History and Legislation |
Decategorization was created through legislation enacted by the Iowa General Assembly in 1987. The legislation was initially authorized for the participation of two counties. Polk County and Scott County were selected to be the pilot projects and both started in 1988.
The goals of the 1987 legislation were to: 1) enhance the array of services available to clients to better meet their needs; 2) overcome some of the problems and barriers to serving clients which traditional categorical funding streams present; and 3) accomplish major system changes without spending more than would have been spent in the former categorical system.
The decategorization initiative was developed in response to:
Decategorization was designed to be a process that combines the individual state appropriations for child welfare services into a single fund to encourage the development of services that better meet the needs of youth and families by allowing the local county flexibility in how these funds are used. Participation by the Department of Human Services, Juvenile Court Services, and the County are required terms of the legislation.
Decategorization is an effort to significantly change the current child welfare system to one that is needs-based, family focused, easily accessible, more intensive, less restrictive, and cost effective.
Decategorization projects are organized by county or clusters of counties. Today there are 39 decategorization projects across the state of Iowa, covering every county except one.
During the 2005 session, HF 616, titled “An Act Revising Requirements Applicable to County and Multi-county Decategorization of Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Funding Projects” was passed by the General Assembly, and was signed by the Governor on May 3, 2005.
Accomplishments
Interagency planning and coordination has been one of the most positive effects of decategorization in Polk County. The Polk County Decategorization Project has been able to maintain the commitment and active involvement of a wide array of individuals and organizations in the community. One of the strengths of the project has been the cooperation at the administrative level that has allowed and encouraged collaborative planning at other levels. Communication has increased between administrators and staff, between organizations, and between systems.
Over-all accomplishments of decategorization in Polk County include the following:
Each year, Decat creates an Annual Service Plan for submission to the State of Iowa by October 1. Additionally, a progress report on each preceding fiscal year is due by December 1.
The annual plan for FY24 can be downloaded here: Annual Service Plan, FY24
The annual plan for FY23 can be downloaded here: Annual Service Plan, FY23
The annual plan for FY22 can be downloaded here: Annual Service Plan, FY22
The annual plan for FY21 can be downloaded here: Annual Service Plan, FY21
The annual plan for FY20 can be downloaded here: Annual Service Plan, FY20
The annual plan for FY19 can be downloaded here: Annual Service Plan, FY19
The annual plan for FY18 can be downloaded here: Annual Service Plan, FY18
The annual plan for FY17 can be downloaded here: Annual Service Plan, FY17
The progress report and the addendum can be downloaded here: Progress Report, FY15 Progress Report, FY16 Progress Report, FY17 Progress Report, FY18 Progress Report, FY19 Progress Report, FY20 Progress Report, FY21 Progress Report, FY22 Progress Report, FY23