DCA Mission:

The mission of the Alabama Department of Children’s Affairs is to provide state leadership that identifies, promotes, and coordinates services for children, their families, and communities.

DCA Vision:
The vision of the Alabama Department of Children's Affairs is a well coordinated and high quality system of services for all Alabama's Children and their families.

DCA Priorities:

Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Department of Children’s Affairs:

·         Advises the Governor and the Legislature in matters relating to the coordination of services for children.
·         Serves as a liaison between the Governor and state agencies providing programs or services for children.
·         Educates and informs legislators and other elected officials about issues affecting children.

·         Prepares and submits for approval and adoption by the Children’s Policy Council, legislation required to meet the unmet needs of children by further development and improvement of children services.

·         Prepares and submits to the Governor and the Legislature annual reports.  Initiates a network of local and community groups and child advocates to enable organizations to coordinate activities and assist and educate each other. 
·         Actively seeks and applies for federal and private grants to fund children’s programs.
·         Establishes a repository for information on programs which offer services for, or are for the benefit of, or in any way affect Alabama’s children. 
 ·         Reviews the budget requests for children’s services of state agencies that administer children’s programs other than education programs offered by DOE for K-12. 
·         Works with the state and county children’s policy councils and the state and county children’s services facilitation teams in order to ensure that a comprehensive coordinated effort is in place to provide for children’s services. 
·         Requests any state or local agency or department which administers programs that directly affect Alabama’s children to submit information deemed necessary to evaluate and assess the relationship between children’s programs and the effectiveness of those programs. 
·         Establishes a database of services offered by the several state and local agencies, and develops a system to provide for better coordination of services.