Child care assistance programs to be dramatically cut in Kentucky
The moratorium on kinship care benefits is projected to save $8.3 million. Those who currently receive a stipend will continue to do so until the child turns 18 or leaves the kinship care program for other reasons.
The moratorium on kinship care supplements after April 1 could result in fewer families caring for relatives and more children being placed in state-run foster care, which is more expensive than kinship care, advocates say.
“It is something that we will be monitoring closely,” James said. “Families, more times than not, will rise to the occasion and will help take care of these kids.”
While federal and state money has been cut over the past four years, the need — particularly for foster care and kinship care — has grown, Haynes said.
“With programs like these, you have very little control over the growth of the program,” Haynes said.
Kinship care, for example, has increased by 38 percent since 2007, cabinet statistics show. More than 11,000 children were in the kinship care program in 2012, up from 8,685 in 2007…”
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