State auditor will investigate the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to get at the root causes.
This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education.
After receiving what she called “numerous” complaints about foster children in Kentucky sleeping in office buildings without supervision by trained staff, state Auditor Allison Ball said Tuesday the Office of the Ombudsman will investigate.
Calling it an “ongoing crisis” that is “years” in the making, Ball said the ombudsman will investigate the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to get at the root causes.
Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the problem isn’t new — and solving it won’t be simple or cheap. He said:
“It involves a “niche population” of high-needs youth who likely need specialized care.”
“It’s not typically 5-year-old kids who look like they fell off a TV commercial,” Brooks said. “You’re talking about older kids, teenagers, high levels of acuity, probably some special needs, probably with a history of aggressive behavior. I’m painting a portrait of a young person who we definitely need to care for, but we know it’s going to take creativity and resources to be able to do that.”
A spokesperson for the auditor said the office thinks the practice has “been going on for two years and has affected about 300 children, but we’ll know exactly once we dig in.”
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ response
The cabinet said in a statement that it has “taken action to address the challenges that come with placing youth with severe mental and behavioral problems or a history of violence or sexual aggression with foster families or facilities.”
“We’ve publicly addressed this many times with lawmakers and have offered more funding to secure additional safe, short-term care options for youth,” a cabinet spokesman said. “When one of these placements are necessary, we work to make sure each youth has a safe place to stay until a placement can be made.”
“We urge those interested in becoming a foster parent to help us meet the needs of all our youth, please visit KyFaces.ky.gov.”
In 2023, The Courier Journal reported that a shortage of available and willing foster families was a factor in the state’s decision to house some youth in a Louisville office building. WDRB reported earlier this year that the practice has continued, despite concerns raised by a Louisville judge.
“My office has continued to receive numerous complaints of foster children and teenagers sleeping on cots and air mattresses in office buildings, often not supervised by trained staff,” Ball said in a statement. “I have instructed the Ombudsman’s Office to investigate this issue to uncover the problems associated with this ongoing crisis.”
“The vulnerable children of Kentucky deserve to be placed in nurturing environments where they are provided with the resources, stability, and care they need,” Ball said.
Staff are still trying to confirm how many office buildings are involved.
A spokesperson for Ball said, “We can confirm that this is not exclusively a Jefferson County issue.”
Sleeping in an office building can compound trauma youth already have experienced, Brooks said. “It certainly is not going to create a positive childhood experience,” he said. “It’s going to create more adversity to kids who have already experienced too much adversity.”
Kentucky ‘can’t do this on the cheap’
Kentucky needs more families to foster, but it also needs a better system to support children who can’t be placed, Brooks said. Kentucky must “incentivize” — through higher wages and reimbursements — a “willingness to take on tough cases.”
Lawmakers can look to Tennessee, he said, which has faced similar problems and responded by increasing payments to foster parents and wages to state staff working with higher-needs children.
[Related: White House unveils new policies to transform child welfare]
“They have just owned the fact that,‘if I’m getting paid $15 an hour, I’m probably not going to be volunteering to get bitten, spit on and other issues with tough kids,’” Brooks said.
Another solution Kentucky should consider, Brooks said, would be to create triage centers — safe, secure, designated spaces — to temporarily house children who can’t immediately be placed.
“If the General Assembly cares about those kids sleeping in offices as much as (CHFS Secretary Eric Friedlander) and Auditor Ball, then they’ve got to take action,” Brooks said. “And it can’t be rhetorical. It has to be resources. So I don’t know if that is looking at existing resources, I don’t know if that’s taking the big swing (and) reopening the budget, but you can’t do this on the cheap.”
***
Sarah Ladd is a covers health and health policy reporter for the Kentucky Lantern. She has reported internationally as well as domestically with bylines in News from the States, Kentucky Lantern, USA Today, The Courier Journal and more.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence.
Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.
