Foster kids often miss out on Little League or music lessons. That’s one of the consequences of changing homes, or living with a family on a tight budget.
Now California has a new plan to give them opportunities for the kinds of extracurricular activities that can build character and community.
It’s included in a proposed revision to how the state pays for foster care that’s intended to make more money available to high-needs kids. Youth advocates are especially enthusiastic about the funding for extracurricular activities, which would come in the form of a monthly stipend of at least $500.
“These kids are always underfunded,” said Brian Blalock, senior directing attorney at the Youth Law Center. “And especially when the kids are with grandma and the kids are with relatives, often on fixed income. It’s where we most want these young people as a system, and as a consequence, grandma’s maxing out credit cards to keep the grandbaby in basketball and dance and tutoring.”
The California Department of Social Services put forward the proposal last month, as part of a restructuring to the state’s foster care payment system that was prompted by a 2015 law. Lawmakers are expected to consider it in budget deliberations this spring. By law, the state must adopt updated foster care pay rates by Jan. 1, although the changes would not roll out until 2026.
If implemented, the restructuring could have an outsized impact in Humboldt County, which has some the highest rates of children in foster care in California, with 13.8 children in foster care per 1,000 in 2018, per the nonprofit kidsdata.org. And while the number of children entering foster care had declined steadily statewide between 2000 and 2018, it almost doubled in Humboldt County over that timeframe, reaching more than 400 youth aged zero to 20 living in foster care in 2018, the last year for which data is available on the site. According to the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, though, the local foster youth population peaked in 2019 at 432, the highest point in 23 years, but had decreased 35 percent by July of 2023.
Aside from the money for activities, the proposal includes a new scale for payments to foster families and money earmarked for support services like therapy and mentoring. Children with greater needs would receive more money.
If the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom sign off on the plan, the department estimates California will spend about $1 billion a year by 2028-2029 on foster care payments.
Some money will come from the federal government, but the vast majority will be put up by the state’s general fund. For comparison, California spent a total of $459 million in foster care pay in 2023-2024.
State officials say the proposal is meant to create room for positive experiences in foster care.
“Most importantly it is attuning to the fact that all of these children have strengths, and focusing on those strengths and building those strengths is really key to addressing that trauma and improving the well-being of all of our children,” said Angie Schwartz, deputy director of the Children and Family Services Division at the California Department of Social Services, during a webinar in March.
Assessing Children’s Needs in Foster Care
Under the state’s proposal, compensation for caregivers would be based on a tiered system of kids’ assessed needs. This would range from $1,788 a month for most kids to $6,296 for kids with the greatest needs for support.
That would replace the current model, which bases a caregiver’s pay on where a child is placed. Right now group homes are paid a higher rate than grandparents or foster families, for example.
The acuity of a child’s needs will be evaluated with a tool known as the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths assessment. While this assessment is used today, it doesn’t determine funding. Kids are usually assessed every six months.
This assessment takes into account a number of things, including kids’ behavioral and emotional needs, risk behaviors and how the child is doing in school, socially and physically.
Foster care services providers and the Legislative Analyst’s Office have raised questions about the reliability of the assessment tool and whether it will be done consistently.
“There’s real worry about children potentially being scored at a lower tier or at a lower level, and then that determining the tier of services that they would get,” said Christine Stoner-Mertz, CEO of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, which represents organizations that work in child welfare.
Stoner-Mertz said the state needs to figure out a process for when children switch tiers, especially if their level of need begins to decline and they are bumped down to a lower funding level.
“How are we working with families to prepare them for what could often be perceived as losing those supports that are, in fact, making the child more stable in their home?”
For the first time, children and their caregivers may also be eligible for “immediate needs” dollars, which would fund support services like therapy and mentoring. This would come in amounts between $1,000 and $4,100 a month and would be reserved for the 25 percent of children with the greatest needs.
Supporting Home-based Foster Care
For the past several years, the state has been working to place more kids with families rather than in group homes. Research shows that kids tend to do better at a home with a family. The state has decreased the number of children being placed in congregate settings by almost 60 percent, according to the social services department.
Organizations that support foster families are watching the state’s proposal closely, and some are worried it does not provide enough money for the nonprofits that do the work to place kids in homes.
The nonprofits, known as foster family agencies, play an important role in this process by recruiting foster parents and training them, as well as providing social work support.
The California Alliance of Child and Family Services notes that the rate paid to foster family agencies has remained mostly flat for almost 20 years.
A recent survey by the alliance showed foster family agencies have high turnover rates of social workers because they cannot compete with the salaries offered by other employers. The survey also showed 68 percent of foster family agencies are at risk of downsizing because of insufficient funding.
