OJJDP Stakeholder Budget Briefing

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, “OJJDP Stakeholder Budget Briefing,” hosted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.” At this time, it's my distinct pleasure to introduce Liz Ryan, Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, for welcoming remarks and to begin the presentation. Administrator Ryan?

LIZ RYAN: Good afternoon. I'm Liz Ryan, Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, or OJJDP. Welcome to OJJDP's Budget Briefing. I'm pleased to introduce two OJJDP experts who will walk you through the details of the President's Budget that relate to youth justice reform and programs serving young people, Deputy Administrator Janet Chiancone and Deputy Associate Administrator Jennifer Yeh. Together, they bring decades of expertise to today's conversation.

The President's 2024 Budget emphasizes transformation. OJJDP envisions—and the President's Budget supports—an effective, equitable juvenile justice system, one that improves youth outcomes and makes our communities safer. OJJDP provides national leadership, resources, and funding to states, Tribes, and communities to protect children, improve the juvenile justice system, and advance community safety.

Three priorities guide our work. First, treating children as children. Our decision-making must be informed by science and research to ensure young people are adjudicated fairly, held accountable in ways that are developmentally appropriate, and given opportunities to learn and recover from youthful mistakes. Second, serving children at home with their families and in their communities. And third, opening up opportunities for young people who come into contact with the justice system. At the heart of these priorities is OJJDP's unwavering commitment to racial equity and fairness, and our dedication to listening to and partnering with young people and families who have been directly impacted by the juvenile justice system. We look forward to telling you about how the President's Budget supports juvenile justice, and we also want to hear from you. Deputy Administrator Chiancone and Deputy Associate Administrator Yeh will be happy to answer questions after their presentations. Thank you so much for participating in today's webinar.

JANET CHIANCONE: Great. Thank you very much, Liz. And before we begin, I'm just going to introduce myself and ask Jen to introduce herself. I'm Janet Chiancone, one of the deputy administrators for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

JENNIFER YEH: Hello everyone. Good morning and good afternoon. I'm Jennifer Yeh, a Deputy Associate Administrator in our Operations Division within OJJDP.

JANET CHIANCONE: Okay. Thanks, Jen. Great. Next slide. Again, thanks again for joining us. Those of you, especially I've seen some Alaska, Louisiana. I saw them both come up on the chat. Thanks for joining us. And I'm going to go over just briefly what we're going to be covering today. Jennifer Yeh is going to provide a brief overview of a federal budget process in case some of you forgot that from your civics classes back in middle school and high school. She's also going to clarify for us some of the terminology and timelines. Then I'm going to walk through the 2024 Budget Request, and specifically, I'll be talking about OJJDP's programs that are in that budget. And then at that point, we will also take a break and pause to answer some questions, and then we'll close out by providing you with some information about how to find out about OJJDP's current funding for 2023, our current year, and some resources. So we thank you again for joining us. We know the budget can be dry, but remember it's all about the money. So we are hoping that will keep you certainly entertained and awake at least. I'm going to turn it over to Jen. Thanks, Jen.

JENNIFER YEH: Thanks, Janet. Again, thank you all for joining us today. I appreciate that so many of you are interested in learning about OJJDP and the President's Fiscal Year '24 Budget Request. I will kick us off with a very high-level overview of the Federal Budget Process. And as we know, it is a rather complex process, so I will highlight some of the key steps and how they impact our office, OJJDP. And again, you might recall some of this from earlier lessons from social studies or civic classes as Janet mentioned. So, let's jump right in with the President's Budget Request.

Now, early each calendar year, the White House proposes the level of spending for federal agencies and programs. It outlines estimates for revenue and expenditures and details the administration's policy and spending priorities. And you see here, typically the first Monday in February, but this year it actually was submitted the first Thursday in March.

And next, we move to the Congressional Hearings step. Agency officials testify before authorizing and appropriating committees in order to justify budget requests. So, this really offers a preview of the major spending and policy debates for that fiscal year. For our Office, the Fiscal Year '24 Budget Hearing Request for the Department of Justice grant-making components already occurred last month on April 24th.

