Panel approves broad child-welfare rule changes to expand foster care capacity and streamline licensing

Alex Adams, Director of the Department of Health and Welfare, told the House Health and Welfare Committee that his agency will push to pare back rules and return more decisions to elected lawmakers while proposing dozens of rule changes that affect foster care, adoptions and child-protection procedures.

The committee approved multiple dockets consolidating temporary and pending rules for child and family services, including measures to expand foster placement flexibility, create short-term crisis payments for difficult placements, clarify appeals for the Child Protection Central Registry and ease adoption-related requirements.

Adams said the department aims “to get rid of any of the red tape that's not in the National Model Act” and to move some rules into statute so elected officials, not agency rule writers, make the decisions. “We have a goal of doubling the ratio of foster families relative to the number of foster kids in the state,” Adams said.

Jared Larson, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs chief for the Department of Health and Welfare, summarized a set of related dockets the committee considered together. He described temporary changes (docket 160601-2402 and related dockets) that authorize a crisis-level payment when insufficient foster homes exist for children who require special placement — for example, large sibling groups or children with high needs. The department said crisis payments would be time-limited and could be funded within current budget…