Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children |
|
Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children |
|
|
Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children Background: Policy decisions are being made that will impact every child with significant need in Georgia's foster care system. These are the children that are most vulnerable and most at risk. The Department of Human Resources and the Department of Juvenile Justice have delivered to their partners the rates for Level of Care system of services to children which were well below what providers know are the resource needs for these children. These rates became effective October 1, 2004. Unless resources adequate to care for these children are put in the FY07 budget, providers will be faced with per diems next year that will have reductions because of inflation and per diems that are well below the true cost of providing services.
The resources suggested by the State will not build the system of care that Georgia wants for its children. This budgetary policy will guarantee continued failure for Georgia’s child welfare system. It will guarantee a continuing crisis of care when placements for children cannot be found because the resources are not there to provide them. This is a crisis that we all want to avoid. The Governor and the Budget Office is being asked to support through sound budgetary policy, the resources that these children need. Level of Care is a system by which the state purchases appropriate levels of care services for the child. Providers are contracted to deliver services based on a child's determined level of need. Our vision was that if properly funded, the necessary capacity for each level would be available so that children's needs could be more effectively met, without having to fail their way through the system. This system of care would also provide the capacity for children to move to lower levels of care as they improved. The vision was for a full continuum to be built for Georgia's foster children. Our fear was that if Level of Care were not adequately funded, the full continuum would be threatened. LOC appears to be working well in the lower levels of foster care and group home care, levels 1 through 3. What we are seeing, particularly in the higher levels of care within levels 4-6 and in the emergency shelters are that the continuum is not being supported as needed. As a result, providers are cutting services to children. The levels needed are not being built. The State is struggling to find the placements that they need because needed capacity cannot be built under the present rate structure. The State’s failure to pay for the services has and will negatively impact the children we both serve. Proposed Solution: The rate increases represent what the providers believe will adequately resource the system that the state wants. First, we are asking for a cost of living adjustment of 2.5% (or $625,000 in the ’06 budget or $2.5 million in the ’07 budget) to cover their increased costs of providing care. Second, we need the higher levels of therapeutic care reimbursed with funding that matches their cost. Georgia significantly underfunded levels 4 through 6 by about $9.36 million ($1.07 million in the ’06 budget and $9.36 million in the ’07 budget.)
Georgia Association of
Homes and Services for Children
|
GAHSC Home Page Referral Central Index Contacting Us
Site contents are Copyright © 2005,
Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children
Updated by
Normer Adams on
12/11/05 06:06 AM -0500
.
