Children First for Oregon

2011 Session Update

Oregon’s 76th Legislative Session was a difficult session for Oregon lawmakers and for our state. While we faced a $3.5 billion budget shortfall, the Legislature lacked the political will to find additional revenue. As a result, we saw significant cuts in programs that protect children and strengthen families.

Children First for Oregon was working until the last moment to protect Oregon’s children. The following is an overview – with highlights and lowlights – of what proved to be a very difficult legislative session.

Keeping Children Healthly

Health Care Exchange Legislation: Oregon was able to reach compromise and pass SB 99 enabling a state-run health insurance exchange – something many states have failed to accomplish. Over the next two years, Oregon will design and implement this tool to help families and small businesses gain access to health coverage.

Outreach for Children’s Health Care: The Legislature cut $6.7 million in outreach dollars for the Healthy Kids program, making it harder to locate and enroll eligible children in this landmark program, thus reducing the number of children with access to health care.

Safety Net Capacity Grant program: The Legislature reduced this critical health delivery program for children who are not Medicaid eligible by 70%. The Safety Net Capacity Grant program was the only funding available for more than 13,000 low income children who are not eligible for Medicaid assistance and who have no other option but the Emergency Room. Because of this drastic cut, health care centers who treat these children will no longer be reimbursed, causing budget overruns, and health care for over 9,000 children is now at risk.

School Based Health Centers: Children First is happy to report that $500,000 of funding was restored to School Based Health Centers (SBHC), which provide health care services to kids at school. This means 50,000 children who utilize Oregon’s 55 certified SBHCs will continue to receive care and sites across 22 counties will continue to be funded.

School Food Programs: While $600,000 in unused school breakfast money was diverted to other programs, legislators did reinvest in these school food programs for kids. Children First advocated for these two separate grant programs to enhance school nutrition and nutritional education:

SB 480 provides grant funds to school districts to implement After School Meal and Snack programs.
HB 2800 supports the Farm-To-School program, which allows school districts to purchase Oregon food products and provides funding for food-based, agriculture-based and garden-based educational activities.

Keeping Children Safe

Tuition Assistance for Former Foster Youth: Children First’s youth-led program, the Oregon Foster Youth Connection, proposed and helped to pass HB 3471, which grants tuition waivers to youth who “age-out” of foster care at 18, or who are adopted after the age of 16. This will benefit hundreds of children who want to pursue higher education, but who lack the financial and emotional support that most youth receive from their families.

Staffing Levels: DHS Staffing levels have been reduced to 68%. This means two people will be doing the job of three; the result is less safety for children in the State’s custody. Already, caseworkers are not meeting their face-to-face requirements with foster kids 30% of the time. This situation will only get worse as additional critical positions are left vacant.

Family Support and Connections: Children First was successful in restoring funding for the Family Support and Connections (FSC) program, which is a voluntary home visitation service for families working on parenting skills or other barriers to a safe home. This program supports families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and works to prevent child welfare interventions. The Legislature originally proposed cuts that would have eliminated FSC services for 2,500 families whose children would instead likely enter foster care.

Strengthening, Preserving and Reunifying Families program: SB 964 creates the Strengthening, Preserving and Reunifying Families program, which will provide family preservation and reunification services through public private-partnerships for residential treatment, supervised housing, and extended family placements. These programs help to keep families together when appropriate and safe, avoid or limit a child’s placement in foster care. A safe and stable family gives children the best chance at a healthy, productive, and happy life.

Keep Kids Safe license plate: Children First helped pass HB 3684 to establish a Keep Kids Safe license plate to raise money for child abuse prevention programs. The plates will be printed at no cost to the State and proceeds will go to the Children’s Trust Fund of Oregon Foundation to help fund local child abuse prevention programs.

Children First also helped pass these additional bills that have the potential to make a big difference for kids:

HJM 12 urges the President to establish a Whitehouse Council on Youth.
HB 3584 helps ensure that foster parents will get assistance providing culturally appropriate assistance for children in their care.

Strengthening Families

Employment Related Day Care: Children First was able to prevent the most dire of cuts to the Employment Related Day Care (ERDC) program, which helps families afford to work by providing child care assistance to low-income, working parents. The Legislature reduced this program from 10,000 families to 9,000. In a last-minute deal, we were able to get an additional $6.5 million for this vital day care assistance, which will allow ERDC to eventually cover 10,000 families by the end of the budget cycle. This is still short of the coverage for 11,000 families proposed by the Governor and the 12,000 families who are estimated to need ERDC during 2011-13.

TANF Lifetime Limits: Children First was successful in preventing potentially disastrous cuts to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program that would have instituted a lifetime limit of 18 months rather than the federal limit of five years. This proposed cut would have made Oregon’s support program the shortest in the nation, punishing parents struggling in the poor economy, destabilizing families, and driving more children into foster care.

JOBS Services and TANF supports: The Legislature still made significant cuts in services that help families gain financial stability, such as job training programs that address parents’ barriers to employment. As a result of cutting services that help families climb out of poverty, we will see more families on TANF for a longer period of time. We will also see more Oregonians unemployed as Jobs Opportunity and Basic Skills (JOBS) program providers lay off 322 staff.

Early Learning Council: We supported SB 909 to create an Early Learning Council as part of the Governor’s effort to improve and streamline the state’s education system. The Early Learning Council will research the best practices of programs that serve at-risk families and offer suggestions to the 2012 Legislature for improving programs that serve children ages 0-5.