A statewide program that provides volunteer advocates for children in Oregon foster care is dealing with funding cuts on two fronts, after the U.S. Department of Justice last week abruptly terminated grant funding to its national affiliate.
Court Appointed Special Advocates in Oregon has already been hit with a $1.7 million cut in the federal budget that the Republican controlled Congress passed in mid-March, said Oregon CASA Network state director Kat Hendrix.
Judges appoint volunteers, known as CASAs, to take special care looking out for the interests of children who have been removed temporarily from their families. The advocates attend court hearings, meet regularly with children to check how they are doing and often advocate for their interests directly with state child welfare workers. There are not enough volunteer advocates for every child in foster care: there are about 1,800 CASA volunteers across Oregon, Hendrix said, while there are typically around 4,500 children in foster care in the state at any time.
The federal funding cuts could further reduce the number of volunteers available to look out for foster children. Although the program relies on unpaid volunteers, paid staff supervise and support the volunteers. As a result, even small federal funding cuts can result in outsized service reductions, Hendrix said.
“The consequence is that fewer kids will be served,” Hendrix said in an interview Tuesday. “That’s because our programs are at risk of needing to potentially reduce staff and one staff person supervises 20 to 30 CASAs, and each CASA has one to two cases. So that’s up to 60 kids for one staff person.”
On April 22, the U.S. DOJ notified the umbrella organization National Court Appointed Special Advocates Guardians Ad Litem Association that it was terminating long running grants to the organization. According to the association, the DOJ explained it was ending the grants because the court appointed special advocates “no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities.” Hendrix said those grants were worth $25 million.
The national organization supports local CASA organizations across the country, adding initiatives such as Fostering Futures to support young people aging out of foster care, and it also distributes subgrants across the country. “Their future is uncertain,” Hendrix said of the national association. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s been very difficult on our programs here in Oregon.”
Local CASA organizations in counties across Oregon had started applying for the latest round of federal subgrants but so far just two had received funding: CASA in Yamhill County, which had been approved to receive $35,000, and CASA for Children based in Multnomah County, which had been approved to receive $50,000, Hendrix said. CASA for Children, which serves children in Multnomah, Washington, Tillamook and Columbia counties, received a total of $2.2 million in revenue in 2023, according to its tax filing. CASA in Yamhill County reported nearly $233,000 in total revenue in 2022, the latest year for which a tax filing is publicly available.
“Our programs have actually experienced two losses in just the last few weeks,” Hendrix said.
As for the $1.7 million that Congressional Republicans cut from the federal budget in March, it had been set aside for Oregon CASA programs in a previous federal appropriations bill, according to a press release from the state CASA programs. The group noted that Congress has funded the programs nationally through appropriations for more than 30 years.
Now, CASA programs in Oregon are hoping state lawmakers will approve additional funding to help fill in the federal cuts. That could prove challenging: as President Donald Trump, billionaire advisor Elon Musk and Congressional Republicans slash spending to pay for tax cuts and increased spending on the military and mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, Oregon leaders have warned the state cannot backfill the federal money.
— Hillary Borrud is an investigative reporter. Reach her at 503-294 4034 or [email protected].
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