Calvert County panel details juvenile justice process, out‑of‑home placement funding

Calvert County’s Student Safety and Well‑being Advisory Committee on a June 2025 meeting heard an extended briefing on how juvenile cases move through the system, who must authorize out‑of‑home placements and how those placements are funded.

Committee members were told the local care team — the county’s family resource coordination body — functions as a gatekeeper before expensive residential treatment is used and that the Governor’s Office for Children, Youth and Families, Medicaid and local school funding share portions of placement costs.

Arianne Odoms, the county’s local care team coordinator, described the team’s role in preventing out‑of‑home placements. “Our first objective — residential treatment centers, diagnostic centers — are all very expensive and taxing on all of our agencies,” Odoms said. She said families may self‑refer, the team prepares a multi‑agency action plan and assigns a case manager or peer support person when plans are complex. Odoms told the…