1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to education; encouraging administrative 
  1.3             efficiency for family service cooperatives; requiring 
  1.4             an annual report to the legislature; amending 
  1.5             Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 124D.23, subdivision 
  1.6             2; Minnesota Statutes 2003 Supplement, section 
  1.7             256F.13, subdivision 1.  
  1.8   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.9      Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 124D.23, 
  1.10  subdivision 2, is amended to read: 
  1.11     Subd. 2.  [DUTIES.] (a) Each collaborative must: 
  1.12     (1) establish, with assistance from families and service 
  1.13  providers, clear goals for addressing the health, developmental, 
  1.14  educational, and family-related needs of children and youth and 
  1.15  use outcome-based indicators to measure progress toward 
  1.16  achieving those goals; 
  1.17     (2) establish a comprehensive planning process that 
  1.18  involves all sectors of the community, identifies local needs, 
  1.19  and surveys existing local programs; 
  1.20     (3) integrate service funding sources so that children and 
  1.21  their families obtain services from providers best able to 
  1.22  anticipate and meet their needs; 
  1.23     (4) coordinate families' services to avoid duplicative and 
  1.24  overlapping assessment and intake procedures; 
  1.25     (5) focus primarily on family-centered services; 
  1.26     (6) encourage parents and volunteers to actively 
  2.1   participate by using flexible scheduling and actively recruiting 
  2.2   volunteers; 
  2.3      (7) provide services in locations that are readily 
  2.4   accessible to children and families; 
  2.5      (8) use new or reallocated funds to improve or enhance 
  2.6   services provided to children and their families; 
  2.7      (9) identify federal, state, and local institutional 
  2.8   barriers to coordinating services and suggest ways to remove 
  2.9   these barriers; and 
  2.10     (10) minimize administrative activities and focus resources 
  2.11  on direct services to children and families; and 
  2.12     (11) design and implement an integrated local service 
  2.13  delivery system for children and their families that coordinates 
  2.14  services across agencies and is client centered.  The delivery 
  2.15  system shall provide a continuum of services for children birth 
  2.16  to age 18, or birth through age 21 for individuals with 
  2.17  disabilities.  The collaborative shall describe the community 
  2.18  plan for serving pregnant women and children from birth to age 
  2.19  six. 
  2.20     (b) The outcome-based indicators developed in paragraph 
  2.21  (a), clause (1), may include the number of low birth weight 
  2.22  babies, the infant mortality rate, the number of children who 
  2.23  are adequately immunized and healthy, require out-of-home 
  2.24  placement or long-term special education services, and the 
  2.25  number of minor parents. 
  2.26     <b>[EFFECTIVE DATE.]</b> This section is effective July 1, 2004. 
  2.27     Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 2003 Supplement, section 
  2.28  256F.13, subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
  2.29     Subdivision 1.  [FEDERAL REVENUE ENHANCEMENT.] (a)  [DUTIES 
  2.30  OF COMMISSIONER OF HUMAN SERVICES.] The commissioner of human 
  2.31  services may enter into an agreement with one or more family 
  2.32  services collaboratives to enhance federal reimbursement under 
  2.33  Title IV-E of the Social Security Act and federal administrative 
  2.34  reimbursement under Title XIX of the Social Security Act.  The 
  2.35  commissioner may contract with the Department of Education for 
  2.36  purposes of transferring the federal reimbursement to the 
  3.1   commissioner of education to be distributed to the 
  3.2   collaboratives according to clause (2).  The commissioner shall 
  3.3   have the following authority and responsibilities regarding 
  3.4   family services collaboratives: 
  3.5      (1) the commissioner shall submit amendments to state plans 
  3.6   and seek waivers as necessary to implement the provisions of 
  3.7   this section; 
  3.8      (2) the commissioner shall pay the federal reimbursement 
  3.9   earned under this subdivision to each collaborative based on 
  3.10  their earnings.  Payments to collaboratives for expenditures 
  3.11  under this subdivision will only be made of federal earnings 
  3.12  from services provided by the collaborative; 
  3.13     (3) the commissioner shall review expenditures of family 
  3.14  services collaboratives using reports specified in the agreement 
  3.15  with the collaborative to ensure that the base level of 
  3.16  expenditures is continued and new federal reimbursement is used 
  3.17  to expand education, social, health, or health-related services 
  3.18  to young children and their families; 
  3.19     (4) the commissioner may reduce, suspend, or eliminate a 
  3.20  family services collaborative's obligations to continue the base 
  3.21  level of expenditures or expansion of services if the 
  3.22  commissioner determines that one or more of the following 
  3.23  conditions apply: 
  3.24     (i) imposition of levy limits that significantly reduce 
