22-05-2025
Advocates warn 'walking wounded' threatened by cuts
BOSTON (SHNS) – Representing their experiences living through the child welfare system, a multigenerational ensemble of performers took center stage Wednesday at the State House as service providers and child welfare advocates called on the state to support key programs.
The Treehouse Foundation's Truth Tellers Theater Ensemble gave voice to what they called 'the walking wounded,' most of whom have dealt with the Department of Children and Families entering and tangibly impacting their lives.
'In the last few years, we've made a lot of great progress in reducing the number of children coming into care and really paying attention to the upstream prevention support that families need to stay safe and stable,' Children's League of Massachusetts Executive Director Rachel Gwaltney told the News Service at an advocacy day event in Great Hall.
'What we're worried about is that cuts to programs at the state level, cuts to funding for the most vulnerable people at the federal level, are going to drive more families into the child welfare system that don't need to be here,' Gwaltney added.
A 30-year-old nonprofit advocacy group, the League includes 60 organizations that provide direct services, advocacy and education to children and families in Massachusetts.
According to data cited by the League, up to 80% of children in foster care experience significant mental health issues, compared to 18-22% of the general population, and nearly 85% of families investigated by child protective services nationally have incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line, the League said.
Gwaltney said the sector struggles to fund the workforce for key service and clinician positions, which ensure treatment in a timely fashion and access to care. A priority for the League includes plugging funding for Chapter 257 human services rates in the fiscal 2026 budget.
'It's important that we maintain what we've been building, between the Behavioral Health Network, between community-based programs like the family resource centers,' Gwaltney said. 'We've got to keep maintaining those investments so that we don't slide backwards.'
The League's other workforce-related legislative priorities includes bills that would create an education loan repayment program for some human services workers (S 218, H 1423) and bills that would eliminate the pay disparity between state and community-based human services workers (S 130, H 223).
The League and its affiliates, including national mental health provider Youth Villages, said the biggest question mark during budget season has been support for the Department of Mental Health.
Gov. Maura Healey's fiscal 2026 budget proposal slashed DMH case managers in half and put three state-funded youth mental health programs at risk of closing. The House adopted an amendment in its budget that requires DMH case manager staffing levels not be reduced below fiscal 2025 levels. On Tuesday, the Senate added some guardrails for DMH case managers to its budget, though the Senate budget will not protect DMH jobs in danger.
'Mental health is an issue from birth all the way through adulthood, so if we can provide intensive services at childhood, then we're going to help reduce recidivism through adulthood,' Director of Specialized Operations for Youth Villages Jacque Cutillo said.
Child welfare advocates are also pushing for maintaining, and increasing, funding in budget line items pertaining to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Services for Children & Families.
'One of our key priorities is to maintain those services and make sure we don't close beds that we know are really important for families. Not only do they keep children safe, they keep children getting treatment, they allow parents to be in the workforce,' Gwaltney said. 'It's all sort of interconnected.'
Gwaltney called potential Medicaid funding cuts 'the biggest threat for our sector.'
'It funds a lot of the Children's Behavioral Health Network in Massachusetts, in addition to funding primary health care for children and for low-income families,' Gwaltney said.
'When we see those health outcomes being attacked by lack of access to services, that's when we're going to see more families destabilize, more children with more intensive behavioral needs that don't have access to treatment that they need,' she continued.
Black children are 1.5 times more likely, and Hispanic children are 1.7 times more likely to have an open DCF case than white children, according to DCF data. Black, Hispanic/Latinx and Native American children are also more likely to have out-of-home placements compared to white children.
The League supports a bill (S 148, H 262) that would enhance reporting and analysis on disproportionality and transition age youth outcomes, and involve more timely notifications to children and youth attorneys. Another bill (S 1280, H 197) would establish a commission to study insurance liability for foster care providers.
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