Foster care alternative might be in line for restored state funding

CARSON CITY -- A program that keeps children out of Nevada's foster care system by paying extended family members to take care of them might get a second chance after it faced cuts.

The foster care alternative, called the kinship care program, is one of several welfare, mental health and autism programs that might be added back to Gov. Brian Sandoval's budget after $120 million in additional funding was located.

"If you provide children the opportunity to stay with someone they know, all the evidence says this placement is the best," said Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, at a Thursday budget hearing. "We need to look at the money we would save now versus what we would save in the long run."

Nevada's extra millions were announced late last month and come as the federal government is picking up more of the state's Medicaid tab than the first budget predicted. And revenues from mining and other taxes are expected to exceed projections.

Sandoval's plan calls for most of the extra money to go to education, but about $43 million will go to Health and Human Services. About 23 percent of the department's planned cuts will not happen, department director Michael Willden said.

The governor's office Thursday released a priority list for the add-backs. It includes autism programs, emergency medical services, youth correctional camps, a substance abuse treatment agency and room and board payments for mentally ill youth.

Programs on the priority list amount to $70 million, Willden said, and not all will be fully restored.

Representatives from programs that did not make the add-back list -- including a property tax rebate program for seniors -- pleaded their cases .

An advocate for domestic violence programs said that with service reductions, battered women probably would return to their abusers more often. But she added, "I can't tell you that this is more important than everything else being cut."

Kinship care programs serve more than 500 Nevada children, 360 families. The family receives $894 per month -- slightly less than a foster family would receive -- and assumes legal guardianship of their relatives. The governor's budget called for that amount to be halved.