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Residential infant care center says Senate budget removal of $1M jeopardizes services that keep newborns out of foster care
Summary
Bridget's Path founder told senators that elimination of a $1 million infant‑vitality line item would force the Dayton residential infant care center to halve operations and leave newborns more likely to enter foster care.
Jill Kingston, founder and president of Bridget's Path, told the Senate Finance Committee that her Dayton residential infant care center — which treats newborns experiencing neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and provides wraparound family supports — requires the $1,000,000 line item in the Infant Vitality budget to remain open.
Kingston said Bridget's Path has cared for nearly 300 babies and families and that 85 percent of babies treated at the center have been able to avoid foster care. She said the legislature previously created temporary law requiring collaboration between the Department of Medicaid and Department of Children and Youth to develop sustainable reimbursement; she said DCY allocated infant vitality funds but the Senate's removal of the $1,000,000 line item undermines that legislative directive.
Kingston told senators the organization has already moved to reduce operations by 50 percent, is maintaining a waiting list and is turning families away; without restoration in HB 96, she said Bridget's Path cannot remain open. She urged lawmakers to restore the line item and invited members to visit the Dayton facility.
Why it matters: The line item helps support a specialized residential service that providers and agencies said reduces hospital stays, promotes family bonding, and lowers foster care placements for substance‑exposed newborns.
Ending: Kingston asked the committee to restore the $1,000,000 in the Infant Vitality line and warned that failure to do so would close the program and shift care back to NICUs and, in many cases, to foster placements.
