with this timeline. Please tell youth about the chance to win in order to encourage participation now and continued participation when the youth is no longer in care.

As stated in CD10-18, the NYTD poster should be displayed in each office.

A Facebook page has been developed to connect and share information with Older Youth and those seeking information on the Older Youth Program – “Missouri’s Older Youth Program.” Staff should inform youth and other stakeholders about the Facebook page.

The National Youth in Transition Database provides an opportunity to improve independent living services for youth in care. NYTD will provide a statewide and national picture of how older youth are faring. Plans are being made on how information regarding services and outcomes will be shared.