Unfunded mandates from the federal government are increasing costs to support children under the care of Children's Services. Guest Randy Muth, executive director of Lucas County Children Services explains the need for the levy on the November ballot.
Staying in Contact with London Mitchell
Guest: Randy Muth, Children Services
Staying in contact. I'm London Mitchell. My guest this week is Randy Mute, the executive director of Lucas County Children's Services. The agency has an issue on the November ballot, and we will get to that in a moment. But first, let's discuss an issue that affects every county in the state. Child abuse and neglect. And it's hard for me to reconcile that child abuse and neglect remains an issue for us. Well, I think there are a lot of systemic issues that impact child abuse and neglect that we have not been able to resolve issues like mental health, alcoholism, substance abuse. Those things have been around since the dawn of time, and they are primarily what drives child abuse and neglect. We know that poverty and in the United States systemic racism also drives child abuse neglect. So until we're able to eliminate those factors, we're always going to see children that are the unfortunate victims of those circumstances. Are we dealing with any of the repercussions from a two year pandemic? Yeah, absolutely. We're seeing that the families that are coming to our attention are much more complex. They're much further down the road in whether it's addiction, untreated mental health, whether their mental health has not been treated in traditional ways. Whether the abuse and neglect has been permitted to persist longer than it normally would has schools been in session. So not only are there, there are more complex issues, but they're more ingrained. I know Lucas County does not have an orphanage or relying on foster, foster families. How's that working out? Yeah, you know that that's actually that's a great question. You're absolutely right when child welfare started in this country in 1880 as a result of the Civil War. Orphanages were the primary way which we responded to child abuse and neglect. The kids can't live in their own home. In the early 70s and then we were we did that for 110 years wasn't until the early 70s and 80s that we started to realize and transition away from what we call congregate care in favor of foster care. By the 1980s, almost every county had closed its orphanages. There are only four counties in the state that currently run group homes for kids. So certainly it has been a disfavored way of responding. We think that we can respond better by having children reside when safe in family like settings. And we're seeing better outcomes. I mean, the feds have been tracking child welfare outcomes since 1980. And as we, as we transitioned into foster care, we're seeing better outcomes. It wasn't until about 2010 when we started to really focus on kinship relatives as a substitute for foster care. And as we migrate towards that way of responding we're seeing our numbers actually improve as well. You have a levy on the ballot. How important is it to, to the agency to Lucas County Children's Services to have that levy approved. Well, London, it's critically important. There could be a really long winded answer to this question. And maybe we'll get into the details. But I've been in child welfare for almost 30 years now and I've never seen anything like what's happening. Currently, nor is any of any of my counterparts. There was federal legislation that was passed in 2018 that went into effect in 2021. And it's a, it's a good news bad news story. The federal legislation is something that the child welfare field asked for actually been asking Congress for 18 years to pass this legislation. And, and when they finally did, unfortunately, they didn't do it in a responsible manner. The legislation requires a lot of transition, a lot of upfront. Bridge funding that the federal government didn't, didn't provide, they passed those costs down to the States. And it is hit Ohio, particularly hard and Lucas County, particularly hard. The way that it has hit us is how much it costs for us to raise the 900 kids that are in our care. And so we have 900 children in our care, and the majority of them, 80% can be housed in a traditional family home, a foster home relative home. But there's about 20% are some of the most traumatized children in our county. These are kids that have extreme behavioral health, behavioral issues, mental health issues, physical issues, psychological issues, often involvement with the juvenile courts. Those children just simply cannot be provided for safely in a, in a traditional home. So when that happens, we have to look to what you mentioned, congregate care group homes. And because no public agency provides those anymore, we contract with private providers. This federal legislation has dramatically increased the costs for those private providers, which get passed down to us. To put that in perspective, in this federal legislation is called the Family First Prevention Services Act, FFPSA. So when I say FFPSA from now, that'll mean that legislation was passed in 18 and went to 21. If you look at the five years prior to the effective date of the FFPSA, in Lucas County, we spent about $12 million a year to raise those 900 kids. And then number that that amount and those number of kids remain was fairly consistent. We usually had, you know, always between 900 and 1000 kids in care spent 12.8 to 11.4 million each year. This thing went into effect October 1, 2021, which was the end of the federal start of the first fiscal year. In 2021, that 12 million had ballooned to 15.3. In 2022, the 15.3 went up to 19.4. And with nine months in the books for 2024, we're on pace to hit 21.4 million. So our costs to raise our 900 kids has increased by 77% in three years. That that increase alone, that that nine million increase alone represents 15% of our annual budget. The total cost, the 21 million to raise these kids is now our second biggest line item behind only salaries. And it's not it's not just Lucas. It's everywhere in the state. We got hit a little harder because we're in Metro County, but the, but the state has increased by 58% as a whole. And across the country as well, because