Dec. 20—Group homes for foster children will face additional reporting requirements and state oversight after a bill designed to address problems in Montgomery County cleared the Statehouse this week.
Group homes have been a growing problem in the county. A recent Dayton Daily News analysis found that Montgomery County is now how to more than one-third of all group homes in the state, which accounted for 3,000 calls for service received by Dayton police in 2023.
As such, getting regulations on the books before the 135th General Assembly formally expires in early January was a priority for Dayton-area Reps. Andrea White, R-Kettering, and Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp, who had elements of their House Bill 583 rolled into House Bill 315, a 400-page omnibus bill that was the final official action of the 135th General Assembly.
The resulting legislation sets up reporting requirements to the state when a child under the care of a group home receives emergency medical care or when law enforcement officers have investigative interactions with the foster child.
It also mandates that, when a delinquent child gets placed in a group home, the group home gets notification for how that child came to be adjudicated delinquent.
Agencies with custody over any foster child will also be required to perform a monthly review on the group home the child was placed in and reconsider that child’s placement if the group home isn’t up to snuff.
The bill also tells the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to divide the state into regions, determine the ideal number of group homes in each region, and establish incentives to help draw group homes into those regions, potentially cutting down on the over-saturation Montgomery County has experienced in recent years.
Other provisions aim to ensure that group homes meet local zoning requirements, support foster children’s education, and set up a study committee to evaluate the placement of delinquent children in group homes — a compromise to White and Plummer’s original idea of entirely separating delinquent and non-delinquent children.
——
For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It’s free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening.
Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
Loading…