Children services administrator presents nine contracts as foster-care caseloads rise

Shannon Glendon, an administrator with Butler County Department of Job and Family Services, asked the board to approve nine contracts obtained through a recent RFP: seven new placement contracts (five foster-care network agreements and two group-home contracts) and two renewals for family counseling and kinship home studies. She described the contracts as performance-reviewed and subject to the county's contracting committee review.

Glendon told commissioners, “Right now, we have about 337 children in paid placement foster care.” She also said, verbatim, “over 0.5 of our children who are in foster care are result of the heroin epidemic that we are facing right now.” The administrator provided further detail: about 282 of the paid-placement children are in foster care, roughly 40 percent of those children are in Butler County Children Services foster homes, and the agency has approximately 20 children in residential treatment and 17 in group homes.

She described a new two-tiered intake workflow intended to engage families more quickly and placed emphasis on keeping children in the same community and school when possible. After questions from commissioners, the board moved, seconded and unanimously approved the nine contracts presented by Glendon.