Courts lose some say on kids in state’s care
By Tim Evans
March 24, 2008
State to take over some decisions; advocates of change expect savings of millions of dollars
Tucked into the 600 pages of tax-reform legislation signed into law last week by Gov. Mitch Daniels are several provisions that will mean judges might no longer get the last word in deciding what’s best for abused children in the state’s care.
The coming changes have already made judges and others apprehensive, though advocates say they will deliver millions in savings to taxpayers while expanding the state’s ability to collect federal reimbursements.The new policies and procedures outlined in House Enrolled Act 1001 are part of a shift that makes the state, rather than counties, responsible for the $440 million annual cost of providing services to abused and neglected children and their families as well as to youths in the juvenile justice system.
James W. Payne, who heads the Department of Child Services, called the legislation “a unique opportunity to move forward” with child welfare reforms launched by Daniels in 2005. Most of the changes are set to take effect Jan. 1.
But Payne acknowledged there will be an adjustment period for judges, service providers, local officials and others who will see their roles changing — in some cases, significantly.
“We’ll take our lumps,” he said of the anticipated fallout. “But in the end, this is about doing what’s best for children and families.”
In addition to removing the child welfare cost from local tax levies — about $100 million a year in Marion County alone — other changes specify:
DCS must sign off on plans ordered by judges for abused and neglected children and their families.
DCS and courts must use services eligible for partial federal reimbursement whenever possible.
DCS must review probation plans for delinquents when it is paying for services. As with plans for abused and neglected children, if a judge does not follow the DCS recommendation, the county could be liable for costs.
While the primary reason for the changes is to improve service, Payne said containing program costs was a major consideration when legislators agreed to assume the costs of child welfare. Program costs have increased about 7 percent on average each year for the last decade.
Payne said the state now collects about half of the federal funds it could receive for the care it delivers to abused and neglected children and slightly more than 10 percent of what it could draw in juvenile delinquency cases.
Two factors contribute to those low rates: judicial orders that do not include the appropriate language to qualify for federal reimbursement, and placement of children in programs that are not eligible for the cost-sharing. The legislation addresses both of those issues, Payne said, and the changes should “mean millions to the state” in new federal funds.
Payne said the significance of his agency’s newly expanded role in dictating services should not be overblown, given that judges and child advocates typically agree with DCS recommendations in about 75 percent of more than 12,000 cases that are in progress in any year.
The focus on capturing more federal dollars, along with other changes intended to move children through the system more quickly, are keys to holding down costs, Payne said. Those two issues were DCS goals even before the Legislature began debating details of the tax plan.
Not all judges and child advocates see the new approach as ideal, but pressure to provide property tax relief helped push the more controversial changes through the Legislature.
“If we’re going to take over this in order to reduce property taxes, the state’s going to have to be the paymaster. The state’s going to have to decide who the service provider is,” Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville told advocates at a hearing on the matter in December.
Howard County Judge Lynn Murray, who heads the Indiana Juvenile and Family Court Judges Council, said Kenley told her “in no uncertain terms” that costs had to be contained and judges would have to accept that fact.
The changes, however, will create several funding challenges in Marion County, said Judge Marilyn Moores, who oversees the county’s juvenile court system.
Moores said the state is not taking responsibility for all the services and programs paid through the county fund being eliminated by the shift to state financing. Examples, she said, include the estimated $750,000 cost of providing health care to juveniles in detention and a community transition program to help children leaving juvenile detention stay out of trouble.
“I certainly understand the need for a more homogenous approach across the state, but the taxpayers in Marion County didn’t get the full story of what the state was picking up,” she said. “Those items will still have to be paid for.”
Had the reform package not been adopted, pressure at the local level to hold down property taxes could have created even bigger problems for child welfare programs in many counties, according to Cathy Graham, executive director of IARCCA, a coalition of more than 100 residential care providers.
“I think we all knew the engine of taxpayer concern about property taxes would make something happen,” Graham said, “and I believe everyone worked together to come up with something we could all live with and the children could live with.”
Call Star reporter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204.
