CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio’s child welfare advocates are concerned after the Ohio Senate cut $61.35 million in proposed funding for children services from the state budget bill, potentially threatening innovative programs designed to address the foster care placement crisis, including in Cuyahoga County.
Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget added $31 million over the next two years to the Child Protection Allocation fund, which helps counties cover the rising costs of foster care, kinship care and residential care due to placement shortages. He also included a one-time $30 million investment to create regional child wellness campuses — modeled after Cuyahoga County’s campus at The Centers — to expand housing options, keep children closer to home and prevent them from sleeping in county offices.
The Ohio House retained the funding in its budget version, and called for a study to show which Ohio communities could sustainably operate those regional facilities.
The Senate’s budget, however, slashed it, raising concerns among child welfare agencies and advocates about its future – and housing security for kids in county care.
“The state cannot leave county government on the hook,” Angela Sausser, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, which has been warning about the placement crisis, criticized after the budget release. “Children deserve safe places to sleep that meet their behavioral health and well-being needs.”
The budget now moves to a conference committee where differences between the House and Senate versions will be reconciled. The state must approve a final version by the end of the month.
Sausser noted that foster care placement costs have increased dramatically, outpacing inflation by 68% and costing about $158 million more today than five years ago. Meanwhile federal reimbursements have declined.
Locally, Cuyahoga County’s Director of Children and Family Services Jacqueline Fletcher estimates a 25% increase in placement costs, especially for children who require higher levels of medical or behavioral care. Often, those kids must be sent out of state for housing, and at a premium price. Records show the county recently paid $20,000-50,000 to house youth at various facilities for 30 days – sometimes less.
Reductions in state funding could shift more of that cost burden to the county, which is already facing major budget deficits, including a potential significant reduction in the Health and Human Services Levy funds that support the county’s social services.
“We’re still tracking that to see what the implications would be,” Fletcher said.
The impact of the funding cuts for child wellness campuses is even more nuanced.
It can’t stop Cuyahoga County from operating its own wellness campus at The Centers – formerly Cleveland Christian Home. Part of the campus is already open, including T-Suites, which provides temporary housing for teens in crisis with intensive behavioral needs.
A nearly $13 million renovation underway is adding new specialty wings for victims of sex trafficking and youth with developmental disabilities who have been involved in the juvenile justice system, and a new drop-off center where youth can go to be assessed and wait for placement. The model is meant to prevent children from having to sleep at the Jane Edna Hunter Social Services office, a practice that has put both staff and kids at risk in the past.
“We’re going to provide services no matter what,” David Merriman, the county’s Health and Human Services director assured.
But he worried about being able to sustain those operations, at least at the level initially planned, without state support. The full campus, once opened, is expected to cost $18-20 million a year, he said. If county revenues continue declining and state funding gets cut, the county may not be able to provide the level of specialty care initially hoped for.
“We’ll have to make decisions about what we can afford and what we can’t,” Merriman said. “We’ll still be providing services, we’re moving forward, but we might need to make some adjustments and choose what we can afford right now and pause on some other components unless we can get some additional funding.”
It also means other counties likely won’t be able to build campuses of their own, perpetuating the placement shortage. Sausser noted over 500 children sleeping in government offices across the state each year because there’s nowhere else for them to go. Regional campuses could solve the problem.
“We believe Ohio could be a national leader with this strategy,” she said.
Though still early, Cuyahoga County’s campus has shown that the model can work to reduce overnight stays in the Jane Edna office building, keep more kids closer to home and provide critical treatment for kids in crisis, Fletcher and Merriman agreed. Dewine believed in that model when he put the funding into the budget, and the House believed it when they kept it, Merriman said, adding that the county was “honored” to see it included.
But now, the county has to hope the conference committee reconciling the state budget believes it enough to restore the funding to keep supporting those kids.
“They deserve to have the services that meet their needs, prepare them for adulthood, help them address the trauma they experienced and be ready to move on with their lives,” Merriman said. “Our kids deserve that.”