And there are three grant-making agencies under the Department of Justice. The first is the Office on Violence Against Women, OVW; the Community Oriented Policing Office, also known as the COPS Office; and then the Office of Justice Programs, or OJP. under which OJJDP resides. So, for that budget hearing, the OJP Chief Financial Officer Rachel Johnson represented OJP, and therefore OJJDP, at that hearing back in April.

So, next we move to the Budget Resolution step, and that's really where we are at this point. This is a blueprint that takes a holistic approach to spending revenue and the resulting deficit or surplus to govern internal decision-making. The resolution does not have force of law, and it does not go to the President. And in recent years, lawmakers have skipped this step, instead working out a series of two-year deals that increased spending caps have been set by law. So again, this is where we are in terms of the '24 budget and then as we're approaching the Appropriations Bills, and that comes in step number four. And this is where federal agencies receive funding for a fiscal year through appropriations bills that are passed by Congress based on the President's recommendations and Congressional priorities.

So, you might be wondering what actually occurs during this appropriations process. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are divided into 12 subcommittees, which may hold hearings to discuss budget requests and needs. Then, each subcommittee comes up with a bill that must pass both chambers and then be signed by the President in order to take effect. If a full-year appropriation isn't in place by September 30th, that is the end of the fiscal year, then a continuing resolution can be used to extend funding for a period of time, typically at the previous year's level. Next slide, please.

So, this graphic shows us how the federal budget flow typically spans the calendar year. You'll see here in February where the budget proposal is submitted. And then the budget-related hearings come from February through about mid-April, Congressional budget resolution around mid-April, and then appropriations activities really spans from now until September 30th, the end of our fiscal year, and of course, the start of the next fiscal year, October 1st. Next slide, please.

So, here we wanted to just highlight that there are three budgets in play at the same time. So, I just touched on the FY '23 appropriations that came through at the end of the calendar year 2022. And so, Congress passed the federal budget actually on December 22nd, and that was the day before the end of the continuing resolution that was set to expire December 23rd. So, once that appropriation did come through for the fiscal year '23 calendar, then we are now implementing that budget with a program plan and funding opportunities that I'll share more about later in our presentation. The second budget, fiscal year '24, and we'll hear from Janet momentarily some of the specifics about the President's Budget, but that spans October '23 through September of '24. And in terms of process, we are fielding some questions from Congress about the President's Budget right now in preparation for, hopefully, an appropriations bill later this year. And at the same time, we're also looking ahead to fiscal year '25, and this is where we have an internal spring call process where we have the opportunity to make recommendations on new programs or adjustments in terms of increases or decreases to current programs in preparation for the FY '25 budget requests. Next slide.

So, a little bit more about Congressional Committees involved in this budget process. So the Appropriations Committees, which I've touched on earlier, they write the legislation that allocates the funding to the various departments and agencies. And then there are 12 subcommittees that are tapped with drafting the specific legislation. The Budget Committees monitor and enforce the rules around the funding. And then the Authorizing Committees really give the authority for those programs or agencies. So again, Appropriations Committees allocate the funding, Budget Committees monitor and enforce the rules around the funding, and then the Authorizing Committees just exactly that, give the authority for the funding and the programs that are identified for that funding. Next slide.

So here's a deeper look into the specific Appropriation Subcommittee that Department of Justice falls under. It's the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriation Subcommittee, often referred to as CJS. And here's a look at the key leadership of that subcommittee from the Senate side and the House side. And oftentimes, we'll refer to them as the four corners, as you can see listed here. Next slide, please.

Okay. So it might be helpful to think of the federal budget like a pizza. So the Budget Committee, that committee decides how large the pizza is. So small, medium, large, maybe deep dish or extra-large, as well as the size of each slice, right? So the Budget Committee decides on the size of the pizza. And then the Appropriations Committees, and more specifically, each of those subcommittees that I mentioned, there are 12 of them. Those committees decide which toppings, i.e., programs and the funding, will go on the larger slice. So, the Appropriations Committees determine what toppings and then the amount of each topping that go on each slice. So, hopefully that's helpful, and to think about, again, the larger pizza is determined—the size of it is determined by the Budget Committee, and then the Appropriations Committees decide on the toppings and how many toppings, how much toppings goes on each slice. And with that, I will pass the pizza over to Janet.

