Ohio counties are spending millions of dollars each year to keep up with foster care’s surging costs, sparked by well-intentioned federal legislation that’s had a rocky and expensive start across the country.
Lucas County Children Services is now paying $9 million more each year to place children in foster care because of the skyrocketing cost — an increase of 77 percent.
The spike in costs threatened to drain the agency’s reserves before it was able to renew its existing levies, which make up a majority of its revenue. Over the past three years since the law went into effect, the agency has spent $20 million more than it would have otherwise…