Idaho budget hearing: Department seeks staff, foster-rate increases and $14.1M supplemental to curb congregate-care use

The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee on Feb. 20 heard the Department of Health and Welfare outline a multi-part budget request aimed at reducing placements in costly congregate-care settings and expanding prevention and foster-care capacity.

Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, told the committee the division of child welfare (to be retitled Youth Safety and Permanency) expended about $117,800,000 in fiscal 2024, with foster-care and assistance payments comprising about 60% of that total. She said the agency is requesting new permanent staff, maintenance-rate adjustments for foster parents, and a fiscal-year 2025 supplemental for population-forecast adjustments related to congregate-care cost increases.

Why it matters: Department leaders said congregate care costs are far higher than prevention or foster placements, and that shortages of foster parents and community placements are driving those costs up. The department presented a package intended to increase prevention services, add licensing and clinical staff for foster families, shorten licensing timelines and reduce caseloads for caseworkers.

Director Alex Adams, director of the Department of Health and Welfare, told the committee the department is attempting to “flip the script” so more children can remain safely at home or in foster families and fewer are placed in congregate care. “If a child is removed from their home and placed in foster care, it's $16 a day. If I don't have a foster bed available to them, congregate care is $380 a day,” Adams said. He said the state had 74 foster beds per 100 children when he started; “Today, we're at 94.”

Key requests and…