From Claudia Looze
Highland
To the Editor:
How does it cost Iowa County $900 a day — $328,500 a year — to care for ONE child with behavioral issues in a residential facility?
That number stopped me cold at the Sept. 15 Iowa County Board meeting. Not every child remains in residential care for a full year — an average stay of about nine months was mentioned at a cost of roughly $246,000 for one child.
As I understood the discussion, Iowa County currently has TWO children receiving this level of care.
And here is what makes the situation more troubling: these placements are court ordered. The county is required to comply, but the order does not come with the money to pay for it. The placement is mandated; the bill lands on Iowa County.
These are children who need help, and they deserve good, humane, effective care. That is not in question.
At $900 a day, what exactly are we paying for? What services are included? What outcomes are being achieved? Who reviews these placements/how often? Are there less expensive programs that could provide equal or better care closer to home?
My calls to the head of Iowa County Health and Human Services seeking more information and clarification about these costs and placements have not been returned.
Could earlier intervention help? Are there gaps in local mental-health and behavioral services? Could Iowa County cooperate with neighboring counties to create regional programs? Are we fully utilizing state and federal funding? And if courts are ordering counties to assume these enormous costs, shouldn’t the state provide resources to accompany those mandates?
When one child can cost nearly $250,000 during an average nine-month placement, this isn’t just another budget line. It is a system-level problem.
And this fiscal dilemma comes at exactly the wrong time. Iowa County is already underwater from the financial fallout of the cyberattack, which continues to cripple the county budget. We can hardly afford another area of spending to go unquestioned simply because “that’s what it costs.”
That is why Iowa County Health and Human Services deserves a thorough independent audit and review. Examine the placements, contracts, outcomes, alternatives and reimbursements.
The goal isn’t simply to spend less. It’s to spend smarter, intervene earlier and get better results.
Before cutting programs that serve thousands, Iowa County needs to ask why some of its biggest expenses are so extraordinarily expensive — and find a better way.
