Boulder County is moving forward with plans to wind down its 360 Foster Care Program, which has provided foster placements and case management for local children for decades.
The program will officially phase out by Sept. 2, although the county has already stopped certifying new foster parents. After that, the county will no longer manage day-to-day supervision of foster cases. Instead, newly placed children will be matched with foster families through one of 18 private nonprofit child placement agencies and one for-profit agency (collectively known as CPAs), while the county retains legal and oversight responsibilities.
The change marks the end of Boulder County’s in-house foster care operations — and the beginning of a fee-for-service model that county officials say will save money, increase access to specialized services and better align with national foster care trends…