The Ohio investment plan: In Lorain County, federal money once locked up for foster care now safely reduces the need for foster care

Like every county in Ohio, Lorain County administers child welfare, not the state.  Additionally, Ohio counties’ local taxing authority gives them some budget autonomy.

This made the shift more manageable for Lorain County Children Services Director Gary Crow. Using the available local control in 1997, he began to shift federal money from simply funding foster care to a variety of prevention programs including in-home services, fast-track adoptions and other behavioral health and education programs.

The Lorain County’s child welfare system, which once spent nearly 50 percent of its budget on foster care, now spends 11 percent on foster care.

Improvements are not limited to Lorain or the other 16 waiver counties, which account for one-third of the state’s children in care. Other counties often adopted the innovative ideas started by demonstration project counties. There are 88 counties in Ohio.

Taken together, the results have been dramatic. Since the start of the demonstration projects in Ohio, the need for foster care in counties with demonstration projects has declined 39 percent. At the same time, children in demonstration project counties are more likely to be served in their own home, cared for by relatives or kin, spend fewer days in care and achieve permanency sooner, studies show.

“You don’t always get the best services when you try to fit children into funding,” said Judge Debra Boros, Domestic Relations Court, Lorain County. “When you are fitting funding to the needs of a child, you get much better outcomes and much better services.”

The best shot

But implementing IV-E demonstration projects isn’t without risk, child welfare advocates acknowledge.

A demonstration project requires a comprehensive spending plan, innovative programs and determined leadership. Additionally, under existing law the permanency of demonstration projects isn’t certain.

States and municipalities must apply for a waiver renewal every five years. This means that any overhaul of an existing program might not remain intact if the demonstration project ended.

This is why child welfare advocates are looking for certainty.

“(The demonstration project) gives us our best shot in a preventive fashion, in a proactive fashion, in a professional fashion to ensure the best possible services are delivered,” said Dave Boyer, director, Muskingum County Children Services, Ohio.

“We’ve got to get it to a point that as a nation this is what we do.”

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