Training/Technical Assistance & Best Practices

MEMORANDUM

TO: CPMT Chairs, FAPT Chairs, CSA Fiscal Agents and CSA Coordinators

FROM: Sharyn Robins, Financial/Policy Analyst
Office of Comprehensive Services for At-Risk Youth and Families

DATE: July 1, 2009

RE: 2009 CSA Policy Manual

Good news! The 2009 CSA Manual is now available online. The Manual can be found on the CSA web page under the CSA Manual/CSA Publications link.

http://www.csa.state.va.us/html/manual_pubs/csa_manual_publications.cfm

When viewing the manual for the first time, please take time to read the Preface to the document. The 2009 version has been reformatted to provide clearer direction as to the origin of the guidance given. From the location of the information, readers will be able to discern whether the information is CSA Policy, Best Practices or the policy of another agency.

The manual itself contains only CSA policy from the Code of Virginia, The Appropriations Act, and SEC directives. Hyperlinks have been inserted throughout the document to take the reader directly to the latest version of the Code of Virginia and the Appropriations Act or the SEC minutes where a policy was adopted.

Attached to the manual are a series of appendices. There is one appendix for each of the various agencies that work with CSA (DSS/DOE/DJJ/DBHRS/VFOF). The information contained in the appendices has been provided by a State level contact from that particular agency and provides direction as to the policies and regulations of the various agencies as they relate to CSA. Any questions that you may have regarding these policies should be directed to the contact person listed at the end of the appendix.

Finally, many sections of the manual also contain “Toolkit” links. These links take the user to a series of Best Practices information related to the particular section of the manual in which they are located. When printing the manual, it will be necessary to click each of the Red “Toolkit” links and print the index page in order to have an index for the best practices information contained therein. OCS will update these Best Practices documents as new information becomes available therefore a detailed inventory of what is available under each Toolkit link is not contained in the main index of the manual.

In addition to the above information, a final appendix has been added to the manual to assist readers with navigating the CSA web page.

The new online manual has some great features. It is a PDF and has a search feature that can be used to carry the user quickly to information on a particular topic by key word or phrase. The PDF manual also has buttons at the top that will allow you to view the document page by page for quick scrolling or on a regular continuous view. You can also print the document or save it to your desktop. As mentioned earlier, all of the links to Code are live. This means that you can instantly link to the latest version of the Code of Virginia, not only for CSA Code but for other agencies as well because these links have been enabled anywhere our Code cites to another agencies code.

Two things to note when using the document:

1) When you engage a link, use your “back” button to carry you back to the main document.
2) When accessing a Toolkit document, if you get a pop-up box asking whether you want to open or save the document, uncheck the little box that asks if you want to always be asked this question and then click open. This should stop the system from asking you this each time.

I hope you will all find the document well structured and easy to use. If you have any questions relating to the manual, please feel free to contact me by phone or email.

Sharyn G. Robins
Financial/Policy Analyst
Office of Comprehensive Services for At-Risk Youth and Families
1604 Santa Rosa Road, Suite 137
Richmond, VA 23229
Phone (804) 662-7402
sharyn.robins@csa.virginia.gov