JANET CHIANCONE: Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Jen. I will have pepperoni on my slice. Let me just say that. Next slide.

Let's go ahead and start. So, before I dig into the details of the 2024 budget, I do want to remind everybody that this is obviously the President's Budget. It reflects the Administration's Priorities, which are up on the screen. For OJJDP specifically, a lot of the focus is going to be on that third priority. However, I have to say that I think our budget submission actually reflects all of these priorities. At the beginning of the presentation, Liz outlined OJJDP's specific priorities to treat children as children, to serve children at home with their families, in their communities, and to open up opportunities for system-involved youth. And, certainly, I think you'll see that the budget certainly reflects those priorities. Next slide, please.

Again, before I dig into it, what you'll see is the budget request actually reflects a very substantial increase across the board for OJJDP's programs. What is being requested is nearly double what the enacted budget for 2023 was. The overall budget request is for $760 million, which compared to 2023, where the appropriation was $400 million. You will also see that there are several new programs and there are some substantial increases to some of our existing programs. The new programs in particular also focus on strengthening the system and reducing inequities. Next slide.

So, this might be a little hard to read. This is an overview of the budget request. Don't worry about taking a screenshot because we are going to have these tables available online right after this presentation. I'm going to walk through this very briefly so that I can explain what's reflected on the screen.

And what I would say is the first important thing to note is this is a budget table, so add three zeros to every number. In other words, that first cell with a number in it is not $4,500. It is $4.5 million. And that's a very typical thing to happen with budget tables, was one of the first things that really surprised me when I began this work. Let me talk a little bit about what's in each one of these columns. The first column, this is an overview of the request. We have, let me say two first, there are two headings that OJJDP's programs typically get funded under. The first is the Juvenile Justice Programs heading, this is the one that we typically focus on much more because this really is the OJJDP budget. However, there is another heading that I'll talk about in a minute, which is the State Local Law Enforcement Assistance heading that includes some other programs that just happen to come in under another heading for the Department of Justice. And we'll talk about that one in a minute. So this one, the Juvenile Justice Programs, the first column is obviously the name of the program itself. And you'll see that some of these programs have specific carve-outs, which are programs within themselves. The second column, the first one with numbers, is the funding level that was appropriated for 2023. So that's the year we are currently in. So for that first line, that was $4.5 million for that program. The next column is what is being proposed for the 2024 budget. And that, for example, in that first line is $6 million. And then the third column is the difference, basically. So it shows you in most cases increases. There are a few cases where there's not been a change or there might even be a slight decrease. Next slide, please.

This is the other heading that OJJDP's programs are funded under, State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance. So this table that is here only shows the OJJDP programs that come in under that program. There are many, many programs that come in under that heading. There are other programs that we share with most of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, including Drug Courts, a lot of Second Chance Act funding, the STOP School Violence Program, and Justice Reinvestment. But they are not included on this table because they're not technically OJJDP programs. We do negotiate to get a portion of those funds, but that happens after the appropriation. However, don't worry, because also online is the full table for all of OJP funding, including the entire State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance table. For this presentation, we're primarily going to focus on the Juvenile Justice Programs table. Next slide.