it's federal legislation. So, so that's the background to answer your question. How critically important is it? London, we're going to have another levy on in 2025. I want to be absolutely transparent about that. For the longest time for the last 20 years, our two levees have been sufficient to allow us to do the work that the community expects in a really productive and effective way. We only ask for for one increase in that entire time. When I started here last year, and we really delved into our financial situation. We knew we were going to have to ask for more money because our reserves just simply simply can't absorb a nine million a year increase. But here's the thing, I can't, I can't wait till 25 will be out of money before 2025 ends. So, if we pass a, if we pass a renewal with an increase next year, that would be fine, but it will come in in time. We will run out of our reserves will be exhausted by about the end of October next year. And that's because you pass a levy in 2025, but you don't collect until 2026. Correct. After the first quarter of 2026. Absolutely right. So, there, we had no choice. The last thing I wanted to do to inaugurate my career here in Lucas County has put a levy on. And I hate, I honestly hate that we have to ask the local taxpayers to fund what should have been the federal government's responsibility. Although we were asking for this legislation. We were asking it because it's a legitimate federal purpose. The feds should have been responsible enough to provide these transition funds. In their defense, though, they said, honestly, we can't get it passed unless we can portray it as financially neutral, which it will be. This, this legislation is great. We've asked for it. It will be financially neutral in five to 10 years. Exactly. What does the legislation require? Great. Yeah, great question. So, since 1980, the primary way the federal government has funded child welfare has been through reimbursing foster placements. So, for every dollar we spend across the country on foster care, substitute care, whether we're paying it to a private hospital that we're housing kids or a group home. The feds give us 64 cents on the dollar, which is a good deal. In fact, last year alone in this foster care subsidy, they gave us $8 million. That, you know, that's helpful. That money is helpful. But about 2000, around year 2000, five states proved that if you could take the money that the feds would have otherwise given you for foster placements and put it into prevention, into services up front, you could affect such a reduction in the back end in foster care that it would be financially neutral. And this, this was a legitimate demonstration project, which they did. And it was controlled by university out of Washington state, improved that if the federal government instead of. Funding kids that are already in the system, allow federal funding for prevention services, it would be financially neutral, which is why child welfare and oh, and by the way, it's better for kids. It's absolutely better for kids, if we can keep them out of the system, keep them out of foster care safely, always safely. So that's why for 18 years we've been pressing the federal government to do this. The problem is that it. And I think you can see where this is going. The primary theory is that by using putting prevention community prevention supports, family prevention supports funded by the government in place will reduce the back end. But a, we got to build those supports, we got to get them in, they've got to have time to work, and they've got to have time to effectuate a real reduction in our foster care population. And that takes bridge funding, and we could get really into the details as to how this legislation has increased the cost for our private providers. I can just give you four bullet points real quick. The first is that it requires these congregate care providers to have access to fully qualified nurses 24/7, which they've never had before, and that's incredibly expensive, best practice, no doubt, but incredibly expensive. They can only use evidence based service models that are approved by a federal clearinghouse. Again, great. We shouldn't be using things that haven't been proven to work. Two things. Most of the programs don't exist here in Lucas County, and the clearinghouse is 800 program models behind, because government didn't, the federal government didn't fund it. Third thing is that they, these congregate care providers have to have a therapeutic follow up program for six months after kids leave their care. And then the fourth thing is they have to be accredited through a national, every one of these 140 or so nonprofits have to be accredited by a national accrediting agency, which is expensive takes time and sometimes they don't get, they don't get there. So there's been a vacuum in services. So those four things combined have really, that's what's driven that nine million dollar over three year increase. And the levy. Real quickly, because we're running out of time, but the levy is how much and for how long. Yeah, it's 1.5 mils. It's new. It's for five years. It's going to be issue number 30. And it is the absolute last issue on the ballot. We are at the bottom of the ballot. But please do not let kids stay at the bottom. We hope that they get there. The other thing I like to say, and, you know, I, I hope people believe me. I try to be as sincere as possible. I truly believe in this legislation. I truly believe it's a good idea. I was an advocate on the federal level for it. And I truly believe that in five years, this will be financially neutral. And we will, we will see those costs come down and we'll have much better outcomes for kids. I say that to say that I, I sincerely believe that when this expires, it that passes in five years, there will be no need to renew it. Randy Muth is the executive director of Lucas County Children's Services. I'm London Mitchell. Please feel free to contact me through my website, LondonMitchell.news. And please join us again next week as we continue staying in contact. Previous episodes of staying in contact with London Mitchell are available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Podbean, The Suite 419 app, and LondonMitchell.news. [MUSIC PLAYING]