CO SB242

Child welfare allocations committee shall develop a formula to allocate additional funding to counties for hiring new child welfare staff positions beyond those existing as of January 1, 2015.

Each county may receive a capped allocation in addition to the child welfare block grant for state fiscal year 2015-16 and each year thereafter for county-level child welfare case workers, case aides, and supervisors.

Counties must provide a 10 percent local match to state and federal funds, except Tier 1 and Tier 2 counties under the county tax base relief fund are funded at 100 percent of state and federal funds.

The state department of human services is authorized to contract for an external child welfare caseload study by county, to be completed by June 30, 2016, with results provided to the allocations committee.

$6,320,443 is appropriated for fiscal year 2015-16, consisting of $5,714,028 from the general fund and $606,415 from local funds, allocated for county hiring, training, and monitoring of child welfare staff.