In foster care, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare budget proposal focuses on prevention
As the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare seeks to address issues in foster care, the agency is looking to funnel more resources toward preventing kids from being placed in foster care in the first place.
In its budget request to be considered during the 2025 legislative session, the state health agency is asking to raise the child welfare budget by almost $15 million to $65.2 million and add 68 new full-time staff for a total of nearly 503 staff in fiscal year 2026, which starts June 2026.
If approved by the Idaho Legislature, some new funding and staff requested would go toward funding prevention work, reducing agency caseworker workloads, enhancing support to foster parents and improving kid placements in child welfare.
More than eight in every 10 children in the Department of Health and Welfare’s custody are placed in a care setting, like foster care or congregate care; the remaining kids stay in their homes, with agency prevention services geared toward helping families ensure kids’ safety.
A major goal Health and Welfare outlined is to reverse that trend: To have the vast majority of kids remain in their homes and receive prevention services, with the rest of kids in placement settings.
That prevention focus involves putting “as many resources at the beginning of that journey,” Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Alex Adams told the Idaho Capital Sun and CBS2 in a joint interview.
State Sen. Melissa Wintrow, a Boise Democrat who has for years worked on child welfare issues, welcomed the focus on prevention and the requests to boost staffing.
“This Legislature has said over and over that we value our children. And I believe that,” she told the Sun and CBS2. “But in order to value our children, we have to fully invest in the resources to support them. And that could be prevention services, which I highly support,” along with decreasing caseloads and providing resources for children with complex needs, who often are placed in congregate care.
What Health and Welfare’s budget request asks for
The budget request calls for funds and new staffing across four key child welfare areas, geared toward improving the safety of kids in their homes; improving placements; enhancing support for foster parents; and reducing agency caseload workloads to improve children’s outcomes.
Here’s how those requests break down:
1. Improving kids’ safety in their homes: $3 million in total funds, including $1.46 million in federal funds and nearly $1.6 million in state general funds. No new jobs are requested.
2. Improving placement fit and stability for children in foster care: $1.2 million in total funds, including over a half million dollars in federal funds and $674,000 in state general funds. Twelve new full-time jobs are requested.
3. Enhancing support for foster parents: $3.1 million in total funds, including $1.4 million in federal funds and nearly $1.7 million in state general funds. Fifteen new full-time jobs are requested.
4. Improving children’s outcomes by reducing agency worker caseloads: $1.3 million in total funds, including $631,500 in federal funds and $690,000 in state general funds. Fourteen new full-time jobs are requested.
The agency also seeks to raise foster care and assistance payments to $74.5 million next fiscal year, up from the $62.8 it was budgeted this year, but down from what it estimated its actual expenses will be this year, which was projected at nearly $77 million.
The Department of Health and Welfare, like other state government agencies, submitted its budget request Sept. 1. But official decisions on the budgeting process are still months away.
In January, Idaho Gov. Brad Little is expected to issue his own budget request to the Idaho Legislature.
That’s also when the Idaho Legislature is set to convene for the 2025 legislative session, which often stretches into the first few months of the year. That’s when state lawmakers would craft individual budget bills authorizing state agencies to spend money — including state and federal funds.
What is prevention in child welfare?
Each year, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare receives around 24,000 calls alleging abuse or neglect to its hotline, Adams told the Sun. Health and Welfare sends out staff to assess child safety in around 15,800 cases annually, Adams said.
In most cases, kids are determined safe and remain in their home, Adams said. But in 11% of cases, kids are deemed unsafe and end up in the custody of Health and Welfare, he said.
About 85% of children that end up in the Department of Health and Welfare custody end up in placements — meaning they are placed in foster care; the care of other family members, called kinship care; group homes, known as congregate care; or another setting, like a hospital or juvenile corrections.
The rest of the kids in Health and Welfare’s custody, about 15% of cases, are treated as “prevention” cases. That’s where the child remains in their home and families receive services focused on safety, such as parent anger management classes, substance use disorder treatment, connections to welfare programs like food stamps or WIC or other resources.
In prevention cases, the department sends staff out regularly to oversee that children are safe, Adams said.
Now, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare hopes to reverse that 85-15 split, of mostly placing kids in service placement settings, rather than keeping them home with prevention services — to have 85% of kids in the agency’s custody in prevention services, rather than placement settings.
“A placement should be the tool of last resort,” like in cases of physical or sexual abuse, Adams told the Sun.
Formerly the governor’s budget chief, Adams took over as Idaho Department of Health and Welfare director in June, soon announcing foster care as a top priority.