WILMINGTON — On behalf of the Child Protection Unit, the director of Clinton County Job & Family Services (JFS) asked county commissioners Wednesday for $1 million to deal with a budget shortfall stemming from a jump in opiate-related foster care placements and related costs.
At the close of the hour-long meeting, commissioners decided to come up with additional questions and schedule a time to meet with Cheryl Babb, who serves as fiscal administrator for the Child Protection Unit, to get a better handle on the financials.
Because the funding shortfall is due to the opiate scourge afflicting the region and thus to an increased need to place children of drug-addicted parents in foster care, these financial circumstances could last for years — that is, until the heroin epidemic is curbed.
Clinton County Commissioners President Kerry R. Steed said, “Our [the county’s] General Fund cannot sustain these type [size] of requests.”
For the first time in 10 years, there will be more dollars coming from the state that can go toward child protection custody, but Clinton County JFS Director Kathi Spirk said the amount Clinton County will get won’t cover the cost of one month.
The federal government is not expected to increase its funding, said Spirk.
The Clinton County JFS director said the service agency’s officials have had discussions about asking local voters to approve adjusting the existing Children Services levy so as to generate more revenue.
There is an immediate need for additional dollars to pay for the increase in total spending for foster care placements, and there apparently also will be a longer-term need in connection with the ongoing opiate epidemic, said Spirk. Changes to the existing levy is something Children Services will have to look at going forward, she added.
As reported in a prior News Journal article, many of the Clinton County children in child protection custody need “specialized treatment” as distinguished from regular licensed foster homes. These children have significant needs that can’t be met through regular foster care.
Because of a greater level of care, it’s more expensive to place such a child in a residential treatment center as opposed to a regular foster family home.
Some of these children need a whole team of people working with them because of his or her significant needs, said Spirk.
Though medical costs and mental health therapy can be covered by Medicaid, the expense of the specialized treatment facility is not covered by Medicaid, she said.
Some questions from the commissioners focused on the expense of paying for a child’s placement in a residential specialized treatment center. One local child is in a $500 per day treatment facility, which is the most expensive placement among local children in child protection custody, said Clinton County JFS Deputy Director Gina Speaks-Eshler.
She said it is a group decision on determining whether a child has significant needs that can’t be met through regular foster care. It is not a decision made by one person, Speaks-Eshler added.
Spirk told commissioners, “The foster care situation [in Clinton County and elsewhere] is absolutely a crisis. I mean there’s just no other word to describe it.”
Speaks-Eshler said Wednesday there currently are 76 local children in some form of foster care.
And that doesn’t include about 100 more local children in kinship care. Clinton County Kinship Care is a temporary or permanent arrangement in which a relative or friend has taken over the full-time substitute care of a child whose parents are unable or unwilling to do so.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