So now, I'm going to start to kind of dig into each one of these programs and feel free to include any questions in the Q&A or we will pause for questions as well. The first is Community-Based Alternative to Youth Incarceration Initiative. And the request is for $50 million. I am first going to talk about our new programs, and then I'll talk about increases. This is considered a new program. The first three that I'm going to talk about are new programs because they have not received a prior appropriation. However, they were in the 2023 President's Budget as well. That first program, Community-Based Alternatives to Youth Incarceration, really reflects the reforms that have happened over the past many years. Many of those of you who are on the phone right now, over the past two decades or so, a lot of states, localities have implemented their own system-wide reforms. They're relying much less on the traditional locked facilities. They're doing much more community-based placement. They're doing a lot of diversion, and again, keeping youth closer to home, closer to their families, closer to their communities. And what we've been hearing from state and localities is that they need guidance on how to close and repurpose some of those old traditional, large, locked facilities, kind of the youth prisons that we sometimes refer to, in a way, to close and repurpose them in a way that does not negatively impact the local community, saves jobs for many of the staff that work with youth, and also, repurpose and reinvest those funds into local community-based alternatives to youth. So this program is going to support jurisdictions to plan for closing what they've already got, in many cases on their radar, closing these larger facilities, repurposing those facilities into other kinds of services and other kinds of youth serving programs, and then reinvesting some of the money in more community-based alternatives. These would be grant programs with the support of training and technical assistance.

The next program, also a new program, although it was included in the 2023 President's Budget, is Eliminating Records-Related Barriers to Youth Success. The request is for $15 million. Contrary to popular fiction, juvenile records are pretty accessible in a lot of communities. They are accessible to potential employers, universities, credit bureaus, mortgage lenders, voting roles, the military, and having a record. And when I say a record, I'm not just talking about a record of having been adjudicated, but it could also just be an arrest record, can definitely impede an individual's ability to move forward. And it is one of the major things that we have heard through our Second Chance and reentry experiences is that the existence of records and the inability to seal, vacate, or expunge those records has really been a barrier to being able to move forward in a successful way. This program would provide grants to states, territories, localities, both private and public organizations, for a grants program and training and technical assistance to establish procedures and programs that assist with sealing, vacating, and expunging juvenile records to those that are eligible to do so. Next slide.

This next program, Youth-Focused Hate Crime Prevention and Intervention Initiative, is a request for $5 million. This was also in the '23 budget. It's a comprehensive program that was not entirely but largely informed by a series of roundtables that OJJDP did over the past year and a half, two years, with youth all over the country on hate crimes and bullying and related issues. This initiative would be a grant program initiative with training and technical assistance to help communities develop and incorporate a continuum of services around prevention and early intervention. It would include education, skill building, support for youth that are exposed to different sources of information, and often misinformation, about different cultures and different peoples. And also would focus on building protective factors for youth who are especially vulnerable to recruitment and targeting by hate groups. Another component of this program would also work to assist youth to exit hate groups. This is obviously a very high level of interest in this program. We've heard a lot of feedback from communities that really want this kind of support.

These next two programs are brand new for 2024. The first one—these have not been in a prior President's Budget. The first one or second on the slide, Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Collaboration Initiative, so this is why they both have asterisks, by the way, it's because they're new for '24. This new one is for $30 million. This request is, again, a grant program. All of our requests pretty much are grant programs to assist communities in addressing the needs of dual status youth. So those are youth who come into contact with both the child welfare and juvenile justice system. And usually, from our end, the juvenile justice end, we often encounter them later in the process, but they've already been involved in another system, and that is child welfare. We also know that that makes them at much greater risk of getting involved in the system and obviously impacts their ability to move forward and get out of the system as well. The funding will be for a variety of things, but kind of central to this program are in the implementation of trauma-informed programs and strategies within the juvenile justice system at different points within that system, and then collaboration between the two systems. So that includes things like information-sharing, cross-training, even collaboration between existing staff across the systems. This will also include a training and technical assistance component, and there will be a lot of information-sharing through the initiative as well.

Then the last new program on the list is the Youth and Family Engagement Training and Technical Assistance Program. This is specifically a training and technical assistance program. The goal is to establish a Youth and Family Engagement Training and TA Center, essentially, that would inform all of OJJDP's initiatives, and hopefully initiatives all around the country in the juvenile justice field. The aim is to strengthen all of our efforts by ensuring that individuals that have lived justice system experience have a meaningful way of providing their input into programs, policies, and practices. A lot of the focus for this initiative, at least initially, will be in working with states, localities, and Tribes to incorporate youth and family voices into their advisory groups that are already existing, as well as the juvenile justice system improvement work. A long-term goal is to institutionalize this practice across the field so that this component of ensuring engagement of impacted individuals is a natural part of how we develop programs and how we implement programs going forward. Next slide.

