Court - State lacks method of paying foster care providers

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A federal judge has given Missouri two months to come up with a method for paying its foster care providers after ruling that the state's current system violates federal law.

U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey said Missouri has simply been taking the money allotted by the state budget and dividing it among foster care providers.

That violates the 1980 Child Welfare Act, which requires states receiving federal foster care funds to cover the costs of such things as food, clothing, shelter, school supplies and other personal items, Laughrey ruled.

"Missouri bases its reimbursement rates on budget considerations, not the factors mandated" by federal law, Laughrey wrote in a Jan. 13 decision and publicized Monday by child advocacy groups.

A coalition of child care groups that sued the state over its current foster care payment system estimated that state payments to residential foster care centers cover between 30 percent and 50 percent of the actual costs, the judge said in her ruling.

The judge also cited testimony from the deputy director of the Family Services Division, who said there was no way to know -- under the current system -- whether the state's payment was reasonable.

The judge gave the state 60 days to present a method for determining foster care payments based on the federal law. She did not order any particular method nor set a specific payment rate.

Those who brought the lawsuit hope the judge's ruling will cause the Legislature to provide more money for foster care.

"Failure to comply with federal law could lead to a variety of things, including the federal government making a decision to cut off" all foster care money to Missouri, said David Harris, a St. Louis attorney for the Missouri Coalition of Children's Agencies. "That's some of the motivation that would cause the Legislature to look at increased funding."

State government was closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Reached at home, Department of Social Services spokeswoman Deb Hendricks simply said: "We will develop the new method according to the ruling."

Missouri has about 12,200 children who have been removed from their parents' homes and placed in either a foster home or some other type of residential care facility.