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Counties and child-welfare providers urge Senate to fund placement solutions and study foster-rate changes in HB 96
Summary
County commissioners, the Public Children's Services Association of Ohio and private foster providers told the Senate Health Committee Ohio is in a treatment-and-placement crisis for children in custody, with counties facing rapidly rising placement costs and scarce beds.
Ross County Commissioner Jack Everson and other county and agency leaders told the Senate Health Committee the state faces a sustained placement crisis in child welfare. Everson and Jeremy Ratcliffe described rising placement costs and scarce beds; Everson said counties pay nearly three-quarters of placement costs and provided county-level examples of rapidly escalating expenses.
The Public Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO) said county public children services agencies have had to buy cots, provide 24/7 supervision, and in some places pay for law enforcement to protect children in agency custody because no appropriate placement was available. PCSAO told the committee the House-passed budget includes dedicated one-time funding to establish regional short-term crisis stabilization centers, described in testimony as “Child Wellness Campuses,” and urged the Senate to maintain that investment.
Private providers and foster-care advocates raised separate concerns about a provision in HB 96 that would give the Department of Children and Youth authority to standardize foster-care and residential placement rates. Christina Massey of the Buckeye Ranch asked the committee to remove the statutory rate-card language and instead create a legislatively led study committee (amendment SC0716 in her testimony) to analyze cost reports and develop data-driven rate recommendations. Massey warned a single statewide rate could exacerbate placement shortages by failing to account for county-by-county cost drivers, staffing shortages, insurance costs and the higher needs of some youth.
Why it matters: Witnesses representing counties, PCSAO, and private providers described operational strain, sharply higher placement costs (providers cited percentage increases across placement types) and the trauma caused to children who must remain in agency offices when no placement exists. They urged the Senate to both preserve funding for regional stabilization sites and to adopt a measured approach to any rate standardization.
Speakers included Jack Everson (Ross County commissioner/CCAO), Angela Sasse (PCSAO), Jeremy Ratcliffe (Highland County JFS director), Christina Massey (Buckeye Ranch) and other county and agency leaders.
