Using federal economic recovery money, Kentucky will restore about $1.4 million it cut earlier this year from private agencies that care for abused and neglected children, Gov. Steve Beshear announced yesterday.
The news created near-euphoria among private, nonprofit agencies that have been struggling under state funding cuts to care for more than 3,000 children removed from homes because of abuse and neglect.
"It's a wonderful day for Kentucky's children and that's what it's really all about," said Karen Hamilton, chief operating officer of Sunrise Children's Services, the state's largest private child-care agency.
"It's incredible!" said Judy Lambeth, president of Maryhurst, which cares primarily for severely abused girls. She said her agency would have been forced to make painful cuts in services without more money.
Beshear said the state will provide about $4 million in federal recovery funds to a network of about 50 agencies that provide care for almost half the 7,000 children in the state's care. The money, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- better known as the stimulus package -- will be available June 1 through December 2010, he said.
Though the funds are only temporary, several agency officials said the additional money will buy them time while they wait for an improvement in the economy and the state budget situation.
"We're all worried," Hamilton said. "But this gives us some breathing room."
Beshear said he knew agencies had suffered under cuts of up to 7 percent enacted in February to help the state avoid a shortfall in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
"We felt it was critical to these agencies' survival to provide as much relief as possible," he said.
Janie Miller, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and her social services commissioner, Patricia Wilson, said yesterday they were concerned about the effect of the February cuts on agencies. Miller called them "extremely painful."
Agency officials said the cuts forced them to reduce spending in areas such as staff and services while fighting to preserve core services for children.
St. Joseph Children's Home in Louisville eliminated 10 jobs, including some counselors and therapists who worked with abused children, said Ralph Risimini, president of the board.
St. Joseph froze wages this year and staff members have taken on more responsibilities to try to provide the best service possible to children, he said.
"Fortunately, the people have the kids' interests at heart," Risimini said. "They're just sucking it up and going on."
Overall, the 50 private child-care providers cut more than 100 jobs through layoffs or eliminating vacancies since February, according to the Children's Alliance, which represents them. Some agencies froze wages, cut benefits or furloughed workers and many reduced programs and services for the children, the alliance said.
While the federal funding is only good through next year, said Bart Baldwin, president of the alliance, it's still a huge relief to agencies who anticipated even deeper cuts.
"There's still a lot of children out there who need services," he said. "This means we can continue to do the work and get the care for them they need."