So, in addition to the new programs, we also have some pretty substantial increases to our current programs. On this page are a couple and I'll talk through all of them. The first is our Formula Grants Program. I know a lot of the folks that are on this phone probably are pretty familiar with that program. A substantial increase of $82 million is being requested. This is our flagship program. It is formula grant for states and territories. Most of the funds that are issued to states and territories are passed through to local agencies and organizations. This is a long overdue increase. It's really quite urgently needed to ensure that states and territories can maintain compliance with some of the strength and core requirements that were resulted from the 2018 reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act, and also continue to support their important prevention, early intervention, and treatment programs. This increase would also allow OJJDP to increase the minimum state allocation, which we haven't been able to do for several years.

The next program is also an ongoing program with OJJDP, Improving Juvenile Indigent Defense Program. It's been funded for several years, but only at $2.5 million, which really barely scratches the surface. So our increase is requesting at $37.5 million to increase it to $40 million. This is a program that really supports a fundamental component of the juvenile system, and that is defense. Right now, we are able to provide it through training and technical assistance in a small number of grants. But this is work that ensures that localities, Tribes, states, and communities can develop and implement a well-resourced model juvenile defense delivery system that has strong standards of practice and policies. I think one thing that we really see the increase being able to do would be for us to do more work with rural, remote, and underserved communities who are especially challenged at being able to resource this component of the system.

The last one on this page is our Missing and Exploited Children's Program. We're requesting an increase of $25 million here. This program, also long-standing program with OJJDP, currently supports the AMBER Alert Program, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the Internet Crimes Against Children Program. This increase is largely going to help us address the backlog of forensic digital examinations that have resulted from the CyberTipline reports. And we've also had a large increase to the Internet Crimes Against Children task forces at the same time. A lot of this increase began with the pandemic and it's continued. So what we see this funding be able to do is allow us to put more resources towards bringing down that backlog. Next slide.

There's a lot of information on this slide, so I'm going to try to walk through it a little bit. This is our Delinquency Prevention Program. This is really one of the biggest programs within OJJDP. It's not only large, I mean, obviously we're requesting an $86 million increase to $151 million. But this is a program that also has a number of carve-outs, which in themselves are their own individual programs. And you can see them on the screen here. So the four programs that are listed—Children Exposed to Violence, Girls in the Juvenile Justice System, Opioid-Affected Youth, and Tribal Youth Program—are requesting individual increases. In addition to that, a primary purpose of the increase request for this component is the general category, which is at the bottom, which is the balance once we remove the carve-outs. So we're requesting $32 million increase there to bring us up to $44.5 million. And the primary purpose of that increase is to be able to make competitive awards to local and Tribal governments that will allow them to invest in programs that encourage youth development, prevention, and treatment rather than incarceration. This is really a program that is kind of a made-to-order program. In other words, communities themselves based on their current needs, the data in their community, the gaps that they identify the primary needs, their population, will be able to use these funds to design and fund a coordinated system of early intervention, evidence-based programming that's responsive to their own tailored needs. So those could be everything from programs that focus on positive youth development, screening strategies, diversion programming, multi-systemic therapy, other kinds of therapeutic programs, after school strategies, restorative justice, so really kind of the soup to nuts when it comes to delinquency prevention and early intervention. Every community is different, and they need to respond in the way that is best for their own community. They also have different sources of funding. This allows them to kind of put together the patchwork of funding. And these funds would fill in gaps that they are not able to support in other ways. Next slide.

So I'm just going to talk about last three increases. Again, these are also ongoing core programs for OJJDP. But we are requesting some increases. Youth Mentoring, we're requesting a $13 million increase. We know that mentoring is one of the most effective delinquency prevention strategies out there, and early intervention strategies. Most young people, especially those that need it the most don't have access to mentors. And that in particular includes youth that are system-involved. So these funds would be used to increase some of the work in that area. And also to expand some of our strategies to include other kinds of mentoring models, including credible messenger mentoring.

