Angela Sausser

Imagine being a child protection agency director 20 years ago and making a bold decision to use the flexibility that comes with capped federal dollars to keep kids from entering foster care – instead of using the funding only as intended, to remove children from struggling families and place them into the system.

Ohio’s child welfare system is in crisis, due chiefly to the opioid epidemic. The ability of child-serving agencies to provide essential services to vulnerable children – the innocent victims of this crisis – is at great risk.