Here’s why Erie County is raising foster care payments

ERIE COUNTY — In Ohio, nearly 17,000 children are in foster care, but only 7,000 families are licensed to care for them. The story is the same in Erie County, where the number of foster children in need of placement far exceeds the number of help.

Greg Hall has been a foster parent in Erie County for two years. Helps with emergency and respite care.

“At three in the morning, when the police come out with child services with an expulsion, they contact us and come to me,” Hall said.

With experience in law enforcement, she knows firsthand how traumatizing the deportation process can be for families.

“These children are the most vulnerable in our county and need a loving and (compassionate) home to be a part of. And some of them may not get it at home. So, yeah, it’s been an amazing experience,” Hall said.

And while it’s been rewarding, he says it’s also an expensive experience for his family.

“One of the biggest things is daycare,” Hall said.

Erie County foster parents used to spend a few hundred dollars of their own money each month to cover expenses.

“I’ve known foster families before this who had exhausted their entire childcare savings account to provide that childcare for the foster child and they did it out of the goodness of their heart,” Hall said.

Until Hall brought the financial hurdle to the attention of Erie County Board of Commissioners Chairman Patrick Shenigo and Jobs and Family Services Executive Director AJ Lill.

“We looked at the costs and thought it was something we couldn’t not do,” Shenigo said.

Now in Erie County, foster parents will be reimbursed for child care expenses of up to $200 per week if both foster parents are employed and use a certified child care provider, but the county’s efforts didn’t end there. . They want to bring the children back to Erie County.

“We were sending too many kids out of the county, which is not only expensive but not good for the kids. And our goal was to keep these kids in the school system they’re in, in the activities they’re involved in, and not have to move them from place to place,” Shenigo said.

There are currently 22 foster parents in Erie County and 51 children are in the custody of Erie County Jobs and Family Services. Twenty of those children had to be sent to foster parents in Toledo, Cleveland and Columbus.

“Our goal was to attract more foster parents to our system,” Lill said.

Foster families will receive an increase in daily wages depending on the child’s age and needs, as well as $250 twice a year that could be spent on clothing and shoes for the foster child.

“Before, if a child was 11 or younger, it was $30 a day and then with the support of the commissioner, it is now $35 a day. And then for kids 12 and up, it was $38 a day and now it’s $43 a day. And lastly, there are children with complex mental and behavioral health issues and other challenges that they have, which were $45 a day and are now $50,” Lill said.

Lill says existing families are excited about the increase and the daily pay and stipend.

“Parents are very aware that when they bring a child into their home, they want them to treat them like their own children,” Lill said.

Hall says he hopes this opens the floodgates for the number of people they choose to foster in Erie County.