Despite public outcry, controversy, and the involvement of state legislators, if a health care company can get the proper licenses, a large Ruxton residence may be transformed into a private mental health group home.
Read MoreThe Board of Public Works approved $245 million in two-year contracts with 71 different providers of residential child care services for the Department of Human Resources on Wednesday. The contracts cost the state about $126 million less than in 2008, because fewer children need those services.
Ted Dallas, interim secretary of the Department of Human Resources, said that before the department implemented a new approach to foster services in 2007, they needed about 2,200 beds for young people in residential care. The contracts approved on Wednesday provide 1,376 beds in residential care, and Dallas said the amount of young people needing that kind of care is continuing to drop.
Another fight over state-funded juvenile group homes ignited on the Senate floor Tuesday, with a bill to give private operators more time to meet the requirement that their workers be certified to take care of troubled youth.
The operators had been given five years to have their staff certified by 2015, but they are seeking another year to meet the requirement. Declining state reimbursement, combined with this unfunded mandate, could put some of them out of business, some said.
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