The next program, which is under the Victims of Child Abuse Act, focuses on investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases. And this brings together specialized teams that are multidisciplinary in nature, that are designed to safeguard the child themselves and their family through the investigation and prosecution process, but also do an effective job. These additional funds would be used to expand some kind of key areas that have been lacking. Focusing on child advocacy centers that serve American Indian and Alaska Natives, as well as rural communities and military installations, would also help us to fund some specialized infrastructure needs around things like telemental health, and establishing some mobile units to provide services, especially in hard to reach communities.

And then the last program is Child Abuse Training Programs for Judicial Personnel and Practitioners, is also a long-standing program for OJJDP. This is a training program for court personnel, judges, social workers, others that work in the court system. This increase allows us to update the curriculum with some of the latest science and information out there, as well as expanding the reach to a larger group of communities in rural, Tribal, and underserved communities. Next slide.

So just a reminder of the tables again in the chat. I think Daryl put in the chat the link to where these materials are. So if you really want to dig in there and you have some questions, please feel free to include them in the Q&A or follow up after. Next slide, please.

This is getting the same one. Okay. Thank you. So a couple of takeaways from the budget. Obviously, hopefully, you can see that it reflects a very high priority for juvenile justice programming, twice as much funding as we received in 2023, very strong focus on reform in particular. It is unclear, as Jen mentioned, what new programs will get traction in the appropriation bills. We are just beginning to get some questions back from the hearing. So we don't really have a sense yet. There are not any budget bills yet that we've been able to—they're still in the drafting mode. But once we have more information, we'll be sharing it. And with that, now we have time for questions. If anybody has questions, please feel free to put them in the chat, or, Daryl, if we are able to have people raise their hand, you tell me.

DARYL FOX: If you do have a question, if you could, on the far bottom right three dots, select Q&A and send to all panelists. And this time, we can go through those if you do have any. Nothing at the queue at this time, but we'll certainly monitor that. We do have some time.

JENNIFER YEH: Okay.

DARYL FOX: If you want to proceed, please feel free to do so.

JENNIFER YEH: So as you all are potentially formulating some questions, we can move on to some of the funding resources that we prepared for you. So next slide, please, Daryl.

And, again. So in terms of how we put out our funding once we have the approved budget. So we'll talk about FY '23. As we mentioned, we have the appropriation that was signed at the end of the previous calendar year, so December of 2022. And we are currently in fiscal year '23. And we're putting out funding opportunities in line with that budget that was approved. So we typically put out two types of grant opportunities, and one is under the Discretionary side that's really competitive funding. So we put out announcements, and eligible applicants will apply for that funding directly to DOJ. And these funds are typically awarded on a competitive basis. And then on the Formula side, Janet mentioned our flagship formula program, which is The Title II Formula Grants Program, that's usually administered and managed out of each state by the state administering agencies who often subaward funding to local and local subawards. And these are often awarded the formula of funding on a non-competitive basis to the state where the distribution levels are determined by statute or some other distribution process determined by the DOJ. Next slide, please.

So we'll move next into the Program Plan. And this is really a high-level overview of all the planned funding under the Department of Justice. And as I mentioned earlier, the three grant-making components under DOJ, so the Office of Justice Programs under which OJJDP sits, and then there's COPS Office, Community Oriented Policing Services Office, as well as OVW, Office on Violence Against Women. So this is where you can see really a snapshot of our overall program plan for fiscal year '23. So once that approved budget comes through, then all of our grant-making components put together our program plan for how to utilize that funding in that fiscal year. The next slide, please, Daryl.

And I can dive a little bit deeper into how you can see what those plans are under that fiscal year. So we can select OJJDP in this case, and you can see the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance is the first initiative listed there. And the next slide will show you a little bit more information about that initiative, as was forecasted for 2023.

