From left, Norma Hatfield, Auditor Allison Ball and Alexander Magera, the auditor's general counsel, addressed an interim legislative committee, Oct. 23, 2024. (Screenshot)

Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball has launched an inquiry into whether the Beshear administration can implement a law aimed at helping kinship care families.?

Ball’s office will look at what money, if any, the cabinet has available and if federal dollars could help with implementation, she said, and is the result of an official complaint filed by Norma Hatfield, president of the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky.?

This comes amid a monthslong $20 million dispute between the General Assembly and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) that’s kept a 2024 law from going into tangible effect and helping Kentuckians who are raising minor relatives.?

“We have a lot of reasons to be involved in this issue,” Ball told members of the Interim Joint Committee Families and Children Wednesday. “At this point, we are going to make all attempts to make this a collaborative effort with the governor and CHFS but rest assured, we’re going to do everything that we can to figure out the facts.”?

The new law, which went into effect — on paper — in July, allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child, when abuse or neglect is suspected, to later become eligible for foster care payments. This is much needed relief for the thousands of kinship care families in Kentucky, advocates have said.?

‘Flabbergasted:’ Help for kinship care families passed unanimously. $20M price tag could derail it.

Beshear alerted lawmakers to what he called a funding omission in an April letter — five days after he signed Senate Bill 151 into law. He asked them to use the final two days of the 2024 session to appropriate the $20 million for implementation.?

Cabinet officials have said they cannot implement the law without the money, while lawmakers have pressed them to apply for federal funding or use existing budget dollars.?

Hatfield thanked the auditor for getting involved.?

“There are a lot of families, the longer we wait, that are missing opportunities for more long term support that deserve it,” she said. “And I’m just very grateful.”?

A CHFS spokesman said there are no federal dollars available to implement the bill from the Administration for Children and Families.

“This administration is dedicated to the care and welfare of children in the commonwealth,” the cabinet said in a statement. “Team Kentucky is 100% focused on the children who rely on us for their safety and well-being. We’re supportive of the bill, but there is a cost that must be addressed before implementation can occur.”

Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, who sponsored the law, told the Lantern she is “thrilled” to have a third party looking into the issue.?

“Those kids that are in crisis and they are welcomed into the arms of family members — we owe them. We owe them some support,” she said. “And so I’m just really encouraged that somebody has heard our pleas.”?

The past few months of back and forth on the issue have been “really frustrating,” she said. And she wants to see certain parts of the bill that don’t require money implemented, including getting regulations written.?

But, said Raque Adams: “If the auditor came back, that hypothetical, and said, ‘you know, the governor is absolutely right,’ then my response would be, ‘Okay, let’s open up the budget and figure out what we can do.’”??