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Q&A
Discussion on foster care funding and service improvements
1:08:50
·
140 sec
Council Member Williams inquires about ACS's plans to improve retention and service quality in the foster care system, given the budget allocation falling short of the council's requests. Commissioner Dannhauser explains ongoing efforts to enhance foster care services, including addressing funding cliffs, working with providers, and increasing investments.
- ACS is in ongoing conversations with OMB to address funding cliffs from Title IV E waiver and MSAR rates
- Additional resources are being provided for programs like Youth Safety and Success, Fair Futures, and College Choice
- Tens of millions of dollars have been added for initiatives like indirect cost rate, workforce enhancements, and COLAs affecting prevention services
Nantasha M. Williams
1:08:50
So even though the FY twenty six exec budget allocates $622,400,000 for foster care services, an increase from last year, it still falls short of the council's requests of about $134,000,000 with no funding specifically targeted to address the ongoing pay disparities for foster care workers.
1:09:13
How does ACS intend to improve retention service quality especially in the foster care system?
1:09:22
And yes, that's my question.
Jess Dannhauser
1:09:25
So this is an ongoing conversation that we have with OMB to address two cliffs.
1:09:30
One is from the Title IV E waiver and one is from the MSAR rates which fund the foster parent rates and adoptive parent rates.
1:09:39
And so throughout the year as we assess our census and look at the expenditures and where we are, funds have been added in fiscal year twenty five and we'll look at that with OMB in '26.
1:09:53
So we expect to be able to continue to enhance foster care services.
1:09:57
I know that the providers are disappointed that the state budget did not include the full COLA that they were calling for, but that will be put into our budgets.
1:10:08
We also have been working with providers to provide them additional resources.
1:10:14
So there's going to be significant additional resources in our Youth Safety and Success program so that they can continue to expand Fair Futures and College Choice.
1:10:25
We're also, we are giving them slightly higher allocations based on, so if they're serving 500 children, typically an allocation will be five ten or five twenty to allow them to grow and allow them to make investments in their staff and beyond.
1:10:43
We've added tens of millions of dollars, and when we look at some of the key initiatives around, this is sort of providers wide, the indirect cost rate, the workforce enhancements, the COLAs that affect prevention, we're seeing tens of millions of more dollars go in.
1:11:01
We're constantly working with our foster care providers around this and expect to be able to not only maintain but increase the investments.