PPS BOARD MEMBER RUTH ADKINS: “We need to figure out how to help these vulnerable kids.”

Nearly 80 foster children travel every day—most under court order—from their foster parents’ homes to the Multnomah County schools they attended before entering foster care.

And since these students often travel from as far away as Vancouver or Clackamas County, they use a private car service at an annual taxpayer expense of about $800,000—or about $10,000 per student, according to the Multnomah Education Service District.

This service, which the 2005 Legislature mandated under House Bill 3075, is meant to help foster kids maintain some stability in their otherwise chaotic lives. The bill came with no additional funding but determined Oregon’s Department of Human Services would ensure and pay for the transportation.

“For these kids, it’s a real tragic situation,” says Barbara Jorgensen, chief program officer for the MESD. “Their lives are already in turmoil.”

In 2007, the Legislature revisited the rules for transportation of foster kids by passing Senate Bill 414, yet again failed to pay for the service. Now, a Feb. 13 interpretation by Oregon’s Department of Education means the cost of this required service will soon shift from DHS’s budget to those of local school districts.

The move means school districts must figure out some way to cover the new costs for transportation since the state doesn’t fully fund a district’s transportation expenses. And the districts’ quandary, of course, comes as they are already struggling to trim expenses in the face of multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls.

“I want to serve these children,” says Portland Public Schools board member Ruth Adkins. “Nobody has money right now. We need to figure out how to help these vulnerable kids.”

The average cost of a round trip between a child’s foster home and school is $80 to $100 a day, according to MESD. That translates to upward of $400,000 a year for Portland Public Schools, which currently educates about 40 foster kids who need the car service.

DHS estimated the figure would be much lower. For 2007-2009, it estimated all transportation services statewide for foster kids going to school would cost $600,000 to $800,000. (Some districts were already covering the cost. In other instances, foster parents drove the children to school.) On any given day there are nearly 9,000 Oregon foster children under DHS’s care. The agency did not have a statewide figure for the number of students under court order to remain in their home school districts.

But last month, the education department reviewed the laws on the topic and determined local school districts should be responsible for the costs because the Legislature did not allocate new money to DHS for chauffeuring the kids.

Ultimately, the source of the money to pay for the transportation program is the same. Whether it’s paid by DHS or school districts, most of the money comes from the state’s general fund. School districts will lose, however, if the number of kids needing the service grows.

The state refunds only 70 percent of districts’ total transportation costs, forcing them to pay nearly one-third of the foster kids’ transportation with their own general funds.

“It’s an expensive system,” Jorgensen admits. “The question is, is it a good system for kids?”