Committee reviews staffing, $14.1 million supplemental and lease plan to curb costly congregate care

The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee heard Feb. 20 testimony on the Department of Health and Welfare's child welfare budget, where officials asked for new staff and a $14.1 million supplemental to respond to rising congregate care costs and a shortage of foster placements.

Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, told the committee the division now titled Youth Safety and Permanency has 434.8 authorized full-time positions and, as of Feb. 10, 45.8 vacancies; about 25 of those vacancies were in the interview process and nine were posted. Williamson said the division expended about $117.8 million in fiscal 2024 and that foster and assistance payments accounted for roughly 60% of that total.

Why it matters: agency officials said more children are requiring specialized, higher-cost care and the state lacks community placement options and foster parents willing to accept complex cases. Director Alex Adams emphasized the fiscal and child welfare tradeoffs. "If I keep a kid in their home, in a prevention case, it's about $1.80 a day. If a child is removed and placed in foster care, it's about $16 a day. If I don't have a foster bed available to them, congregate care is $380 a day," Adams said. He and staff described prevention and increased foster capacity as the primary tools to improve outcomes and lower cost.

What was requested and why: Williamson outlined a suite of proposals aimed at reducing congregate placements and strengthening prevention and placement capacity:

- A prevention specialist team: a request for 36 family-service prevention specialists (bringing statewide prevention specialists to 50) to increase face-to-face contact and shift more cases to in-home services where safe. The combined ongoing and one-time cost was presented in the request.

- Youth safety and permanency clinical and placement staff: the agency requested additional clinicians and psychosocial rehabilitation family service workers (12 requested; governor recommended nine), including $120,000 to buy a family-find tool to accelerate kinship placements.

- Foster program clinical staff: agency requested 15 clinicians (governor recommended 10) to support foster families caring for youth with high emotional, behavioral and mental-health needs, a 24/7 foster parent support line and a proposed average 5% increase in monthly foster maintenance rates.

- Foster licensing staff and case management support: the agency requested 14 licensing positions to accelerate licensure of prospective foster and kinship families (average licensing time reported as about 80 days); the governor recommended three of those positions. Agency reported 67 case-management workers with average caseloads of 32 youth; the request aimed to reduce caseloads to an average of 26.

- Fiscal 2025 supplemental: Williamson said the supplemental request includes a $14.1 million increase for foster care population forecast adjustments driven primarily by congregate care cost growth.

On the Payette Assessment and Care Center: Williamson and Director Adams said the agency initially requested to purchase the Payette facility but, after review with the governor's office, decided to lease it and operate it while evaluating long-term fit. Williamson said the governor did not recommend the purchase; the revised request included about $2.7 million ongoing to operate the assessment and care center under lease. Senator Cook asked whether the state paid for facility modifications; Williamson said she believed modifications and maintenance costs were paid by the state, and Adams confirmed state funds were used to improve safety and security at the leased facility and that nonprofit partners also contributed equipment.

How prevention work would operate: Deputy Director Monty Pro described prevention specialists' work as higher-touch home visits. "Roughly every 30 days, a standard case manager will go into a foster family home to check on that kid. That looks like once a week for our prevention workers," Pro said. He described assessments and court-reviewed treatment plans that brokered services to address targeted risks and protective factors and a goal of shortening touch time so courts can close prevention cases sooner.

On foster parent recruitment and faith-based outreach: Adams described an Office of Faith Initiatives and outreach efforts to recruit foster families, including public events and partnerships intended to increase conversion from interest to application. He said the department's target is 150 foster families for every 100 youth entering the system to create a placement array that improves fit and reduces placement instability.

Transfer authority and legal reference: the agency asked the committee to continue an exemption from the maintenance-bill restriction on transferring personnel dollars and trustee/benefit payments so child welfare can transfer in accordance with Idaho Code —7-35-11.

Discussion vs. decision: the hearing was informational and budget-argument oriented; no formal committee votes were recorded. Several items in the agency request were noted as governor-recommended at lower levels than requested; others were described as not recommended for purchase (for example, the Payette purchase). Adams said some supplemental need is unavoidable in entitlement-driven budgets but argued the proposed investments would produce longer-term savings by shifting children away from congregate care.

Next steps: committee members asked for follow-up detail on staffing, program metrics and the Payette facility plan. The department and Legislative Services provided handouts and a district heat map of foster capacity for committee review.