Levy Facts

Here is information from our levy fact sheet:

Levy Background

Current Levy
· 2 mill, five-year levy
· Expires November 2008
· Last approved (increase) in 2003
· In 2003 – cost to owner of $100,000 home $56.17/year
· Generates about $15 million a year

Proposed Levy
· 2 mill, five-year replacement levy
· Cost the owner of $100,000 home $61.25/year—an increase of $5.08 a year.
· Generates about $15.7 million a year—60% of Children Services total funding

Levy supports services to children and families, including:

· Taking reports of abuse, neglect and dependency
· Protecting children from abuse, neglect and dependency
· Support for teens leaving the foster care system
· Services that help families stabilize – drug treatment, counseling, domestic violence protection, parent education, emergency assistance
· Services to help abused and neglected children such as mental health treatment, educational services, etc.
· Safe, stable temporary homes such as foster care for children who cannot remain safely in the home because of abuse and neglect.
· Foster care and adoption recruitment
· Support for Juvenile Court and Guardian Ad Litems (GALs)


Messages


Help Heal the Hurt
The levy helps protect more than 7,000 children each year—that’s 1 in every 12 children in Butler County.

Butler County Children’s Services is mandated to:
Take reports of child abuse, neglect and dependency (19,486 calls in 2006)
Investigate those reports
Act to protect children
Assure that children have permanent homes

The Children’s Services levy serves local children who are:
abused and neglected
in the court system, or
otherwise disadvantaged.

In 2006, the number of children active with the agency in an average month was 2,372

The majority of services provided by children services are mandated by federal and state law.

Children Services is mandated to provide specific services to children those services include: child abuse reporting line; investigations; ongoing case management; foster parent recruitment, training and certification; adoption case management.
There are strategic reasons for providing services that are above the mandated minimum levels. Example – Workers assigned to support BCCS foster homes help retain foster parents and reduce placement disruptions
Inadequate levels of service place children at risk.

Safety Net – The Children’s Services levy is critical to the intertwined system of public and private agencies that protect and help the disadvantaged children of Butler County. The system includes but is not limited to:

Butler County Children’s Services
Butler County Juvenile Court
Guardians Ad Litems – children’s representatives in court
Butler County Prosecutor’s Office
Family and Children First Counsel
Private and public child-serving agencies (such as foster care, mental health services, emergency housing, training)