Testimony before the Senate Finance Committee today included calls to restore funding cut from the House-passed version of the biennial budget, HB 96.
The amended substitute version of the budget reduced the increase to the State Child Protection Allocation proposed by the Governor and supported by the House — a $28.7 million reduction to the $55 million proposed increase over the biennium; the Senate committee also eliminated the earmark for a one-time $30 million investment to develop regional Child Wellness Campuses.
PCSAO Executive Director Angela Sausser was joined by Allen County Children Services Executive Director Sarah Newland and South Central Ohio Job & Family Services Director Jody Walker to demonstrate the dire need for these investments to address Ohio’s placement crisis.
Sausser (pictured, above left) testified to escalating placement costs, scarcity of placement options, federal policy changes that have shifted more of these costs to the state, and a new state policy that will increase the local share of foster care. In response to a question from Ranking Member Paula Hicks-Hudson (D-11), Sausser explained new policy in the budget that would end a longstanding practice in Ohio of using various Social Security, disability, and survivor benefits to subsidize the cost of foster care so that these youth can instead access those funds later in life. PCSAO does not oppose this policy, but the state has estimated that at least $17 million more will be needed each year to replace these lost funds.
Newland (pictured, right) explained the important role the Child Wellness Campuses could play in addressing the placement crisis and the broad-based group of experts who came together to develop the concept, while Walker (pictured, below left) testified to runaway placement costs in his three-county agency covering Ross, Hocking and Vinton counties.
Watch the testimony on The Ohio Channel (link coming soon).