Highland County JFS director testifies before House committee

Highland County Job & Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff testified before the Ohio House of Representatives Children and Human Services Committee to advocate for Children Services funding during a recent hearing to consider the next state biennial budget.
 
At their March 5 meeting,Highland County commissioners thanked Ratcliff for representing the county at the committee hearing Feb. 27.

“Last Thursday, I was able to testify to the House Children and Human Services Committee about increased investments in the state in the area of child welfare,” Ratcliff said. “They had about 60 people scheduled that day to testify. I wasn't nervous until they made us cut down our testimony, literally five minutes before I went to the podium, and said, ‘Hey, we know we told you that you had five minutes, and you probably practiced to have five, but you've got four, and here's the timer right here on the podium that'll start blinking at you in 30 seconds.’

“They didn't throw me out of the House, so I'll take that as a win. Commissioner [David] Daniels was there to help support. We appreciate that. We also had an opportunity to meet with Representative [Bob] Peterson's staff and Senator [Shane] Wilkin's staff as well.”

According to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, Ratcliff “participated in a panel” alongside Ross County Commissioner Jack Everson and Public Children Services Association of Ohio Executive Director Angela Sausser. Both Ratcliff and Everson testified about the “rising placement costs” in their respective counties, the CCAO reported.

As previously reported, a proposed renewal levy for Children Services failed, for a third consecutive time, in the Nov. 5 general election. Commissioners said in a letter to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio in October that “the anticipated cost to the general fund will exceed $1.3 million, nearly 10 percent of the total general fund budget,” with the levy not available to help offset foster care placement costs.

“The repeated failure to replace/renew a longtime levy has led to a general fund budget request to the Highland County Commissioners of $1.5 million for 2025, approximately 9.5 percent of the total general fund budget for Highland County,” Ratcliff said in his written Feb. 27 testimony (provided by the CCAO). “This is not sustainable for most counties.”

In February, Ratcliff said the Children Services agency ended 2024 with $4.3 million in placement costs, up from $3.8 million in 2023. According to his Feb. 27 testimony, that included “282 children in custody and 440 separate placements” in 2024 alone.

“In 2018, placement costs for Highland County were approximately $1.8 million,” Ratcliff said in his testimony. “By 2024, costs rose to approximately $4.3 million, nearly a 140-percent increase in just six years. As costs have continued to rise, we have diverted all possible funds from other programs and services to survive.”

As commissioners wrote in their letter to CCAO in the fall, “Highland County JFS diverts millions of dollars per year away from staffing resources and other social service programs, including service to senior citizens, to pay the costs of foster care, and still the Commissioners have been forced to supplement the costs from the general fund by hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“In addition to fully maximizing the State Child Protection Allocation (SCPA) each year, other state and federal funding sources have a reduced impact in the community due to diverting funds to child protective services,” Ratcliff said in his testimony. “We cannot fully utilize federal Title XX funding for supports to senior citizens, for example, as a result of placement costs.

“The majority of Federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) funds are expended for services and supports to families involved with child protective services. We are unable to develop a robust TANF program, targeting workforce supports or stabilize a short-term family in crisis, due to the needs of the child welfare unit.”

In his testimony, Ratcliff said that as JFS director, “for the first time in my career, I am unable to control expenses.

“PCSAs [public children services agencies] do not take custody of children, we are ordered custody, and we cannot say no,” Ratcliff said. “Nor can we ignore the calls for reports of abuse/neglect/dependency.”

After the first of three attempts to pass the Children Services levy failed in November 2023, Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins discussed the reasoning for some of the more high-cost placements at a county commission meeting. Collins explained that such placements, including residential housing facilities, were necessary for some of the children in the agency’s care who have been "removed from situations that we can't imagine in our worst nightmares — severe child abuse, child neglect and sexual assault.” In those cases, the prosecutor said that “a therapeutic environment” is often necessary.

Ratcliff referenced some of these examples as well in his House testimony.

“One recent call resulted in a sibling group of three entering care,” Ratcliff said. “Each child was $500/day, totaling $45,000/month for the sibling group.

“Twenty-four-hour weekend schedules with mandatory 12-hour shifts have been developed with the prospect of a violent 17-year-old arriving at the office with the only available placement at the time quoted at $1,775/day. Fortunately, we secured a last minute placement in partnership with the Highland County Board of Developmental Disabilities. However, other children have not been so fortunate and have been forced to sleep in our offices until we secured placement.”

That issue of “children sleeping the office … happens at an alarming rate across the state,” Ratcliff added.

“As children diverted from other systems enter foster care, the demand for scarce beds pushes costs higher and higher,” he said. “I have observed caseworkers making frantic calls to coordinate care for their own children as they prepare to sleep in the office with children in custody of the agency.

“The first overnight happened within months of my tenure as director. I will never forget the words of the supervisor preparing to sleep in her desk chair with the child on a makeshift cot, ‘Welcome to child welfare, boss, this is what we do.’ This cannot and should not ever be accepted as ‘what we do.’”

Ratcliff concluded his written testimony by asking the committee “for your full consideration and support for the additional investments in the child welfare system at the local level to assist struggling agencies trying to survive.

“As importantly, I ask you to remember the words of a local foster child I will call Molly,” Ratcliff said. “Recently, 6-year-old Molly was in our office for the third time in approximately six months due to a caretaker’s inability to provide for her needs. Over the next eight hours as the Placement Coordinator desperately searched for a suitable placement, Molly said, ‘I really want to go back to (previous foster parent’s) house. But if I can’t, I know that you will find a safe place where I will be loved. I trust you.’

“Members of this Committee, this is what I am asking you to invest in – a safe place where children will be loved. There is no higher funding priority.”

Highland County Commissioner David Daniels said that Ratcliff “did an excellent job” testifying in Columbus.

“I received some good feedback, and they had mentioned that if we were asked to come back to the full House Finance Committee or even the Senate, that they may invite me back up to talk about the issues the child welfare agencies are facing at a local level, the impact that it’s having on counties,” Ratcliff said.

For updates on House Bill 96’s progress, follow https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb96.

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