(July 3)  The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors last month upped by $22.6 million its contract with four entities to continue the county’s so-called Foster Care Wraparound Program.
According to Randall L. Schulz, the director of the San Bernardino County Children and Family Services Department, “The Wraparound services program is an intensive, community-based, and family-centered process designed to allow children with serious behavior and/or emotional difficulties to remain in their community at the lowest level of care possible instead of being placed in a group home setting.”
Schulz said the Wraparound program was established “in accordance with state requirements as the official planning, assessing, implementing, and monitoring group for” dealing with children living within the county who are beset with behavioral issues.
The Wraparound team includes staff from San Bernardino County Children and Family Services, the San Bernardino Department of Behavioral Health, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, the county superintendent of schools, the probation department, community-based organizations, churches, and family advocates, with the children and family services department acting as the lead public agency. The program has been serving eligible children and families through contracted vendors since 2002. San Bernardino County’s Children and Family Services Department currently has somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,500 children in out-of-home placement.
In June 2011, using a formal procurement process, the board of supervisors approved contracts with Families First, Inc., Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, South Coast Children’s Society, Inc. and Victor Community Support Services, Inc. in a total combined amount of $42,543,753 to provide Wraparound services countywide for the three year period of July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014, with the option of extending for two additional one-year periods. On August 2, 2013 the board approved amendments to those contracts, increasing the total contract amount to $51,786,171, for the period of July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014, to comply with state mandated increases in foster care rates.
Last month, the board of supervisors approved further amendments to the wraparound program agreements, effective July 1, 2014, so the contracted-with entities to have them continue their work for another year, thorough June 30, 2015. That action provides for increasing the total combined contract amount by $22,600,000, from $51,786,171 to $74,386,171.
Accordingly, Families First, Inc’s contract was increased by $6,936,180, from $17,219,401 to $24,155,581; Lutheran Social Services of Southern California’s contract was increased by $3,100,000, from $3,127,599 to $6,227,599; South Coast Children’s Society, Inc.’s contract was increased by $5,580,180, from $14,111,971 to $20,270,471; and Victor Community Support Services, Inc.’s contract was increased by $6,983, 640, from $17,327,200 to $24,310,840.