The Florida Commission on Offender Review functions as a quasi-judicial, decision-making body that administers post-prison supervisory release programs such as parole, conditional release, and conditional medical release, as well as acts as the administrative and investigative arm of the Governor and Cabinet sitting as the Board of Executive Clemency. The commission administers victim rights notification processes using the Department of Corrections information services to maintain victim contact information and documents. This report examines commission victim notification records for the period July 2021 through December 2022 to determine whether commission processes and procedures facilitated the notification of victims of their rights related to parole, control release, conditional release, conditional medical release, clemency, and addiction recovery case proceedings per the Constitution and other applicable requirements. Auditors found that the commission did not always administer victim rights notifications per the Constitution and other applicable requirements. Auditors also found that the commission document scanning and imaging controls and security controls related to storing confidential victim records need improvement.

In 2020, the 2,347 prosecutor offices in the United States employed a total of 35,120 attorneys. These offices handled felony cases in state courts of general jurisdiction. Nearly 12,000 attorneys were employed by offices in the largest jurisdictions, those serving populations of 1 million or more residents. Offices that served populations of fewer than 100,000 residents (6,175) had nearly 1,600 more prosecutors than those that served populations of 250,000 to 499,999 residents (4,585). Across all offices, 33,500 (95%) prosecutors were employed full time and 1,620 (5%) were employed part time. About 80% of full-time attorneys employed at state prosecutor offices were white, and half were female. In addition to attorneys, state prosecutor offices employed non-attorney staff, including investigators, victim and witness staff, support staff, and review and redaction staff. In 2020, there were 44,150 full-time non-attorney staff employed in state prosecutor offices. The number of staff employed by state prosecutor offices increased by 44% from 1992 to 2020. State prosecutor offices reported more than $6 billion in operating expenditures in 2020. The average operating expenditures per prosecutor office was more than $2.7 million. In 2020, more than 2.7 million felony matters were reviewed by state prosecutor offices. Prosecutor offices filed 78% of those cases in court and declined 22%. Prosecutors concluded about 1.9 million felony cases. Of these, 67% were closed by plea bargain, 17% were dismissed, 12% were closed by other dispositions (e.g., deferred prosecution, diversion, or referral to problem-solving courts), and 5% went to court or jury trial.

This report describes the number and types of law enforcement training academies in the United States in 2022, and it presents findings on the characteristics of recruits and training outcomes. Findings in the report are based primarily on the 2022 Census of Law Enforcement Training Academies (CLETA).Conducted periodically since 2002, CLETA collects information from training academies that are responsible for administering mandatory basic training to newly appointed or elected law enforcement officers on recruits, staff, training curricula, equipment, and facilities. These academies are operated by state, regional, county, and municipal agencies and by universities, colleges, and technical schools. Academies that provide only in-service training are excluded from CLETA. Two in 5 starting recruits were trained at an academy operated by either a 2-year college (21%) or a municipal police department (21%). State and local law enforcement academies required an average of 806 hours of basic training. There were 414 training academies operated by law enforcement entities and 333 operated by colleges or technical schools. More than 14% of all recruits did not complete basic training: 8% involuntarily, 5% due to a voluntary withdrawal, and about 1% for a different or unknown reason.

The Study of Coaching in Early Care and Education Settings (SCOPE) was designed to examine the variations in coaching in early childhood education. The sample was recruited across seven geographically dispersed states that demonstrated active implementation of coaching in at least one early childhood education setting. The centers and family child care (FCC) provider homes in the SCOPE sample served children from families with low incomes primarily through a federal Head Start grant and/or with federal Child Care and Development Fund subsidies (though many settings had other sources of revenue as well). Multiple factors contribute to an understanding of caseload. Caseload may typically be thought of as number of teachers/providers being coached. However, calculation methods (at center level, teacher/provider) level), contributing factors (geographic distribution of coaching settings; frequency of meetings), and variations in coaching content (each teacher/provider receiving same coaching or tailored coaching) could impact caseload interpretation. Caseload size, based on number of providers/teachers served, was highly varied and typically larger for SCOPE 2019 coaches who worked across both centers and FCC homes. Most early childhood education coaches in SCOPE 2019 worked full time and spent the majority of their working hours involved in coaching-related activities, suggesting that coaching was the primary component of their job. Across settings and caseload size, SCOPE 2019 coaches met and communicated frequently with teachers and FCC providers.

Eighty-five percent of charter schools nationwide participated in the National School Lunch Program in school year 2022-23, increasing from 64% in school year 2018-19, according to U.S. Department of Education data. Charter school participation rates varied by states. For instance, 13 states and Puerto Rico had 100% participation in school year 2022-23 and five states had less than 50% participation. In 2018, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) collected information for its annual child nutrition operations study to better understand charter school participation in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs (school meal programs) that could inform potential reasons for state variation. However, due to study challenges, FNS was not able to use the information and has not tried to explore these issues since. FNS officials said that it would be resource intensive to include enough charter schools in a study to obtain statistically valid findings, but the agency has not recently assessed the feasibility or cost of doing so. Collecting information on charter schools in cost effective ways, such as by leveraging prior efforts, could help FNS better support states and schools. Officials from the 14 charter schools in GAO's review that participate in the National School Lunch Program reported facility, vendor, and staffing challenges in operating school meal programs. For example, most school officials said that limited kitchen or eating space makes it difficult to prepare or serve food, as a number operated in non-traditional spaces. Many of those schools contracted with vendors for prepared meals, but also reported challenges with using vendors, such as canceled contracts. GAO is making two recommendations to USDA; assess whether there are cost-effective ways to study factors that affect charter school participation in school meal programs and conduct additional outreach to charter schools on school meals that could help address identified challenges. USDA concurred with both recommendations.

