Quality improvement and cost-effectiveness; Comprehensive Accountability Report.

(1) INTENT.—It is the intent of the Legislature that the department establish a performance accountability system for each provider who contracts with the department for the delivery of services to children. The contract shall include both output measures, such as the number of children served, and outcome measures, including program completion and postcompletion recidivism. Each contractor shall report performance results to the department annually. The department’s Bureau of Research and Planning shall summarize performance results from all contracts and report the information to the Legislature annually in the Comprehensive Accountability Report. The report shall:

(a) Ensure that information be provided to decisionmakers in a timely manner so that resources are allocated to programs that achieve desired performance levels.

(b) Provide information about the cost of such programs and their differential effectiveness so that the quality of such programs can be compared and improvements made continually.

(c) Provide information to aid in developing related policy issues and concerns.

(d) Provide information to the public about the effectiveness of such programs in meeting established goals and objectives.

(e) Provide a basis for a system of accountability so that each child is afforded the best programs to meet his or her needs.

(f) Improve service delivery to children through the use of technical assistance.

(g) Modify or eliminate activities or programs that are not effective.

(h) Collect and analyze available statistical data for the purpose of ongoing evaluation of all programs.

(2) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term:

(a) “Program” means any facility or service for youth that is operated by the department or by a provider under contract with the department.

(b) “Program component” means an aggregation of generally related objectives which, because of their special character, related workload, and interrelated output, can logically be considered an entity for purposes of organization, management, accounting, reporting, and budgeting.

(c) “Program group” means a collection of programs with sufficient similarity of functions, services, and youth to permit appropriate comparison amongst programs within the group.

(3) COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT.—The department, in consultation with contract service providers, shall develop and use a standard methodology for annually measuring, evaluating, and reporting program outputs and youth outcomes for each program and program group. The standard methodology must:

(a) Include common terminology and operational definitions for measuring the performance of system and program administration, program outputs, and program outcomes.

(b) Specify program outputs for each program and for each program group within the juvenile justice continuum.

(c) Specify desired child outcomes and methods by which to measure child outcomes for each program and program group.

(4) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT.—The department shall:

(a) Establish a comprehensive quality improvement system for each program operated by the department or operated by a provider under contract with the department. Each contract entered into by the department must provide for quality improvement.

(b) Provide operational definitions of and criteria for quality improvement for each specific program component.

(c) Establish quality improvement goals and objectives for each specific program component.

(d) Establish the information and specific data elements required for the quality improvement program.

(e) Develop a quality improvement manual of specific, standardized terminology and procedures to be followed by each program.

(f) Evaluate each program operated by the department or a provider under a contract with the department annually and establish minimum standards for each program component. If a provider fails to meet the established minimum standards, such failure shall cause the department to cancel the provider’s contract unless the provider achieves compliance with minimum standards within 6 months or unless there are documented extenuating circumstances. In addition, the department may not contract with the same provider for the canceled service for a period of 12 months. If a department-operated program fails to meet the established minimum standards, the department must take necessary and sufficient steps to ensure and document program changes to achieve compliance with the established minimum standards. If the department-operated program fails to achieve compliance with the established minimum standards within 6 months and if there are no documented extenuating circumstances, the department must notify the Executive Office of the Governor and the Legislature of the corrective action taken. Appropriate corrective action may include, but is not limited to:

1. Contracting out for the services provided in the program;

2. Initiating appropriate disciplinary action against all employees whose conduct or performance is deemed to have materially contributed to the program’s failure to meet established minimum standards;

3. Redesigning the program; or

4. Realigning the program.

(5) COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT SUBMISSION.—The department shall submit the Comprehensive Accountability Report to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Minority Leader of each house of the Legislature, the appropriate substantive and fiscal committees of each house of the Legislature, and the Governor, no later than February 1 of each year. The Comprehensive Accountability Report must contain, at a minimum, for each specific program component: a comprehensive description of the population served by the program; a specific description of the services provided by the program; cost; a comparison of expenditures to federal and state funding; immediate and long-range concerns; and recommendations to maintain, expand, improve, modify, or eliminate each program component so that changes in services lead to enhancement in program quality. The department shall ensure the reliability and validity of the information contained in the report.

(6) ONGOING EVALUATIONS; REPORTS.—The department shall collect and analyze available statistical data for the purpose of ongoing evaluation of all programs. The department shall provide the Legislature with necessary information and reports to enable the Legislature to make informed decisions regarding the effectiveness of, and any needed changes in, services, programs, policies, and laws.