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Bridget's Path warns loss of $1M 'infant vitality' line would force program cuts, turn newborns from home‑like care to NICUs
Summary
Bridget's Path told the committee that without a $1 million line item in the budget—previously included and later removed by the Senate—the licensed residential infant care center will be unable to sustain services and would have already reduced operations by 50%. The witness said their model keeps infants out of foster care.
A founder and president of Bridget's Path told senators the nonprofit's residential infant care program provides inpatient, home‑like treatment for newborns experiencing withdrawal and that removal of a $1,000,000 line item from the Senate budget jeopardizes the program's survival.
Why it matters: Bridget’s Path said its clinical, family‑centered model has kept roughly 85% of babies served out of foster care and that without a stable line‑item appropriation tied to the Department of Children and Youth’s Infant Vitality funding, the organization cannot sustain operations.
Founder Jill (Jill/Jill Kingston is listed in the transcript as Jill Kingston) told the committee the General Assembly previously required the Department of Medicaid and the Department of Children and Youth to develop a sustainable model and reimbursement structure and that rulemaking by Medicaid is nearly complete. “Without the funding, Bridges Path quite literally cannot stay open. We've stretched our private donations as far as they can possibly go,” she said, and added the agency had already taken steps to reduce operations by 50% and was turning away newborns and families.
Kingston described the program as specialized inpatient care that emphasizes bonding and wraparound family services and said the program’s model has reduced foster‑care placements: “Once ready to discharge, there's a 70 percent chance of those babies going into foster care compared to the babies that come to Bridget's Path,” she told the committee.
Witnesses asked the Senate to restore the $1,000,000 in the infant vitality line item in House Bill 96 and invited committee members to visit the Dayton center for an on‑site view of the model.
