The door to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee room at the Idaho State Capitol building in Boise on Jan. 6, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare needs an additional $14,125,900 to cover foster care expenses for this fiscal year.
IDHW Director Alex Adams made the pitch for the supplemental funding before the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, at the committee’s meeting pre-Legislative session.
Adams explained that the largest reason for the increase in cost is the use of congregate care settings for children in foster care paired with the decrease in the number foster families.
In foster care, Idaho Department Health and Welfare budget proposal focuses on prevention
Roughly 1,400 children are placed in foster care annually in Idaho. Of those, 46% are in foster homes, 27% are in kinship placements with family or people known to the children, and 16% are in congregate care. The remaining 11% end up in other locations, such as hospitals, based on the child’s needs.
Last year, the department placed more than 170 foster children in temporary housing accommodations because the state had nowhere else for them. In May, the state opened the Payette Assessment and Care Center, a 16-bed foster care facility that acts as an alternative to the temporary homes DHW previously used.
Adams told the committee that the department has closed all temporary housing accommodations as of last week, and has significantly increased the number of available foster families, calling it a “wildly important goal” for fiscal year 2026.
He outlined that it costs the state $16 a day to put a child in foster home or kinship home, and $225 to $800 a day to put them in a congregate care setting. Generally, kids in congregate care settings have the most comorbidities and other needs that require more intensive medical and mental health treatment.
IDHW’s fiscal year 2026 budget request focuses heavily on improving foster care, including money for foster family recruitment, foster licensing efforts, a 5% pay increase for foster families, and 36 new positions for prevention specialists. Prevention specialists would provide families with resources, such as anger management or substance use disorder treatment, to help them before removing a child from the home becomes necessary. The department is also requesting additional positions for the Payette Assessment and Care Center, as well as for case management and licensing.
Lawmakers will further consider and discuss budgets during the 2025 legislative session, which begins in January.
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