Clay County Commission

Dan Haglund

Clay County Social Services executives delivered a comprehensive annual revue to the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday in Moorhead.
Quinn Jaeger, director of Clay County Social Services, and supervisors Hollie Wanner and Jessica Mickelson were the presenters of the Home and Community-based Services and Licensing and Disability Service Division.
First off in the Licensing department, Mickelson said there is one full-time licenser Fran Davenport and two quarter-time employees. There are currently 58 licensed family adult foster care homes in the county with a total capacity of 108 beds. There are 17 available openings between these homes. There are two homes currently in the process of becoming licensed as well.
For Adult and Child Corporate Foster Care, there are three licensers who oversee 121 licensed homes with total beds capacity of 325, with 311 for adults.
“We’ve seen a significant decline (in beds for children),” Mickelson said. “A lot of our corporate providers have been closing their children’s beds over the past two years.”
Mickelson said Clay County is 16th in population in the state but has the fourth-most family adult foster care homes. There are currently 124 names on the inquiry wait list to host people.
“So instead of putting (more) people on a wait list,” Mickelson said. “We’re just not accepting applications at this time, unless if they have a specific service recipient identified.”
In Child Foster Care, there are two full-time licensers Gail Burnside (for non-relatives) and Alex Ishaug (relatives). There are currently 42 licensed child foster care homes, 32 of which are for non-relatives and 10 for relatives. There are 17 applications in process for the non-relative homes at present, and nine for relatives.
Commissioner Kevin Campbell, Dist. 4, inquired as to what the timetable is for those applicants who want to foster, as well as if background checks are being done, and Mickelson said it varies greatly.
“We do have a fingerprinting location up and running in Clay County,” Mickelson said. “There’s also a location our applicants can go to in Fargo.”
Jaeger added that with the relative-licensed homes is that as long as the relative is in the licensing process, the child can be placed with the relatives.
“If we find relatives eight hours after the children are removed from the home,” Jaeger said. “We will do a home safety check first. We’ll physically go to that relative’s home … run preliminary background checks of what’s publicly available to us, and if it’s safe enough, we’ll immediately place the children there.”
Mickelson said her department will present an orientation workshop for all these processes on May 6 if the commissioners want to attend.
For Family Childcare, with licensers Karen Hellem and Julie Klier, there are currently 127 family childcare homes licensed in the county, with 14 pending applications. Mickelson said the number of licensed homes is six fewer than last year.
Mickelson added that the licensing recruitment efforts include: marketing materials, community events, American Rescue Plan (ARPA) initiatives such as incentive to current providers for referrals, promotional videos and free provider training. She said of the initial $87,000 ARPA award funds, there is still about $30,000 remaining.
Overall, Minnesota received $2.8 billion in federal ARPA funds to offset fiscal shortfalls during the pandemic.