Knox County Job and Family Services reports 1,600 child-welfare contacts in 2025, warns of rising placement costs

Knox County Job and Family Services officials reported to the Board of Commissioners on March 19 that the agency handled roughly 1,600 reports of child abuse and neglect in 2025 and completed 520 investigations in the year.

"We took over 1,600 calls for child abuse and neglect just for kids in Knox County," said Danielle Crider, administrator for children services, as she reviewed the office’s 2025 snapshot. Crider said the office received 406 after-hours calls, conducted 520 investigations and had more than 1,500 in-person visits to its service window in 2025.

Crider said the office had 109 unique children placed during 2025 and, as of the presentation, 65 children in county custody across foster, kinship, group and residential settings. "Our placement costs right now range anywhere from $23 a day per kid to $800 per day per kid depending on their level of care," she said.

Scott Boon, director of Knox County Job and Family Services, and Crider described the limited availability of in-state psychiatric residential treatment: the presenters said Ohio has a small number of such facilities, which can force higher-cost, out-of-area placements. Boon said the state behavioral-health arrangement called Ohio RISE handles preauthorization and payment for those psychiatric residential placements when required.

Commissioners and staff framed substance use as the leading driver of neglect cases. "Neglect is our number one report investigation substantiated allegation that we receive and within those 75% have some kind of substance use disorder," Crider said, citing methamphetamine and rising cocaine and fentanyl exposures as complicating factors.

Officials described staff supports intended to limit burnout, including secondary-trauma training, regular debriefings and a state coaching pilot that emphasizes supervisor coaching and peer processing of difficult cases. Crider said the agency routinely reviews high-cost placements and requires that psychotropic medication changes for youth in custody be reviewed by administrators to reduce overmedication.

Boon and Crider also highlighted positive outcomes, noting adoptions, emancipations and former clients entering higher education or the workforce. But both warned the county faces sustained cost pressure: commissioners currently supplement a placement levy with additional county funds; presenters said the levy provides about $2 million a year and commissioners have contributed roughly $1 million annually, and the levy is scheduled to expire next year. "We're going to have to make some difficult decisions in terms of how we make that funding up," a commissioner said.

The presentation concluded with an emphasis on prevention and community partnerships: staff described Practice and Action Together, parent peer programs (POP) and fatherhood initiatives aimed at reducing removals by supporting families earlier in a case.

Next steps: commissioners and staff said they will continue budget planning ahead of the levy expiration and maintain oversight of high-cost placements and programmatic prevention efforts.