  3.25  available funds for social, health, or health-related services 
  3.26  to families and children; 
  3.27     (ii) reduction in the net tax capacity of the taxable 
  3.28  property eligible to be taxed by the lead county or 
  3.29  subcontractor that significantly reduces available funds for 
  3.30  education, social, health, or health-related services to 
  3.31  families and children; 
  3.32     (iii) reduction in the number of children under age 19 in 
  3.33  the county, collaborative service delivery area, subcontractor's 
  3.34  district, or catchment area when compared to the number in the 
  3.35  base year using the most recent data provided by the State 
  3.36  Demographer's Office; or 
  4.1      (iv) termination of the federal revenue earned under the 
  4.2   family services collaborative agreement; 
  4.3      (5) the commissioner shall not use the federal 
  4.4   reimbursement earned under this subdivision in determining the 
  4.5   allocation or distribution of other funds to counties or 
  4.6   collaboratives; 
  4.7      (6) the commissioner may suspend, reduce, or terminate the 
  4.8   federal reimbursement to a provider that does not meet the 
  4.9   reporting or other requirements of this subdivision; 
  4.10     (7) the commissioner shall recover from the family services 
  4.11  collaborative any federal fiscal disallowances or sanctions for 
  4.12  audit exceptions directly attributable to the family services 
  4.13  collaborative's actions in the integrated fund, or the 
  4.14  proportional share if federal fiscal disallowances or sanctions 
  4.15  are based on a statewide random sample; and 
  4.16     (8) the commissioner shall establish criteria for the 
  4.17  family services collaborative for the accounting and financial 
  4.18  management system that will support claims for federal 
  4.19  reimbursement; and 
  4.20     (9) the commissioner shall submit an annual report to the 
  4.21  legislature describing the best practices of collaboratives, 
  4.22  highlighting collaborative activities that maximize service 
  4.23  delivery and minimize administrative activities, and proposing 
  4.24  statutory changes that may strengthen the effectiveness of 
  4.25  family services collaboratives. 
  4.26     (b)  [FAMILY SERVICES COLLABORATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES.] The 
  4.27  family services collaborative shall have the following authority 
  4.28  and responsibilities regarding federal revenue enhancement: 
  4.29     (1) the family services collaborative shall be the party 
  4.30  with which the commissioner contracts.  A lead county shall be 
  4.31  designated as the fiscal agency for reporting, claiming, and 
  4.32  receiving payments; 
  4.33     (2) the family services collaboratives may enter into 
  4.34  subcontracts with other counties, school districts, special 
  4.35  education cooperatives, municipalities, and other public and 
  4.36  nonprofit entities for purposes of identifying and claiming 
  5.1   eligible expenditures to enhance federal reimbursement, or to 
  5.2   expand education, social, health, or health-related services to 
  5.3   families and children; 
  5.4      (3) the family services collaborative must continue the 
  5.5   base level of expenditures for education, social, health, or 
  5.6   health-related services to families and children from any state, 
  5.7   county, federal, or other public or private funding source 
  5.8   which, in the absence of the new federal reimbursement earned 
  5.9   under this subdivision, would have been available for those 
  5.10  services, except as provided in subdivision 1, paragraph (a), 
  5.11  clause (4).  The base year for purposes of this subdivision 
  5.12  shall be the four-quarter calendar year ending at least two 
  5.13  calendar quarters before the first calendar quarter in which the 
  5.14  new federal reimbursement is earned; 
  5.15     (4) the family services collaborative must use all new 
  5.16  federal reimbursement resulting from federal revenue enhancement 
  5.17  to expand expenditures for education, social, health, or 
  5.18  health-related services to families and children beyond the base 
  5.19  level, except as provided in subdivision 1, paragraph (a), 
  5.20  clause (4); 
  5.21     (5) the family services collaborative must ensure that 
  5.22  expenditures submitted for federal reimbursement are not made 
  5.23  from federal funds or funds used to match other federal funds.  
  5.24  Notwithstanding section 256B.19, subdivision 1, for the purposes 
  5.25  of family services collaborative expenditures under agreement 
  5.26  with the department, the nonfederal share of costs shall be 
  5.27  provided by the family services collaborative from sources other 
  5.28  than federal funds or funds used to match other federal funds; 
  5.29     (6) the family services collaborative must develop and 
  5.30  maintain an accounting and financial management system adequate 
  5.31  to support all claims for federal reimbursement, including a 
  5.32  clear audit trail and any provisions specified in the agreement; 
  5.33  and 
  5.34     (7) the family services collaborative shall submit an 
  5.35  annual report to the commissioner as specified in the agreement. 
  5.36     <b>[EFFECTIVE DATE.]</b> This section is effective July 1, 2004.