And you can see this type of information, again, across all of our grant-making components for 2023. And this also gives you a kind of a glimpse of the kind of information that we'll also provide for FY '24 when the budget gets approved, and we're able to prepare and finalize our program plan for publication. Next slide, please.

So to find out more about the specific funding opportunities under fiscal year '23 for OJJDP, you can go to our specific website under ojjdp.ojp.gov. And this is where you can find open funding. Next slide will show you what's currently posted there.

And there's also a filter as well to search for by topic area or type of entity. The solicitation that's posted here is Strategies To Support Children Exposed to Violence. And it actually closes today. You can see that here. And if you click on the header, the name of the solicitation, you'll see a little bit more information about posting deadlines, submission deadlines, as well as a little link to download the actual solicitation for more information. Next slide.

So here's a slide that shows how to connect with OJJDP. We are on various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. These last two: the newsletter is a bimonthly opportunity that comes out via email, so you can sign up for that listserv there; and then JUVJUST is the more frequent email listserv that provides information about funding opportunities that are posted, publications, and other events that might be of interest to the field. And with that, I think we'll turn it back to questions. Janet, I think I did see one question come through.

JANET CHIANCONE: I see. There's a question from Eric Hawkins in Kentucky. “Any relaxation in the formula grant for more flexibility?” Not exactly sure what that means. However, I'll try to answer. I think what you're talking about there, I imagine is funding flexibility in terms of being able to fund a variety of other kinds of programs. We are not too far away from issuing the FY 2023 funding opportunity solicitation for the formula grant. You will see some slight changes in that solicitation. For the formula grant specifically, I will let you know that OJJDP has just begun the process of working on draft regulations for the 2018 reauthorization. And that process, which the field will have an opportunity to comment on, should, I believe, offer some more flexibility. That is our intent in the formula grant. Feel free to include a follow up question if you need a little more clarity on that.

I also see, I think it's Datura Midiza Madera, I think is right, is asking, “How does it work with marketing and sponsors?” And I need a little more information on that question. Are you talking about whether grant funds can be used for that work? It does depend on the program itself. There are some of our grant programs that will allow the grantees to use funds for outreach and communication, which is similar to marketing, but I'm not sure if that answers your question. Please feel free to include a follow-up.

Let me see. There may be more. I'm actually looking at the chat. So there may be more on the other side.

There is a question. “Will the TTA with child welfare and JJ system collaboration include strengthening the JJRA requirements, especially as it pertains to DSO?” Right now, there is not an intent with that program. It's primarily a funding request. It's not expected to change the language of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act, which was reauthorized back in 2018. Regarding the DSO requirement, which is one of the core requirements to Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders requirement that is not included within the intent that that budget requests. However, as I mentioned a little while ago, there is a process that we've just begun on drafting regulations. And that is where something like that would likely be incorporated. So please feel free to send your feedback. You can send it to me or Jen, or you can also send it to the OJJDP Administrator. There is an opportunity to do that on the OJJDP website. So if you have ideas in that area, please feel free to send that. Let me take a look at the Q&A. There may be questions in there as well. Nope. Any other questions? Tell me if I'm missing any, Daryl, you would know better than me.

DARYL FOX: That's the end of the queue at this time.

JANET CHIANCONE: Okay. As we mentioned earlier, all the materials that we're sharing here are being posted online. You will be getting a post email. Thank you. And it will include all those links over there also, there in the chat.

I do see a question, it just came in. “Is there a designated technical assistance email?” If you go on the OJJDP website, you will be able to access TTA 360, which is the place to make a direct technical assistance request. I have to say I don't have the website right in front of me, but on the main website it's pretty clear how you can access training and technical assistance. There we go. Thank you, Jill, [email protected]. All right. I'll turn it back over to you, Daryl.

DARYL FOX: Okay. So just as a reminder, there are some links put in the chat. The recording, transcript, and PowerPoint from today will be posted to the OJJDP website. You'll receive an email when and where to access those on the site. So with that, on behalf of OJJDP and our panelists, we want to thank you for joining today's webinar. This will end today's presentation.