Foster parents decry cuts under new payment plan

BREWER – Verna Boynton of Lincoln took in a young foster child eight years ago who stabbed her cat his first day in her home and killed the animal the second day.

Now 14, the boy remains severely disturbed, yet Boynton remains committed to him and fears for his future now that a bureau in the Department of Human Services is devising a plan that, she says, will pull the financial rug from underneath her.

Boynton was among 85 foster parents, caseworkers and others who attended a meeting at Brewer Auditorium on Tuesday to complain about a plan that would compress payment rates for the state’s 1,500 foster parents.

Called Levels of Care, the plan would cut the highest payments to $70 a day from a current level of $115. The minimum reimbursement would increase slightly from $14 to $16.50 per day for foster children with the fewest complications.

The new system would reap significant financial savings at a time when the state faces a huge deficit, but members of Child and Family Services claim the plan is not motivated by money.

Foster parents at Tuesday’s meeting told officials that they felt cheated and insulted by the plan. They also complained of suspicion and disrespect from DHS and decried the lack of choice they have in making decisions that will affect the foster children in their homes.

Tossing aside DHS claims that the Levels of Care plan would provide a viable, organized way to evaluate and track foster children, the crowd complained about pay cuts that could trim monthly checks by as much as 50 percent.

Boynton gets $90 a day for caring for the 14-year-old and $80 a day for a second foster child, a 12-year-old boy, also a treatment foster child, who reportedly has problems lighting fires and shows sexual predator tendencies.

Boynton says her pay will be cut by $350 a week, nearly $2,000 a month. The cuts may force her to seek outside employment, which would mean hiring specially trained baby sitters at $7.50 an hour out of her pocket.

The other alternative is to stop being a foster parent, something Boynton does not want to do. The 12-year-old may be adopted, but Boynton said the older boy would end up in an institution or jail without her support.

A group home in another state which specializes in the level of care needed by the boy charges $2,000 a day, according to Boynton.

“I love this child. I don’t need to do this. I choose to do this,” Boynton said. “If I quit, this child will cost you thousands of dollars more per year than keeping him with me.”

Scheduled to be enacted in April, the Levels of Care plan has been put off at least until mid-May because of statewide reaction. The current reimbursement system would be grandfathered for 15 months, and the new rates would affect children just entering the system, about 75 a month.

A 16-member Levels of Care committee began examining the idea last spring after officials sought to simplify a complex foster care reimbursement system that has 52 levels.

Under the new plan, five levels of reimbursement would replace the 52, from Level 1 paying $16.50 a day for children with mild developmental issues to $70 a day for Level 5, children with severe developmental issues or who are at risk of harming others or themselves.

The plan won’t work, according to foster parents, because children would be assessed immediately after being moved from their home and placed into a foster family.

“You can’t assess a child that quickly,” one foster parent said. Therapeutic foster parents also contend that the proposed reimbursement plan carries an implied stigma that would unfairly label children who already have enough to handle.

They also argued the plan would be a disincentive to some parents. For example, a foster parent caring for a Level 4 child would receive less money once the child dropped to a lower level of care.

Taking comments at the meeting were Martha Proulx, Children’s Services and Foster Care Licensing Specialist; Penny Dineen, program manager, Levels of Care project; Michael Norton, division director of public and legislative affairs; Janice Koshiol, foster parent; and Wayne Walker, a representative from the Maine Association of Mental Health Services.

Other meetings scheduled on the Levels of Care plan are: 9:30-11:30 a.m. Feb. 26, Northern Maine Medical Center, Fort Kent; 1:30-3:30 p.m. Feb. 26, Career Center, Presque Isle; 9-11 a.m. Feb. 27, DHS office, Ellsworth; 10 a.m.-noon Feb. 28, DHS office Rockland.