Children in state care from all over Kentucky must be lodged in offices before an appropriate foster placement can be found, the auditor’s officer reports. Most of those housed in offices were boys and the average stay during the four months under study was four days. (Getty Images)
FRANKFORT — A preliminary report from the Kentucky Office of the Ombudsman says dozens of foster children — including a 1-year-old — have spent an average of four days in Cabinet for Health and Family Services office buildings over a four month period in 2024.
This finding comes about three months after Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball announced the Office of the Ombudsman would investigate complaints about foster children in Kentucky sleeping in office buildings.
Ball said on Tuesday that the ombudsman would continue to investigate and look for solutions, including barriers to finding foster homes for the children.
That investigation “should cover not only children staying in state office buildings but also hotels, state parks, out of state or other nontraditional placements,” the report states. “Barriers to placement should be further examined to determine why these children are not being placed. The (ombudsman) should further research the conditions under which the children are housed when housed in a nontraditional placement.”
The 14-page report, released Tuesday, says:
- Since June, 49 children have spent a combined 198 days in a CHFS building. This excludes those who were housed in other places, like state parks or hotels, and only looked at those who spent nights in Department for Community Based Services office spaces.
- The average stay was 4.04 days.
- About half of these children spent one day.
- The longest stay spent by a child in a CHFS building was 35 days during the examination period, which was June 10 to October 29, 2024. This happened in Boone County.
- Six children spent 10 or more days in a CHFS building.
- The average age was 13.
- Six children were under 10.
- The youngest was 1.
- Twelve children spent five or more days in such a building.
- Six children spent 10 or more days.
- Three service regions accounted for 70% of children in CHFS office buildings.
- The Two Rivers Service Region had the highest number of children housed during the examined period, accounting for 13 children (26% of cases) across counties including Daviess, Warren and Henderson.
- Kenton County and Hardin County housed six children each, the highest number of children across all 120 counties.
- Jefferson County housed two children.
- The majority were male.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services said in a statement that cabinet staff “continue to take action to address the challenges that come with placing youth with behavioral problems and severe mental or a history of violence or sexual aggression with foster families or facilities.”
“We’re working to provide more funding to secure additional safe, short-term care options for youth, and we’ve publicly addressed this multiple times with lawmakers,” Kendra Steele, the cabinet’s executive director of the Office of Public Affairs, said in a statement. “Just today, we filed an emergency regulation to increase funding that will support many of these children. Kentuckians interested in becoming a foster parent should visit adopt.ky.gov.”
Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said he was most surprised by the regional breakdown.
“I think going into it, most people would have thought it was Louisville and Lexington … where all these cases emanated from,” he said.
The currently available data suggests the state may need a customized-by-region response to the issue, Brooks said..
“The kids in question are complicated, difficult, tough cases. I mean, they’re kids, for instance, with a track record of aggression. They are kids who have high risk of even more trauma. So we’re not talking about easy cases,” Brooks said. “And the bottom line is, we’ve got to get real about what supports do agencies and families need?”
Brooks said it will take meaningful incentives for families to fully support these children. And it will take finding families with a passion for high-needs children.
“You have to combine … heart and reality. You could put all the money in the world on a table and if a family doesn’t have the heart and soul, then it’s not going to work,” he said. “By the same token, heart and soul alone isn’t going to cut it, either. And so we’ve just got to be realistic that there is a yin and yang. There is the ethical commitment to these kids, but then there’s the practical supports.”
“The data discovered by the Ombudsman revealed deeply concerning issues impacting foster children across Kentucky — not just in Jefferson County,” Ball said in a statement. “The data reveals children, as young as one-year-old, are spending extended periods of time in CHFS offices.The systemic failures need urgent action; therefore, I advise launching a more thorough investigation to find innovative solutions to build a brighter future for foster children across the Commonwealth.”
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Brooks said having an “independent ombudsman” has also allowed Kentucky to get a more “objective analysis.”
In 2023, the legislature enacted a law moving the ombudsman from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to the auditor’s office. The change took effect July 1, 2024.
“I don’t think it should be lost that the concept of an independent ombudsman was not without controversy when it was enacted,” Brooks said.
The data presented in this initial report needs to be expanded upon, Brooks said, but it’s an important first analysis.
“I just want to applaud the auditor. This is, I think, the first time I’ve seen a state auditor become a catalyst for Kentucky kids,” Brooks said. “So I think the fact that she tackled this is commendable.”
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