New Funding Formula for Child Welfare Raises Fears

SACRAMENTO —  Orange County legislators and lobbyists are demanding answers from state officials on whether a proposed new child-welfare funding formula would reduce state appropriations for the county’s Orangewood emergency children’s shelter.

Fearful that operating costs for the 2-year-old facility in Orange could not be factored into requests for child-welfare appropriations under the Deukmejian Administration’s proposal, county officials are making plans to oppose it.

“I’m going to do everything I can to see to it that the formula is changed” if it is determined that it will hurt Orangewood, state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) said last week.

While local officials fear that the Orangewood shelter would suffer under the new formula, no one is altogether certain because of the complexities of both the new formula and the one it is intended to replace.

Caseloads Stressed

Ironically, the new method was proposed in response to longstanding contentions by counties around the state--including Orange--that the current formula, which takes into account poverty, welfare cases and population, does not adequately measure program needs for abused and neglected youngsters.

Under the new plan, officials of the state Department of Social Services would begin relying more heavily on actual child-welfare caseload statistics in doling out program money.

Beginning this year, state officials plan to rely 50% on caseloads in determining funding, decreasing the weight of other factors used in the current formula. Eventually, they plan to base child-welfare funding entirely on the number of abused and neglected youngsters in foster care and other child-welfare programs.

Orangewood, touted nationally as a model facility for troubled youngsters, has been a source of pride for county officials since it opened its doors in April of 1984. As much as possible, its eight Spanish-style cottages, with manicured lawns and bright decorations, give the $7.5-million facility a homey atmosphere despite its institutional use, child-welfare officials say.

Seymour, the Senate Republican Caucus chairman, said the shelter, built largely with private donations, “is one of the model programs nationally of a public-private partnership.”

He said it would be a “breach of the spirit” of that policy, long espoused by both President Reagan and Gov. George Deukmejian, if a budget adversely affecting Orangewood was approved by the Legislature and signed into law.

Most counties in the state contract with private agencies to house abused and neglected youngsters, but Orange and five other counties--Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Diego and Alameda--own emergency shelter facilities.

Although some of those counties are not complaining about the switch, Orange County officials say the six counties with their own shelters probably spend more for child welfare than other counties and, therefore, stand to lose more by the change.

Began to Ask Questions

County administrators around the state were generally pleased in January when Deukmejian unveiled the $410-million child-welfare package that included a $19.1-million inflation factor to make up for three years of acknowledged underfunding.

Officials only began asking questions about the new funding formula after subcommittees in both the Assembly and Senate had approved it earlier this month.

“We don’t know the answers now,” said Seymour, who sent a two-page letter to Social Services Director Linda McMahon last week.

Department spokeswoman Kathleen Norris said Monday that state officials had received Seymour’s letter but had not yet responded nor compiled answers to the questions the letter raised. Norris said other counties had also expressed concerns about the new funding formula that were not the same as those expressed by Seymour.

Orange County Social Services Director Larry Leaman said he is still very much in support of casework-oriented funding for child welfare services, at least in concept.

“Fund us for what comes through the front door,” Leaman said. “It is just that we are concerned that all caseload factors are not being considered.”

State’s Contribution

Orange County’s major concern is facility costs, said Leaman, who said that $1.4 million of the current $4.1-million operating budget for Orangewood comes from state child-welfare funds.

If the county is still able to factor shelter costs into its requests for child-welfare appropriations, then officials will continue to support the new funding method, Leaman said. But if they can not--as they fear--they will actively oppose the change, he added.

Lobbyist Dennis Carpenter, who represents the county government in Sacramento, said that is essentially the message he received when he briefed the Orange County Board of Supervisors on the issue last Friday.

“They don’t want to lose any money,” said Carpenter.

Santa Clara County officials say that they don’t factor their shelter facility costs into allocation requests to the state but that they still have serious reservations about the proposed funding formula.

Santa Clara County’s assistant welfare director, Sylvia Pizzini, said she objects primarily because the new funding method will give money to counties based largely on the number of youngsters they have in foster care. That is a disincentive to do a good job, Pizzini said, because one overall objective is to get youngsters out of foster care as soon as possible.