Responding to concerns raised by a legislative interim committee and a recent Office of Performance Evaluations report that found that Idaho's child welfare system is overwhelmed, with too few foster parents, too heavy caseloads for social workers and not enough infrastructure to hold it all together, JFAC this morning set a budget for the Child Welfare Division of the state Department of Health & Welfare for next year that adds eight new positions and reflects a 12.3 percent increase in state general funds, 5.8 percent in total funds.

Sen. Abby Lee, R-Fruitland, and five other JFAC members crafted a plan that includes adding two additional social workers that the division hadn’t requested. Lee said both the OPE report and a legislative interim committee on foster care “addressed the need to have more social workers. We talked to the department, and this is about all they can handle right now.”

The successful budget, which passed on a unanimous, 20-0 vote in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, also fully funds other additions that the division and Gov. Butch Otter had requested, including a 20 percent increase in stipends paid to foster parents for caring for children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned or who are unsafe in their own homes.

That item comes to $347,800 next year in state general funds, and would draw $491,300 in federal matching funds, for a total increase of $839,100. For children from birth to 5 years old, the current monthly rate that Idaho pays foster parents is $329; for kids age 6-12, $366; and for kids age 13 and older, $487. The state surveyed surrounding states, and found that Idaho was far below the average of those states. To reach that average, Idaho’s stipends would need to jump between 43 and 75 percent, depending on the age group.

The successful budget plan also grants the division’s request to hire six support staffers to coordinate transportation of vulnerable children and supervised visitation with parents, to free up social workers from those tasks so they can focus on the needs of the children.

Lee said, “We’d like to make sure the department has the resources to identify whether those are the positions that are needed to supervise visitation and report back to the courts, or if it is additional social workers; we believe it might be both.” So she and the other JFAC members crafted intent language for the budget that “sets up some additional reporting back to this body to make sure that we continue to work together to address what are some significant resource challenges in this area.”

In addition to Lee, the JFAC members who worked to craft the budget plan included Sen. Steve Bair, R-Blackfoot; Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene; and Reps. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise; Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene; and Phylis King, D-Boise.

The budget bill still needs passage in both the House and Senate and the governor’s signature to become law, but budget bills rarely change once they’re set by the joint committee, which includes 10 senators and 10 representatives.

Last year, Idaho had nearly 2,300 children in foster care.

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