COLUMBUS – As more children in Ohio being placed with children services as a result of the statewide opiate epidemic, state funding for those agencies had declined, making it more difficult for those agencies to meet the needs of kids who may need more help than others.
“These children are often quite traumatized because the neglect that they’ve experienced in the home is extreme,” says Scott Britton, assistant director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. “They can’t always go into standard foster homes. They may need treatment foster homes. They may need residential foster care for some time, so their cases are much more expensive.”
While the number of children taken into protective custody has risen nearly 20 percent since 2009, Britton says funding for Ohio’s child-welfare system has fallen 17 percent during the same time.
Britton applauds state leaders for their efforts so far to curb the epidemic, including increasing access to treatment options and reforming prescription drug prescribing practices, but points out the state ranks last nationally when it comes to the state’s share of child-protection funding, Britton said.
There are 14,000 children in care on any given day, Britton said, a 12 percent increase in the past five years, an increase he says is undoubtedly tied to the opioid crisis.