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BILL # SB 1333 |
TITLE: congregate care; dependent children; placement |
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SPONSOR: Shamp |
STATUS: Senate Engrossed |
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PREPARED BY: Maggie Rocker |
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The bill would require the Department of Child Safety (DCS) to: 1) recruit a minimum number of licensed foster homes as determined by the department; 2) report additional congregate care statistics in the department's semiannual child welfare report; and 3) develop a plan to place children in congregate care in family-like settings. Within 2 days of placing a medically fragile child in a congregate care setting, DCS would be required to conduct an on-site survey to ensure staff with direct care responsibilities for the child have proper training. The bill would also allow DCS to require contracted group home providers to have additional staff to serve foster children determined to be medically complex.
Estimated Impact
We estimate that the bill would generate both costs and savings, but we have insufficient information to determine the net magnitude of these impacts. The reporting and site visit requirements may increase workload for DCS staff. The bill may also impact the costs of DCS's contracted vendors for foster home recruitment and retention and congregate care. Such costs may be partially or fully offset if the foster home recruitment requirements under the bill result in caseload shifts from higher-cost congregate care placements to family foster settings.
DCS has not responded to our request for the fiscal impact of the bill's provisions. We would need DCS's input to provide further comment on the bill's fiscal impact.
The FY 2026 Baseline includes funding of $42.3 million General Fund ($103.7 million Total Funds) for congregate care contracts and $19.7 million General Fund ($32.8 million) for foster home recruitment, retention, study, and supervision vendors. We estimate that for every 1% increase in the cost of those contracts that could occur as a result of the bill, there could be an annualized General Fund cost of approximately $1.1 million. Without analysis from the department, however, we cannot determine in advance what the actual magnitude of the cost increase in those contracts would be, if any, as a result of the bill.
To the extent that the bill results in shifts from congregate care to licensed foster placements, we estimate an average monthly General Fund savings of $(4,500) per child that switches from congregate care to a licensed foster home.
Local Government Impact
None
3/10/25