Oh, the irony

Foster-care provider running out of money
Group loses county funds when it sends children home
Columbus Dispatch, Thursday, September 07, 2006
Encarnacion Pyle

A private agency’s practice of helping troubled families keep their children out of foster homes has threatened its very existence.

Ohio Youth Advocate Program in Hilliard, one of the state’s largest foster-care providers, is reuniting children with their families more quickly, reducing the money it receives from counties. Child-welfare agencies also have been sending fewer children to the group.

"What’s best for children and families isn’t always good for us," Executive Director Joan Wilson said.

Franklin County Children Services thinks the group and its parent company, National Youth Advocate Program, also based in Hilliard, need as much as $3 million to pay bills.

Children Services and the state are reviewing the groups’ books to determine the extent of their financial problems and whether children in their care might be affected.

"We’re obviously concerned, but it might be what you call a good problem," Children Services’ Executive Director John Saros said.

Children Services is returning nearly 87 percent of the youths in its care to their families, finding adoptive homes for many others and providing more services to parents who need help dealing with their children’s behavioral, emotional or mental problems, he said. "Unfortunately, our successes are leading to unintended consequences to some of our providers because we’re sending fewer kids for shorter lengths of stay into foster care."

Children Services pays the groups $43 to $92 a day for children in foster homes, depending on the child’s needs. Ohio Youth Advocate has 152 kids in its homes now.

The agency also pays Youth Advocate and its parent company about $3.1 million a year for children who have been judged delinquent and unruly and need emergency care in a group home. That program also is losing money, Saros said.

Children Services learned of the groups’ struggles in late July when it received a complaint they were behind on their bills.

"We became concerned because there have been problems in the past," Saros said.

In 2003, then-State Auditor Jim Petro found that Ohio Youth Advocate and its parent company had misspent $5 million in taxpayer money on management fees, paintings, travel and finance charges.

In early August, an auditor for Children Services determined the groups had $2 million in cash but owed $7.8 million. They also had used all but $250,000 of a $1.75 million line of credit.
Wilson knew her organization was having trouble but was surprised to learn in August how much it owed. Youth Advocate contracts with 15 childwelfare agencies in the state and is serving 1,222 youngsters.

The group will cut 25 positions, restructure its program and has worked out payment schedules with organizations to which it owes money, Wilson said. It also will merge with the National Youth Advocate Program to save on administrative costs.

Marvena Twigg, head of the national program, said in an e-mail that she couldn’t comment on specifics but trusts that Children Services "will continue to work with us to maintain our quality and successful service to all children and families."

Children Services also sends about 40 cases a month to Ohio Youth Advocate, paying $33,000 a case, as part of an experiment to save taxpayers money.

It has decided to leave its youths in the groups’ care and extend their contracts month by month. The agency also has developed a plan to take over the services if the Youth Advocate programs go under. The plan would cost $21 million a year, $800,000 more than it currently pays the groups.

The state Department of Job and Family Services also is investigating to make sure the groups have enough money to meet licensing requirements, spokesman Dennis Evans said.

If county child-welfare agencies don’t start rewarding foster-care agencies for helping families in their own homes, more agencies will fall into financial holes, said Penny Wyman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies. "After a while, all you can do with less is less."