Erin Williams had just returned home from a wedding with all six of her children in tow when she received the call. It came about midnight – after a two-and-a-half hour drive, doing all the laundry, and successfully putting all six kids to bed.
Williams, 40, of Newark, didn’t recognize the number but answered anyway. It’s a good thing she did. It was Licking County Job and Family Services: A child had been removed from her home and needed somewhere to stay. Williams agreed to take her in, and two hours later, the child was asleep in Williams’ home.
Williams and her husband, Dave, 43, have three biological children and three adopted children. Along with raising their six children, the couple continue to foster, and currently care for one foster child. With the emergency placement, the total is eight for now. At times, they have had as many as nine.
Foster care services such as those provided by the Williams family, along with kinship care services, in which relatives care for children removed from their parents’ homes, are funded by the Licking County Children Services property tax, which is up for replacement in the May 6 primary election. The tax is 1 mill and would cost Licking County property owners $35 per $100,000 of property valuation. If approved, it would last 10 years and raise $8 million annually to support and care for children who have been abused or neglected.
“It’s a replacement levy, not a new tax and not an increase,” said Licking County Job and Family Services Director Jennifer Ellis-Brunn. Along with paying for foster and kinship care services, the tax contributes to specialized treatment for children with mental health issues. It also provides assistance with some expenses for kinship care providers who work outside the home, such as a grandparent or close friend, to keep the child in the least disruptive placement possible.
Ohio counties spent $1.375 billion on children services in 2024. Of that amount, almost half of the funding, 43%, comes from local taxpayers in the state’s 88 counties. That means the majority of children services in Ohio are funded by local levies such as the property tax request on the Licking County ballot.
“That’s why our levy is so critical,” Ellis-Brunn said.
In 2024, Licking County Job and Family Services documented 1,511 reports of child abuse and neglect involving 2,511 children.
According to Ellis-Brunn, Licking County had 388 children in foster care in 2024. Of that number, 63 children received specialized mental health treatment.
Although they make up less than a quarter of the foster care population, a higher proportion of the property tax will go toward the care of children in specialized residential mental health treatment because of its costs.
“The cost of intensive specialized residential treatment is astronomical,” Ellis-Brunn said. Depending on the type of care the child needs, the cost can get up to $1,200 per day for treatment. That is over $8,000 per week, and $436,800 per year.
“We support all our foster families financially, but where we’re really seeing the need for the funding is that increased complexity of needs of a child,” Ellis-Brunn said.
Licking County, and Ohio in general, face a lack of treatment options, according to Mattie Klein, the Licking County Probate-Juvenile Court Administrator and Magistrate.
In her courtroom, in the lower level of the Licking County Courthouse, Klein oversees all sorts of cases related to adoption and foster care.
“There’s a shortage of places to put people, especially juveniles with mental health (issues),” Klein said.
It’s especially difficult for children with an autism diagnosis, who may not be accepted at local residential treatment facilities and have to find care in another state, Klein said.
Recently, Licking County Jobs and Family Services has seen an increased number of children entering foster care at older ages. They are unsure why that’s happening, but they know that it’s challenging to find foster families for older children.
For some older youth, one challenge is their involvement with the juvenile court system.
“That can make it difficult for a family to feel comfortable in opening their home up with a youth,” said Nicole McCullough, Supervisor for the JFS Placement Unit.
And regardless of age, most children in foster care are likely to be processing trauma, said Foster Care Coordinator Erin Conners.
“When dealing with a smaller child, you’re unpacking all the trauma as they grow, whereas an older youth that shows up at your home, they’re already in the midst of it, and you have to figure out where to jump in and how can I support you in the best way that you need right now,” Conners said.
Before foster families become involved with a child, the first goal of Licking County Job and Family Services is to try to safely reunite children with their parents.
“We have really upped our prevention efforts to keep the children with their parents whenever possible,” Ellis-Brunn said. “We don’t settle for any placement before truly looking at what we can do to bring that family back together.”
For example, the START program – which stands for sobriety, treatment, and reducing trauma – helps parents maintain their sobriety and stay on track to retain custody of their children. The program assigns a caseworker, as well as a peer mentor, to advise the family. The peer mentor is an individual who has experienced the recovery process first-hand, and can show others how to do so successfully while empathizing with what the parents are going through.
“The peer mentor is someone that has lived through the struggle of addiction and truly understands what the family is going through,” Ellis-Brunn said.
When conditions for revoking parental custody occur, it can be distressing for the child, who has to navigate living without their biological family. They may be processing trauma and grief, and suffering from mental health issues as a result. These children need stable support systems, and Licking County foster families offer that to them.
“A lot of our foster families are magical,” Magistrate Klein said.
Erin Williams said she doesn’t know how many children she has cared for. She has taken in so many foster and emergency placement children that she has lost count. But most of those children, especially the emergency placements, do not stay long. Sometimes, it’s less than a day.
Williams is open to accepting emergency placements, even late at night, because of a dream – actually, more of a nightmare.
“I’ve had a dream where my kids get removed, and in the dream, I don’t even know why, but the kids are gone, and I’m thinking, ‘How are they doing? Is somebody loving those kids the way that I would?’” Williams said. “I would want either parent to feel that they could trust me at that moment to do my best to make sure the kids feel comfortable.”
It’s sometimes challenging when Williams receives several siblings at one time, especially if the emergency placement is for weeks rather than days.
“I had these three siblings sleeping on my couch,” Williams said. And by keeping them together, it allowed them to all be processed and placed in the same long-term setting.
“That was well worth having them be here for that long,” said Williams.
Magistrate Klein said that caseworkers work to guide children and families through the foster-care process.
“Those caseworkers are probably the most involved with the families throughout the whole case, out of everybody,” she said.
Another who has seen the caseworkers in action is Capt. Jay Cook of the Licking County Sheriff’s Detective Division. He has served in law enforcement for over 20 years, and he said the detectives he supervises are trained to handle virtually any situation, he said, including child abuse. And they work closely with the JFS staff.
“I think we have one of the best children services (agency) and caseworkers around,” Cook said.
Foster care coordinators such as Conners help families prepare to care for foster children. She conducts in-depth interviews with families to determine if fostering is a good fit for them.
“We look at your personal history. We talk about your family growing up, your family now, what are those connections? What are your supports?” Conners said.
One of the biggest reasons families desire to become foster families, according to Conners, is to help children in need.
“You see a lot of people realizing that they can meet their needs, and they have enough, if not a little more, to be able to try to meet somebody else’s need, which is great,” said Conners.
Foster families are a blessing for children in need, but unfortunately, there are not nearly enough of them in Licking County. There are 46 JFS licensed foster homes in Licking County, and some additional foster homes exist through private agencies.
“Across the board, not even just here or Ohio, there’s a foster-care crisis. There’s just not enough foster homes,” said McCullough.
With the current number of foster-care families in Licking County, it could be detrimental to children currently in foster care if the tax levy doesn’t pass, Williams said.
“Every dollar that we invest in children comes back to us,” she said. “I mean, that’s an investment.”
Maddie Luebkert writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.