2023 State Legislative Agenda

Home of the innocents enriches the lives of children and families with hope, health, and happiness. It is our belief that our communities are stronger when everyone has the structures and supports in place to keep them whole and stable. Because our work is directly involved in the care and support of children and families, we work in partnership with local, state, and federal policy makers in efforts to strengthen the supports available to help make our community whole.

As our city and state work to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, Home of the Innocents emerges in a position of strength. Our organization is driven by the desire to find solutions to treating the higher acuity levels children and families across Kentucky are experiencing. Antiquated state systems, lack of treatment standards, and outdated understandings of the nonprofit sector continue to block access to quality behavioral health services for hundreds of thousands of Kentucky children. At the same time, families with children who have medical complexities face terrible choices as their children age out of pediatric care. In 2023, the Home will continue to advocate for the systemic changes necessary to ensure high quality of care to those we serve.

We advocate for increased resource and transparency as Kentucky’s Child Welfare System transitions from its reliance on residential programs to more preventative services.

• Nonprofit organizations with Behavioral Health Services Organization (BHSO) licenses cannot sustain programs with current Medicaid Behavioral Health rates. A reformed, long-term Medicaid Behavioral Health rate methodology is required to ensure BHSO license holders can continue to provide prevention services for thousands of Kentucky families.
• Increased communication and transparency are needed around how federal Title IV-E dollars will be used to fund primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention programs. These programs are necessary to ensure a strong system of preventative services to help transform our state’s child welfare system.
• The Family First Prevention Services Act requires costly evidence-based practices (EBP) to be in place before states can utilize federal Title IV-E funding. Provision of upfront dollars to help nonprofit organizations acquire EBPs would create higher quality of care to enable a shift in the child welfare system to preventative.
• The state must establish a minimum age that a child can be charged with an offense. We need to connect children and their families to community-based services rather than sending them through the juvenile justice system.

We advocate for the structural and financial supports needed for the implementation of a full-range of tiered placement options and support for youth in foster care.

• Today’s Child Welfare system in Kentucky is solely focused on what works best for the system, leaving children with persistent and pervasive needs with few effective treatment options. Consequently, children are placed inappropriately in settings not intended to address rising acuity levels. Providers are left in the unconscionable position of trying to provide quality care with a fraction of the needed resource to children with increasing behavioral health issues. To place the children and families at the center of our state’s system, we advocate that Home of the Innocents be allowed to build its own robust continuum of care that is designed to assess the appropriate tier of care and reduce unnecessary visits to psychiatric hospitals, revolving placements, and will allow for the transition back to home-based placements.
• We advocate that Home of the Innocents be able to secure specialized rates to ensure the continuum of care we build is fully resourced to be able to achieve the desired outcomes for the children and families served.
• We advocate for approval to allow the Home to move children and families through its own continuum of care so we can provide consistent therapeutic treatments at the levels needed for those children and families without the involvement of state social workers.

We advocate for increased resources and options for families raising medically complex children.

• Support is needed for a Medicaid designation for medically complex children who turn 21 thus limiting their options for continued care.
• Work must be done at the state and federal levels to advocate for increased resources for 1915c Waiver programs to help families raising children with medical complexities at home.

We advocate for conditions that allow nonprofit organizations to thrive through investment in capacity, achieving meaningful outcomes, and attracting and retaining a strong and diverse workforce.

• A universal charitable tax deduction should be allowed for all Kentucky taxpayers to incentivize charitable giving and help nonprofits increase revenue.
• Systemic reform that addresses nonprofit-government contracting should include that state paying for the full cost of services and streamlining contracts.
• Protection of the Johnson Amendment, a provision of the tax code that prohibits nonprofits from endorsing or opposing political candidates, is essential to maintain the integrity of the nonprofit sector.