The statutory goal of Florida’s housing strategy is to ensure that every resident has safe, decent, and affordable housing. State law requires using policies that encourage housing production and rehabilitation programs to accomplish this goal. OPPAGA examined affordable housing policies enacted by the state’s local governments, the effectiveness of such policies, and which policies constitute best practices for replication across the state. OPPAGA also examined the extent to which interlocal cooperation is used, effective, or hampered. OPPAGA found that most respondents to its local government survey reported encouraging mixed-income projects, utilizing expedited permitting, and implementing flexible zoning to support affordable housing. In addition, affordable housing policies identified as most effective varied by the type of local government entity and population size. OPPAGA also identified several best practices for supporting affordable housing, including authorizing the use of accessory dwelling units, re-zoning to allow commercial-residential mixed-use development, and setting aside a portion of the units as affordable or for specific populations (e.g., teachers, law enforcement, or the homeless).

The cost of Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) is generally higher for federal agencies than the cost of gas vehicles, largely due to higher acquisition and monthly lease payments. However, peer-reviewed studies the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed found that ZEVs offer environmental benefits and may offer reduced maintenance costs. Agency officials GAO spoke with described gas vehicles as more flexible and convenient. In Fiscal Year 2023, 11 selected agencies in GAO's review were acquiring mostly gas vehicles for their fleets. Officials from most selected agencies told GAO they believe that their ability to meet the ZEV acquisition goals established by Executive Order 14057 will depend on factors outside their control, including the availability of ZEVs that match their mission needs. Agencies did not meet their combined self-set targets for Fiscal Year 2023 to acquire almost 9,500 light-duty ZEVs through the General Services Administration (GSA). Instead, they acquired about 60% of this combined target. Three federal agencies are considered the main facilitating agencies for the ZEV transition—the Council on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Department of Energy (Energy) and General Services Administration. The GAO found that these three agencies have various collaboration and other efforts to facilitate the ZEV transition. For example, their efforts aimed at helping to foster collaboration and learning among other federal agencies include establishing multiple working groups and hosting an annual training conference. The three agencies also are collecting data and feedback to improve their assistance to federal agencies. For example, Energy updated a ZEV acquisition decision-making tool to allow for multiyear planning based on federal agency user feedback.

The federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant was created in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA, P.L. 104-193). That law was the culmination of a series of legislative changes that altered the rules for providing benefits and services to needy families with children. States may use federal block grants and related maintenance of effort (MOE) funds in any manner that is reasonably calculated to achieve TANF’s statutory purpose and goals. In Fiscal Year 2023, a total of $33.9 billion was spent by states from federal TANF and state MOE funds. Fiscal Year 2023 TANF basic assistance, including monthly cash benefits to families with children, totaled $8.3 billion. In addition to assistance, TANF helps fund state programs that provide work, education, and training; child care and pre-kindergarten; benefits and services to children who have been abused and neglected or are at risk of it (child welfare); and other services (e.g., youth activities, responsible fatherhood, healthy marriage promotion). States determine the TANF benefit amounts. In July 2022, the maximum monthly TANF cash benefit for a single parent family with one child ranged from $915 in New Hampshire to $162 in Arkansas. There is a regional pattern to these maximum benefits; they are generally lowest in the South. In September 2023, a total of 1.0 million families received TANF assistance. This compares with the historical peak in receipt of assistance under TANF’s predecessor program in March of 1994 at 5.1 million families.

The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) provides episode-level data on clients aged 12 and older receiving substance use treatment services from facilities licensed or certified by their respective single-state agencies. For each treatment episode, TEDS collects data on the client’s characteristics, substance(s) used, the type and duration of treatment service(s) received, years of education completed, and national outcome measures. In 2022, nationally, among admissions to substance use treatment services, 65% involved males and 35% involved females. During the same year, the top two categories of discharges from substance use treatment services involved individuals between 21-34 years old and 35-44 years old. In addition, most individuals lived independently and were unemployed during admission to substance use treatment services. In Florida, about 39,000 individuals were admitted to a facility for substance use treatment services. Primary substances used in the state included alcohol, marijuana, and other opiates.

This report uses data from the 2022–2023 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to estimate receipt of family planning services by selected characteristics among females ages 15–49 in the United States. The most common service received, a birth control method or prescription, is also shown. During 2022–2023, 35.7% of females ages 15–49 received any family planning service in the past 12 months. A lower percentage of women ages 22–49 with family incomes less than 150% of the federal poverty level received a family planning service (33.3%) compared with women whose family incomes were 300% or more (37.8%).

In October 2017, the opioid crisis that began with prescription opioids was declared a public health emergency. The declaration has been regularly renewed as the crisis has evolved from prescription opioids to heroin and now to illegally made fentanyl and polysubstance use. During the COVID-19 pandemic, substance misuse worsened, overdose deaths increased, and public health measures related to COVID-19 reduced access to in-person care. Opioid treatment program services directly address the opioid crisis by providing evidence-based, life-saving medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder in combination with other counseling and related services to support remission and recovery from opioid use disorder. This manual provides guidelines for operating an opioid treatment program. This manual covers patient-centered care planning, assessment, admission, and monitoring; medication administration and use; medical and clinical provisions and practices; certification and accreditation; and the importance of practitioner judgment in providing care. Key recommendations include integrating trauma-informed principles and practices (e.g., empowering patients in decisions about their treatment and recovery), continuing quality improvement, and creating a supportive and healing environment for patients.