The cumulative effect of a myriad of relatively small cuts to programs in the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare budget has a high likelihood of disrupting the state’s crisis response system, according to the agency’s top official.
Under proposed across-the-board cuts approved by the state Legislature’s budget-writing committee, funding for suicide prevention, foster care, and children’s and family mental health services is under threat. Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Juliet Charron said she’s sure that cutting these programs too deeply will lead to higher costs down the line, as well as worse outcomes for people.
“If you take those Jenga pieces out, the tower falls,” Charron told the Sun in an interview.
Nearly every state agency, including Health and Welfare, has already reduced its budget by 3% under the direction of Gov. Brad Little last summer as the state was facing a projected budget shortfall.
On Feb. 6, the legislative budget writers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, JFAC, approved further cuts to nearly every agency — amounting to 1%, or $131 million total, in the current fiscal year, and 2%, or $143 million total, in permanent cuts starting in fiscal year 2027.
The current fiscal year cuts will go to the entire House and Senate for a vote on the 2026 Idaho Budget Rescission Act. The 2027 reductions will be baked into the maintenance budgets for each agency, so restoring any of the funding would require a separate “enhancement” budget bill to be approved.
Health and Welfare said it was able to absorb many of the fiscal year 2026 1% cuts largely through holding positions vacant. However, if the additional ongoing 2% reductions are in place in 2027, there will be potential long-term consequences.
Many of the programs the agency has identified for cuts are associated with early prevention, she said, and without them, there are risks such as reduced suicide and mental health crisis services, more children staying in foster care longer, and families going without mental health or substance uses treatment.
“All of these connections are going to be felt as consequences of these decisions,” Charron said.
Budget writers exempted Medicaid, but other programs remain at risk
JFAC’s vote on further cuts did not include the Division of Medicaid, although that program still faces reductions proposed by Little to balance the state budget.
However, there was little flexibility within other programs’ funding, Charron said, meaning that programs they had hoped to protect would be affected by the 2027 cuts.
“We have already cut through muscle, and we are to bone,” she said.
Several of the health agency’s divisions are primarily federally funded or have federal requirements, leaving few options to cut.
Suicide prevention efforts would be reduced under proposed cuts
The plan submitted to JFAC to adhere to additional cuts would reduce $19,000 from suicide prevention funding. Those programs include youth prevention administered through the Idaho Department of Education, community outreach and prevention, and the state’s 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline.
“In the rescission that we did under the executive order from the Governor, (we) really did all that we could to prevent any cuts to the crisis system,” Charron said. “… Whether it be 988, or even a higher level of service or intervention, mobile crisis, we protected it under the Magellan contract, because that is the net that is going to catch someone. And absent that, that’s when tragedy strikes a community.”
Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline Director Lee Flinn said she’s still monitoring the potential impact if the budget cuts go into effect. Most of the funding for the 24/7 hotline is public from the state and federal government, she said.
“In terms of the budget cuts that are being discussed, one thing I would hope that Idahoans would realize, and that lawmakers also consider, is that we are Idaho’s 988 center, and we don’t do this alone,” Flinn said in an interview. “We’re part of a broader crisis system.”
She said other programs such as crisis centers, mobile response teams, and early intervention programs all help prevent the need for more intensive care.
“It is important to make sure that Idahoans aren’t falling through the cracks. and they’re not getting their crisis needs addressed later,” Flinn said.
Children and family mental health cuts may compound crisis early intervention shortages
In a memo sent to budget-writers detailing what programs could be cut, Health and Welfare identified that an additional 2% reduction to the children’s mental health budget, or $99,300, would mean a clinical position would likely be held open and a contract with the state’s Medicaid mental health contractor, Magellan, would need to be reduced further.
After the state reduced Magellan’s provider pay rates last year, it cut critical services, and two patients died in the aftermath, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.
Budget cut fallout: After Idaho cut a critical Medicaid mental health service, two patients died
Further cuts to that contract would lead to reduced services for all Idahoans, the agency wrote in its memo.
“Ultimately, the impact could lead to increased hospitalization and reliance on the crisis system rather than more prevention care,” the memo said.
The clinical position identified by the health agency for reduction is involved with compliance from the longstanding “Jeff D Settlement,” a court case that required the state to provide comprehensive services for children with serious mental health needs.
Charron said one program that may be affected is Parenting with Love and Limits, which provides therapy for the entire family to support young people with a serious mental or emotional disturbance.
“We are really trying to keep the youth at home with their family, keep them out of needing, not only psychiatric-level of care, but keeping them out of juvenile corrections, keeping them out of the child welfare system,” she said. “… slippage on any of those services or key functions as part of that settlement agreement is going to take us several steps back.”
Recent child welfare improvements may be hampered by cuts
Last year, the Legislature approved a record increase in the child welfare budget, focusing largely on increased prevention efforts.
Idaho governor signs bill investing $23M in state’s foster care system
Idaho Health and Welfare has already identified $3.9 million to reduce from its child welfare budget from the 3% cuts ordered by the governor.
Additional cuts to the fiscal year 2027 budget may eliminate funding for safety assessments of foster homes during non-business hours or holidays and for post-adoption services for families who adopt children from the foster care system.
Charron said eliminating that added safety assessment staff will burden existing employees and increase the need to pay overtime, as likely will increase turnover. She said the department had gone from a 29% vacancy rate to a 10% vacancy rate, but adding this burden on staff will undo that progress.
“If we are now asking staff, ‘so sorry, you can’t have that holiday,’ or ‘you can’t have your weekend, you have to do overtime,’” she said. “And we have very dedicated, passionate staff, but that is going to quickly lead to burnout. I’m 100% confident the amount in savings that is achieved here is going to quickly be diminished by the amount that we are going to pay in overtime, retraining people, (and) recruitment efforts.”
She also said that fewer opportunities for safety assessments may delay placement for children.
“We may have kids who are having to stay overnight in our office, as we are working on placements, instead of having a well-oiled machine to make sure this work is happening timely,” she said.
The post-adoption services are also crucial for some families to have a successful transition for the child coming from foster care. The services provide case management and additional support for children that have experienced long-standing trauma, she said.
“Absent having that (service), I think we know we are going to have more children coming back to us,” Charron said. “… that is going to more than likely lead to them needing mental health services. It could be in a residential setting, which is impacting our congregate care budget. All of these pieces, they work together.”
Editor’s note: This Idaho Capital Sun story is the next in our series focused on the impacts of additional 1% and 2% budget cuts to state agencies approved by the Legislature’s budget committee for fiscal year 2026 and fiscal year 2027. Previous stories focused on how the proposed budget cuts may affect the state’s mental health court program and graduate medical education in the state. The cuts are also projected to delay tax return processing, lead to reduced water quality monitoring, make it harder for Idaho’s Department of Water Resources to administer water rights, and lead to the state spending more to house people in prison whose parole hearings will be delayed. They would also likely force the state to hire fewer seasonal firefighters and cut back on fire prevention work and reduce funding for suicide prevention, foster care, and children’s and family mental health services.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.