Commissioners approve early intervention report, hear cybersecurity proposal

Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades heard brief reports on local early intervention efforts and on cybersecurity during their Wednesday, Feb. 18 meeting. 

Highland County Board of DD Superintendent Larry Gray and Highland County Job and Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff provided a copy of the first of two early intervention reports required annually, which was approved by a 3-0 vote by commissioners.

According to Ratcliff, the report “used to be provided to Family Children First Council,” which was disbanded last year at Ratcliff and Gray’s recommendation. Reasons for the suggestion included the “duplication” of services among other programs, which could be maintained without the administrative responsibility of the FCFC.

In order to “show proper oversight was provided,” Ratcliff said the Board of DD’s early invention team submitted the report covering July 1-Dec. 31, 2025 activities to him for review, which he then sent on to commissioners.

“Early intervention services are just a way to help identify toddlers ages 0-3 who exhibit some sort of a developmental delay or disability, and they provide service coordination to those toddlers in our county,” Ratcliff said.

Gray said the report includes information on referrals, outreach, eligibility and service coordination. Daniels asked if “anything jumps out” as being “a big change” from previous reports.

“We’ve talked a little bit about multi-system youth as a referral,” Gray said. “You look at the previous reporting period to now, it's kind of pumped up. That would be the only thing that I can see. We are seeing a lot more referrals, and that's a good thing, in our services. That transitions into preschool or school, so this is the area where we want to make sure we can get that.”

According to the report, “The number of parent/caregiver referrals for this period is nearly double that of the last reporting period.” A total of 53 referrals were listed.

In other updates, Gray said they are “getting everything in place” to apply for additional funding for a proposed multi-system youth home. The superintendent had reported in October that the Board of DD had been awarded $40,000 in grant funding for each of the next two years for the project.

“Clinton County is going to come in with us, which makes that even stronger,” Gray said. “It is going to be in Greenfield. We have the home. We have everything in place.”

Ratcliff reported the most recent number of children in foster care in the county is 104, and 45 percent of those children are in a kinship placement. He said they had a recent Valentine’s Day event with several area foster families. 

“We saw one of our experienced foster parents taking some of the newer foster parents under the wings and making that connection,” Ratcilff said. 

In other discussion:

• Jeff Duchardt of Canon met with commissioners to discuss cybersecurity. 

As previously reported, commissioners voted 3-0 to enact a cybersecurity policy in compliance with state law in December. That involves employee training, “an incident response plan” and a response team.

According to Duchardt, he has submitted a packet of information with the company’s cybersecurity services in partnership with Supra ITS. 

Duchardt’s presentation was instead focused on the importance of “investing in cybersecurity,” as he said “county-level data is extremely valuable to criminals.” Cyberattacks can lead to “major operational disruptions,” from anywhere from five to 40 days, along with costing up to millions of dollars, he said.

“It is far less expensive to invest in prevention than in recovery after an attack,” Duchardt said. 

Daniels thanked Duchardt for the information and said he would reach out with any questions.

• Britton noted that the commission has been notified of the deadline to submit any requests for funding consideration in the 136th General Assembly’s capital budget.

“It's due March 12, so time’s of the essence to get this done,” Britton said. “We will be reviewing our list and applying for something.”

The county also received guidance for potentially applying for a Department of Homeland Security and State and Local Cybersecurity Grant, Britton said.

• Ethan Reynolds of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office reported that the governor is preparing for his annual State of the State address to discuss his “vision for the last nine months” of his term.

Commissioners also made the following approvals, each by a 3-0 vote:

• A letter to Congressman David Taylor expressing “support for continued funding of the Appalachian Regional Commission
Area Development Program,” at the request of the Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission.

• A contract among Highland County Commissioners, the Highland County Prosecutor’s Office and Maximus for IV-E services.

• A master service agreement among Highland County Commissioners, the Highland County Sheriff’s Office and Lexipol. According to HCSO Chief Deputy Jennifer Schinkal, they “currently use Lexipol” for policies and are “going to expand it back to our corrections division.”

• A resolution granting authorization for the listed “then and now” purchase orders and authorizing the county auditor to issue warrants for their payment.

• A request from the Engineer for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 2065 Repair MVL fund in the amount of $49,530.

• A request from Probation for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 2620 PSG FY24-25 fund in the amount of $676.15.

• A resolution to reappoint Robert Jackson, Chief Probation Officer of the Highland County Juvenile Court, to serve as trustee for the South Central Regional Juvenile Detention Center board.

• A request from the Auditor to rename fund 7030 from Delinquent General Personal to Solar PILOT Settlement fund. Also requested is to rename and create two lines within the fund: First Half PILOT Distribution and Second Half PILOT Distribution.

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