An Ohio bill would set the ceiling for statewide reimbursements within the foster care system, though it likely faces a tough road this legislative session.
Placement costs are “rising and uncontrolled,” said Scottie Powell, a Scioto County commissioner. And the state’s 88 counties bear the bulk of the legal and financial burdens for care, although their funding comes from a mix of federal, state and local dollars.
“It costs us more today, to provide care for 197 children, than it did for 407 kids just four years ago,” Powell told reporters in Columbus on Wednesday. “What we are facing is an unsolvable math problem.”
Introduced two weeks ago, House Bill 984 instructs the Ohio Department of Children and Youth Services to establish the highest rates allowed for reimbursements, limiting how much foster care facilities or caretakers might charge. The bill allows the agency to review and, if needed, adjust those rates every two years.
“We also recognize that not every child’s needs are the same,” Rep. Darnell T. Brewer (D-Cleveland) said. “We are trying to create reasonable guardrails, not barriers, to appropriate care.”
Rep. Justin Pizzulli (R-Scioto County) said the legislature should fast-track HB 984, citing the $1 million the state had to give the multi-county welfare agency serving Vinton County for the case involving the 16 children from the Siders family. State officials have said all of them require very involved care.
“When it comes to, will children who are abused and neglected, will they be able to receive care? That's certainly an emergency,” Pizzulli said. “What we know of the General Assembly is that if we really want to do something, we can do it, and we can do it very, very quickly.”
But the legislature is on recess until November, and has very few scheduled sessions before it adjourns its two-year session in December.
