Feds Fine Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for 2008 Failings

“The federal government penalized Ohio $3.8 million for failing to pass muster on two measures of the state’s child protective-services system.

Officials say the fine, which had loomed as a possibility since 2008, was expected. Ohio met just four of 14 criteria on the federal Child and Family Services Review standards that year, said Benjamin Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The state submitted an improvement plan and by 2012 had met nearly all the goals except for standards on recurrence of maltreatment and on child and parent visitation.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suspended the fine but finally imposed it last month.

“I don’t want to downplay the importance of the federal measures, because we should be held to standards, but some of these make it really hard,” said Scott Britton of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

Most states have struggled, at least initially, to meet the standards that were created more than a decade ago to gauge how well children are faring in the systems that provide protection, foster care, family support and adoption.

In 2003, for example, audits of 32 states found not a single one passing each standard. Ohio, by comparison, scored fairly well.

“When (federal auditors) come in to do their reviews, they base it on just a small sample,” Britton said. Ohio’s initial noncompliance finding in 2008 was based on scores from three counties, including Franklin. The improvement plan included findings from all 88 counties but still fell short in two measures.

Ohio is among a small number of states whose child-welfare system is administered by individual counties instead of at the state level.

The state paid the amount owed to the federal government on behalf of all 88 county agencies. As a result, agencies will see reductions in their state allocations next year.

But the counties can earn a total of $3 million in “incentive funding” back if they meet certain benchmarks for improving visitation with children and visitation with parents, the state said.

The $3.8 million penalty is a small amount of total federal funding for child-welfare agencies in Ohio. Johnson said the state received $443.2 million in 2012, the year on which the fine was based. Total funding — local, state and federal — was about $1.34 billion.”

Feds fine Ohio for failings in 2008 review of child welfare [The Columbus Dispatch 8/13/15 by Rita Price]

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