Officials say foster care needs better funding

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Foster care program funding around the state is failing to keep up with growing demand.

Last year the state saw a 22 percent rise in children needing foster care, with social workers taking from 140 to 200 children away from their biological parents each month, said Ken Deibert, the head of Health and Welfare’s Children and Family Services Division.

He told a Senate committee last week the number of children coming into the state system is up 33 percent since 2001. The 1,300 licensed foster parents in Idaho cannot cover the demand.

Last summer Health and Welfare workers in the Boise area had to stay overnight in their offices a few times with children who had just been removed from unsuitable homes, Deibert said.

In southern Idaho, Magic Valley has 179 children in foster care in the area with 173 families licensed to take children. Kathy James, the Region 5 program manager for the division, said that may seem like enough, but considering families that may already have too many children or a foster parent with major health problems, it’s not. They both said the serious strain on the state’s foster care system began about seven years ago with an increasing meth problem.

Because meth is so highly addictive and distracting to parents, “It’s a different pattern of child abuse and neglect we’re seeing now,” Deibert said.

Families are reimbursed between $271 and $431 per month to care for a foster child — depending on the child’s age. They can also receive up to $400 per year for clothing.

Idaho’s reimbursement rates for foster care are about $100 per child below the national average, Deibert said.

“It’s not enough,” Amanda Coach said. “I can’t afford not to work.”

She and her husband, Dave, live in the Twin Falls area and are foster parents to five children — two 16-month-old boys, two teenagers and a 7-year-old. They are adoptive parents of a 5-month-old. The children come from two families.

They volunteered care for all the children during the past year and a half.

Amanda Coach said she goes to garage sales to clothe the children, and the family has to use Medicaid.