The Park County Board of County Commissioners on Oct. 1 approved the Human Services quarter-two expense report and five professional services agreements for child- and family-focused providers, voting 3-0 on each item.

Susie Walton, who presented the items to the board, described sustained financial pressure across multiple human services funding streams, saying counties statewide are experiencing a "perfect storm" between Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and child welfare costs. "These programs are, definitely definitely under a lot of pressure right now for different reasons," Walton said.

Walton told the board child welfare is the most worrisome line item. She cited out-of-home placement costs running about $75,000 per month at current levels ("Annualized, that's 900,000 a year") and said that accelerated placement rates and increased provider prices are driving higher spending. Walton said the county had been overspent in child welfare in prior years and anticipated the need for additional spending authority: "This year, we were 568,000 overspent in child welfare... So we're all trying to solve it together and working really, really hard with CCI to do so."

Commissioners approved the human services second-quarter expense report and the following professional services agreements, each by 3-0 vote:

- Resource Exchange Project (Bailey Playgroup): continuing funding for parent-and-child playgroup programming and outreach (contract passed 3-0).

- Resource Exchange Project (Collaborative Management Program): funding for a coordinator and small emergency fund that support multi-agency coordination for higher-risk but pre-child-welfare cases (House Bill 1451 was referenced as the enabling statute for the collaborative program).

- Boys & Girls Club of the High Rockies: TANF-targeted scholarships to help working-poor families afford before- and after-school care; Walton described the contract as a priority to preserve.

- RE-2 School District (Edith Teeter Preschool): continued funding (Walton cited an amount of about $25,000 but said she did not have the figure on her transcript for verification) to support part-time preschool staffing and full-day preschool access for parents.

- Park Alliance for Young Children: funds to support child care quality initiatives and to pay a consultant (Amy Carmen) to help Mountain Minis and other providers navigate licensing and expansion to increase local child care capacity.

Walton discussed flexibility within TANF, including the county practice of purchasing TANF or CCAP allocations from other counties when available; she said that is a possible strategy to address shortfalls if counties are willing to sell allocations. "Where else can you buy a dollar for 15¢? Right? It's an absolute no brainer," Walton said of purchasing TANF allocations. Walton said she will work with county staff to identify exact fund-balance numbers and return with a request for any additional spending authority the department needs.

Why it matters: the board approved contracts that sustain child care, preschool and family support programming that county staff say prevent higher-cost child welfare interventions. At the same time, human services faces spending pressures that could require transfers from fund balance or additional spending authority later in the fiscal year.