Idaho boosts budget to help prevent children from entering foster care

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare says it will receive its largest budget increase in history to expand preventative services aimed at keeping families together and reducing the number of children entering foster care.

The state plans to hire 63 new positions, with 35 dedicated prevention workers, 10 of which will be located in North Idaho, according to Jean Fisher, state administrator for youth safety and permanency for the Department of Health and Welfare.

“We have a whole bunch of families who are on the edge, and these are families that we are trying to keep out of coming into the system altogether,” Fisher said. “And we do that with prevention services.”

The investment comes at a critical time for Idaho’s child welfare system. The latest data from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare shows 148 children currently in foster care in the Panhandle region, while the area recorded 3,200 reports of abuse and neglect in 2023.

Angela Gifford, executive director at Village of Hope, an organization that supports foster families, said many families live on the brink of crisis.

“You have a lot of families that are just one emergency medical situation away from homelessness, which again, will cost children in foster care,” Gifford said.

Village of Hope works to bridge the gap between government aid and the needs of foster families, providing journey bags filled with essential items for children who often arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

“Anyone in this field shares the goal of wanting to work themselves out of a job,” said Gifford.

The new funding supports preventative care rather than reactive measures after children have already entered the system. Fisher believes this approach will create significant community impact.

“I think when you are able to keep a family together, it has a tremendous impact,” Fisher said.

The additional prevention workers will specifically focus on supporting at-risk families before children need to be removed from their homes.

“The prevention piece is so important,” Gifford said. “If our social workers are currently bogged down with current cases, then who can do the prevention work? So that is a really important move.”