DHS outlines foster‑care spending, BRS capacity issues and plans for youth‑transition supports

April Flint Gerner, child welfare director with the Oregon Department of Human Services, and Sarah Fox, DHS treatment services program manager, told the Joint Ways and Means Human Services Subcommittee about the agency’s out‑of‑home budget and program priorities under Senate Bill 5526.

Gerner said the well‑being residential budget is financed about 38% by federal funds and 56% by general fund (with other funds tied to Medicaid reimbursements) and cited line items that support residential treatment ($135,000,000) and a separate focus allocation (about $29.4 million shown on agency slides). She described how the well‑being residential and well‑being foster care budgets braid Medicaid, Title IV‑E, TANF and Chafee dollars; DHS identified a federal foster care drawdown figure of roughly $80,880,000 for certain foster care federal fund matches.

Sarah Fox told the committee that utilization of Behavioral Rehabilitative Services (BRS) residential beds has decreased significantly, with "somewhere around 30 children, low thirties, are currently placed in these types of settings." She clarified BRS is a Medicaid‑funded rehabilitation service array overseen at the Oregon Health Authority level and said BRS includes skills training, counseling, family engagement and youth engagement but "if we're talking about clinical care, that is not in BRS." Fox added that Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTP) are a federal designation embedded in the BRS array and that some residential settings have statutory exemptions (for example, programs serving commercially sexually exploited children or short‑term shelters), meaning not all contracted beds are identically classified.

Committee members asked whether some contracted beds are unused despite being contracted; Fox said the department had beds contracted to cover a standard the agency uses (roughly 6% of children in foster care at a point in time) but that multiple factors limit use, including provider reluctance to accept children with aggressive behaviors, liability concerns and new Family First Prevention Services Act assessment and court approval steps that were added in recent years. "We are not able to fully utilize them," Fox said, describing a combination of provider discretion and increased assessment/approval requirements under Family First as contributing factors.

The committee also heard a detailed description of youth transitions and independent living services. Gerner described the youth transitions program areas—subsidies, life‑skills building, Chafee housing, education and training vouchers, transitional living and the Oregon tuition and fee waiver—and highlighted outcomes reported by DHS for 2023: 2,456 young people served in youth transitions services, 1,294 participating in independent living programs, 304 scholarships awarded and 247 young people receiving housing assistance through youth transitions. DHS reported a 83% sibling placement rate (a 2% increase), a 17% increase in relative placements, a nearly 12% increase in independent living program utilization and a 6% increase in reunifications (now 52.9%).

On supports for older youth, Gerner and staff described workforce and provider stability challenges and said DHS is pursuing a children’s continuum of care rate study to align rates and stabilize contracted providers. The agency also proposed a policy option package to fund staff who would help young people obtain Social Security/SSI benefits and create ABLE accounts for eligible youth; the agency indicated this POP would staff positions dedicated to completing SSI/ABLE applications to help youth retain benefits or assets after leaving care.

DHS asked for broader central‑office contract administration resources in a separate policy option package to improve oversight and speed contract development for child‑welfare services across the system. Gerner differentiated that request from the focused contract and expansion work tied to the Focus pilots and RSN.

The presentation and questioning made clear the hearing was informational: no committee votes or legislative actions occurred. DHS said it will continue coordinating with the Oregon Health Authority on Medicaid and Family First implementation, work to stabilize providers and pursue targeted investments to expand youth transition and crisis‑stabilization capacity across the state.