Reconsider; allot foster-care funds

Foster parents tend to be big-hearted people, willing to share their home and give their time to disadvantaged children. Such generosity can be key to a healthy and happy future for a child who has been abused or neglected.

But generosity has its limits. Four years ago, foster parents — asserting that a state stipend that had not increased in two dozen years was woefully inadequate to cover basic expenses for kids in their care — filed a federal class action lawsuit against the state Department of Human Services.

This year, the Legislature appeared poised to sign off on the suit’s settlement, which calls for a bump in the monthly stipend and requires the state to regularly review rates and assure they’re adequate, as is required under federal law. A settlement in a related lawsuit, filed in state court, gives foster parents back pay. Both were in the House Bill 1022 lineup of claims that the state Attorney General recommended for funding.

But in the last days of the session, House leaders inexplicably rebuffed that direction and dropped funding for both.

Among House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke’s reasons: perceived court meddling in a legislative prerogative and objection to paying $1.1 million in attorneys’ fees. While Luke’s keen eye for efficient state spending is, at times, worthy of applause from cash-strapped taxpayers, in this case, her decision-making is misguided.

Balking at attorneys’ fees is shortsighted considering it took three years to reach a settlement, which could have incurred lower fees — or have avoided them altogether — had legislators given the foster parent stipend a thorough vetting. As part of the settlement, the three firms representing plaintiffs claimed $2.9 million in costs, but opted for the lower figure. Now, if the dispute heads for a trial, taxpayers can expect a much more costly bill.

Also, holding onto unreasonably thin stipend funding, which can leave foster parents frequently opening their own wallets to help make ends meet, will no doubt continue to raise affordability red flags for would-be foster parents.

When the class action suit was filed on behalf of more than 1,000 foster parents, the state’s monthly stipend — intended to cover all care costs for a foster child — had been set at $529 for 24 years. Adjustments for inflation alone would have increased it to $950 per month, plaintiffs said.

Six months later, DHS increased the stipend, topping out at $676 for ages 12 and older, even though the agency had previously claimed insufficient state funds for the increase. The highest rate works out to $22.53 per day. Is that enough to cover meals, school supplies and other necessities for a teenager living in the islands? Hardly.

Consider: The state pays more than $100 a day to house prison inmates. And earlier this month, the Legislature backed a bill that could pave the way for $70-a-day respite support for people caring for elders while remaining in the workforce. The stipend lawsuit continued because advocates thought the state’s long overdue increases still fell short of requirements under the federal Social Security Act.

Apparently chaffed by the settlement’s pinpointing of rates ($649 to $776 per child), Luke has asserted “monetary amounts cannot be set through the Judiciary.”

That has an echo of a case in which a Circuit Court judge directed the state to fund the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands at least $28.4 million for the 2016 fiscal year. But when the state attorney general argued that only the Legislature can specify funding allocation, the judge deleted the amount from the ruling.

In the foster care case, though, the negotiated stipend settlement has the approval of DHS, the Attorney General’s Office and the governor. A routine allocation of state funds to resolve the matter was expected and prudent — the apparent turf grudge that nixed it was not.

How to make strides toward an end to this shabby treatment of foster care families? One possibility: If a special session is called to debate rail funding, reverse a bad decision and approve the foster care funding. The settlement agreement expires in late June, so head off the courtroom option.

On any given day, there are nearly 428,000 children in foster care in the U.S., according to estimates. The 2,766 kids in foster homes in Hawaii, along with the adults who care for them, deserve something far better than petty politics from a state that espouses ohana values.