Idaho health agency asks for $14 million supplemental to expand prevention, recruit foster families

Director Adams, director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on an unspecified date that the agency will make child welfare its strategic priority and is requesting a $14,000,000 supplemental this year to address rising costs driven by congregate-care placements and higher-acuity children.

Adams said the department receives roughly 24,000 hotline calls about possible abuse or neglect in a year, responds to about 15,800 assessments, and that 89 percent of assessed children are judged safe while 11 percent (about 1,700 cases annually) are deemed unsafe. He described two program categories for children who come to the department's attention: prevention cases, in which children remain at home while services are provided, and placement cases, in which children are removed from the home and placed in foster care, kinship care or congregate settings.

The department plans to emphasize prevention and foster-family recruitment to slow budget growth. "Your lowest cost setting, a prevention case, has your best outcomes," Adams said. He showed agency data comparing costs: prevention cases cost about $1.80 per day (about $657 per year), foster-family placements about $16 per day (about $5,800 per year), and congregate-care placements averaged $385 per day in 2024 and can reach about $1,400 per day in some contracts. Adams added congregate care can cost over $140,000 per child per year in extreme…