MOUNT VERNON — A focus on Knox County is the catalyst for Knox County Job & Family Services to pull out of a nine-county call center.
Knox County participates in a virtual call center with Sandusky, Coshocton, Marion, Carroll, Delaware, Holmes, Morrow, and Wood counties.
The center handles intake applications, re-determinations, and customer service.
Boone said his agency is prepared to notify state officials it will withdraw from the center. However, JFS cannot officially withdraw until October.
“We feel like, with all the recent changes and our needs in terms of staffing levels … that tending to Knox County-only calls versus others [is best],” Boone told Knox County commissioners recently.
“We’ll still support the group. We’ll still support the person that collects the data and does the research analysis for the calls and all those different types of statistics, but I think it’s time to pay attention to just things that are happening in our own community.”
Boone said Knox County has always been happy to help. In 2024, Knox County originated 10,382 calls to the call center. It handled 11,500, which means Knox handled the overflow from other counties.
“We’ve helped a great deal, and we’ve received help as well. But we’re now at a day and age where I think we just concentrate on what’s going on in Knox County versus some of the other neighbors that we share,” he said.
Public assistance facing numerous vacancies
Boone said JFS is typically well staffed, as a whole. However, the public assistance division currently has five ERS vacancies (eligibility referral specialists). ERSes take applications and process eligibility requirements.
It is also down a supervisor position.
Boone said the vacancies come at a critical time because state and federal funding audits require staff to achieve certain milestones or prescribed outcomes.
“If we don’t, sometimes that costs us money from the state, from the federal government. If we hit those parameters and thresholds, we can feel safe that we’re continuing with the funding and support at the state level,” he said.
“Sometimes we feel, especially in the workforce world, they’re particularly unachievable, but that doesn’t keep us from from reaching the goal.”
Knox County’s SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) currently covers 2,235 households.
The 4,321 individuals include 2,676 adults and 1,645 children.
In February, JFS distributed $49,610 through the TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) program.
“That’s down from $56,585 in February of 2025,” Boone said.
“Medicaid in February was about $14.2 million in paid-out expenditures. That’s about the same as we distributed in February of last year.”
Boone said the Ohio Department of JFS had favorable observations on Knox County’s SNAP integrity.
The application date for the back-to-school voucher program is June 10. Families can pick up applications at Job & Family Services, 117 E. High St., or at the First Church of the Nazarene on June 10.
Voucher pickup date is July 29. Each voucher is worth $150.
Skyrocketing placement costs
Boone said the County Commissioners Association of Ohio recently discussed ways to control placement costs.
“There have been discussions at the state level of do we somehow create a cap or a hard-and-fast type of rate for all counties to follow. I don’t know how successful that will be,” the director said.
“I like the idea, but in the end, I don’t know how you hold foster care networks accountable for that. They’re going to chase the dollars.”
Boone said that when metro areas are willing to pay $200 more a day than rural counties such as Knox can, placements will go to metropolitan children first.
“We’re hoping that some more enlightening resolutions come out of that, but it’s very frustrating paying that much,” he said, adding that holding private networks responsible is a key component.
“Unless you’re going to have a consequence for them from deviating from a fixed rate, and I don’t know how binding that could ever be.”
Knox County JFS spends $2.4 million in placement costs annually.
“We’ve got a lot of difficult budget decisions that I’ve been talking to [County Administrator Jason Booth] and Sarah in the auditor’s office about how do we move forward with supplementing that,” he said.
“Because our community funding will be running out soon, and, and we’ll again be depending on them very much because the crisis isn’t going away.”
Boone noted that it is not only foster care costs that drive up expenses, but also adoption and kinship care subsidies.
“We’re happy to pay it because it keeps kids out of homes with strangers, but they’re still expenses,” he said.
