COLUMBUS — Officials who help abused and neglected children say a new interpretation of a federal rule will make it harder to send foster children to live with relatives, generally a preferred solution.

        “The federal government wants us to keep placing kids with relatives, they just don't want to pay for it anymore,” said John Saros, executive director of the Franklin County Children Services agency. “Where's the incentive?”

        Ohio's 88 counties next year could lose up to $22 million for social workers to monitor abused and neglected children who end up in the care of relatives.

        Bob Walker, spokesman for the Butler County Children Services Department, said the rule could have devastating repercussions on both an emotional and financial level.

        “We're hoping that they re-think that,” he said. “As a social service agency, we would much prefer to place children with relatives than people who are unfamiliar to them. We don't like to remove them from their own families to start with. But, if we have to do that, it's much better to place them with a grandmother or an aunt so that they're in more familiar surroundings.

        Local agencies have collected 60 percent of the cost of those social-worker visits under a 1980s amendment to the Social Security Act.

        A new interpretation of the rule would allow such reimbursement only if the children are placed in certified foster homes, treatment facilities or residential programs.

        But few people caring for a relative's children take the steps to become certified, said Dennis Blazey, a state fiscal administrator.

        “It can be an intrusive process, and most of these families only want to care for the children that are related to them,” he said.

        The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the policy change in July. It is to take effect Oct. 1.

        “They simply said this is what the law says we must do,” said Barbara Riley, deputy director of the Office of Child Welfare in the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

        “I don't know a state that agrees with them,” she said.

        Child-welfare workers throughout the state plan to lobby Congress to overturn the interpretation.

        “The feds have put us in a perplexing, difficult situation,” Ms. Riley said. “We're hopeful they can discover a way out of this.”

        About 30 percent of Ohio children removed from their homes by child-protection workers each year are placed with family members. There are now about 19,500 children in foster care statewide.

        Enquirer reporter Susan Vela contributed.

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