Children Services hoping for larger state allocation
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services Director Vince Gianangeli hopes the state of Ohio will provide more funding to help his Children Services department meet the high demand for services.
He said the need remains even though the current state budget for child welfare has been increased to $110 million.
"That was actually a $15 million increase from the last biennium budget that had $95 million in it. But even with that additional commitment, we're still 50th in the country for the state's investment in child welfare. So we're hoping anything the governor could do in this next biennium budget … would be enough to subsidize some of the increased costs for our placement costs for children."
Locally, Belmont County's child protection allocation from the state has been $445,000 annually for the past two years. That represents an increase from the previous amount of $330,000 in Fiscal Year 2017.
"We did benefit. All 88 counties benefited, but it still wasn't enough to help subsidize the increased placement costs," Gianangeli said. "A lot of it has to do with the opioid problem. The state feels there's a 27 percent increase in the past five years from 2013 to 2018 because of that opioid issue. There's more kids that are being placed in foster care.
"As far as funding, we have two levies for Children Services," he said. "With the boom in the oil and gas industry, our local tax revenue has gone from $450,000 to $1 million today, but we spend $3.1 million in child welfare annually. That's why you have to have a combination of federal funds, state funds and local funds to help cover those costs. Locally, the legislature has always put it on the backs of the local county departments. They say it's a local obligation to take care of their children, and we're telling them the state needs to get more involved also. The state is only contributing about 10 percent of the cost to operate the Children Services agency."
Gianangeli added that costs are expected to remain the same, and while the $445,000 allocation from the state helps cover costs, he holds out hope that Gov. Mike Dewine might devote additional funds to cover more than 10 percent of the costs.
Gianangeli said he met Dewine and his wife, Fran, recently at an annual conference of the Ohio Township Association at the Convention Center in Columbus on Feb. 1. Gianangeli attended in his role as fiscal officer of Colerain Township.
"They're very family-oriented, and to hear the governor stand up in front of a couple thousand people and talk about child welfare, children, and putting more money into child welfare, I really appreciated those comments," Gianangeli said. "He made the comment to me that he's trying his best to give Children Services agencies across the state of Ohio more child welfare funding from the state."
Gianangeli added that the next budget would go into effect July 1.
He also commended the 18 Children Service workers in Belmont County.
Kara Mowery, drug court probation officer with the county's juvenile court, spoke about substance abuse prevention for first-time offenders, substance abuse programs, and family dependency treatment court for adults working to regain custody of their children.
"We work very closely with Children Services," she said. "We have several individuals who are in drug court now."
"So many parents are addicted to the opioids and having to either give up their kids and losing custody of their kids, and Children Services is going to need some more resources to address that," Belmont County Common Pleas Juvenile and Probate Judge Al Davies said, adding that Children Services representatives are involved in the majority of those cases, as well as cases involving delinquent children.
"We really take a team approach," Children Services Department Administrator Christine Parker said, adding that the workers review parents' progress in their court cases and plan visits between parents and the children they are separated from.
Children Services Supervisor John LaRoche said the job has also become more dangerous due to the opioid crisis and drug abuse. As a result, Children Services employees now work more closely with law enforcement.