As proposed, the state would pay the nonprofits $1,610 a month for most children and up to $7,213 for kids with the greatest needs. The alliance representing the nonprofits says the monthly rates need to be between $2,245 and up to $10,650 to be sustainable.
“We want to have more home-based care, and this is what (foster family agencies) do and support,” said Adrienne Shilton, vice president of public policy at the California Alliance of Child and Family Services. “So we’re perplexed by that, in terms of stated goals and then (the rates) we see here.”
This story was updated from a previous version to correct data regarding the number of youth in foster care in Humboldt County. The Journal regrets the error.
This story was first published by CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to explaining California politics and policy.
This article appears in ‘Our Food is Our Medicine’.
Unfortunately, we don’t get the real details we need. We get the presentation for what we are going to get and the words that make them feel good about themselves. OK so let’s not address the fractured families lives…its not a hairline that will mend with ACE bandage. The power embalance is they are getting more budget to accommodate more children. There is not one office around this county that are decent to the fathers. There is always one of five controlling women in Humboldt Co. Corporate structure moles in the department. While DHHS-social service ex authority without limitations is Poppa Rex,Trevor didn’t have his previous ” hey dad you should have sent the look on those kids face when we bear maced them. How is the family doing now? How do they feel watching Trevor get out of two felony duis. .in a town where Kitchen ran over her own children drunk and had her son hide the car… I cant even get a decent person on the phone to stop asking sir where is the crim where is the crime. Not one single time have I been asked to take a drug test when they arrested me at Redwood memorial for reporting medical senior abuse. The little old lady wa in tears and the er windows are immature Mad River too. Laughing at little old ladies in tears asking why are they so mean?and they were. I called chief Allen of Rio Dell because one rotation is 5 stars the other is the grossest and most abusive. One place I will not tolerate this Rex and Trevor circle is the medical field. They have a system to cause a scene. They play the what game or challenge every caring cell in your body like you read dr.seus. I then walked Fortuna Police they arrive I am still watching them laugh at the little old lady and her husband with his palms in his hands. I can say they because I literally know just about everyone. The gatekeepers I can identify. Even the ones in cws that take over 7 months to get a document. Sarah in self help read my note that requested elder abuse protective order. For men with family elsewhere the tactic is say whatever you want for the mons, the worse it is they get all the custudies and supports. I got accused for being homicidal/suicidal when I calmly asked for bohn to keep his executive influence away from my family cases. Like telling a woman to calm down. The Sheriff report says Rex helped me make copies and sent me with them..he breach confidential family court law and tok the boards copy of 185 moving documents involving Hale and j.wilson. my case 7 on Wilson’s first felony. Bohn told me at Redwood fields he called some people . He was specifically supposed to ask me about them and not take my who life and tell Marry Kheen Troy Combs Marco Luna and Hank I had filed their Mexican Mafia law enforcement and washing hands with Mary, Rex, and Arkley oop. I sent an email today to conflict counsel for a federal Indictment. Qualified immunities have two p t ones to be raised in court for d defense. The victim has to stare the rights while they are being violated. As soon as the med staff, law , county executive have no authority like bohn puffs his chest. I did not appear to the civil matter they had my Def and case prep when kamada dropped me to be da…8/6/24. I got them back. 12/23/24. They haven’t done one thing right. The problem is they don’t let you say anything and stop you right after you form the right and they stob the right before you are heard. Well that is Obstruction of Justice victim and witness rmtampering. They don’t have immunities in the field only in court before a judge. The minute a person begins to panic and does saying all things true, no injury not perp. But the right to remain silent to prevent retaliation is “sacraficed” to state the rights they wrong acts against you and they to have the right to remain silent. Everything they say can and will be held against them too. I have known rexfor twenty years and thought we were good friends and I volunteered another atRELL 2002. And painted the dugout and field house. Rex runs around the parade politician. Talks to everyone but nobody can talk to me after he called people who have heard of me. Well that’s not in the Sheriff report. Fortuna Police ND the accident that a judges son Josh Pearlson didn’t help those little girls. Look if there is a gun on scene and parents tied up and kids being bear maced and you didn’t use that gun to blow those mofo away and if your dad was board supervisor and didn’t beat the sh!t out of his son and is now executive over a foster system that doesn’t provide documents to save families Humboldt County what is the Humboldt impropriety threshold because Rex just used his position to steel my daughters sweet 16 n 2022. I had built this case against Maryland Hank an trow with Marco for 18 years and recalled them and destroyed the key Sheriff report cws won’t provide they are supposed to get it from the board printer or how bout the family Mediator copy. I have five cases six cases and all incube bohn and Mary kheen
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