Ohio's new spending budget is sending a significant amount of money towards children services across the state.
About a hundred million dollars have been set aside for county children services for the next two years. Making it the largest amount ever given to child and family services, and for Allen County Children Services it will allow them to rebuild their staff, which had to be cut in order to pay for a spike in cases as a result of the opioid epidemic.
"We, locally, here in Allen County Children Services, we've had to, as an attempt to address some of the placement costs, we had to reduce our workforce by just under 25 percent," said Cyndi Scanland, Exec. Director for Allen County Children Services. "We have fewer staff to meet more needs so stabilize will be the first thing that we do."
Even with the new money coming in, Ohio has consistently placed last for state contributions for child welfare funding.
