By brooke adams

| The Salt Lake Tribune

The Division of Child and Family Services spent nearly three-quarters of a million dollars last year on court-ordered drug testing of parents whose children are in state custody.

Now, those parents may be asked to pick up some of that cost.

	Join the Discussion
	Post a Comment

A proposed, one-year pilot program would require a parent to pay $5 per drug test, saving the state an estimated $110,000 and promoting "parents’ accountability." If a parent doesn’t pay the fee up front at the test center, no test would take place. The incident would be reported to a caseworker and, subsequently, to the judge overseeing the case as a "failure to test."

The division crafted the plan at the request of the Social Services Appropriations Committee, which asked DCFS last session to come up with a proposal to require parents to pay "some or all" the cost of drug testing. The committee may consider the proposal during its meeting Tuesday.

DCFS paid $706,300 last year to cover costs of 22,000 drug tests. This year, the division expects that tab to approach $900,000 due to higher costs charged by a new contract provider and the fact that division staff in some parts of the state no longer collect samples, said Staci Ghneim, DCFS deputy director. As of December, it had already paid close to $312,000.

Test costs range from $7 to $120 per test, depending on the locale, type of test and substances being checked.

"Rural areas are the most expensive," said Wendy Thompson, DCFS program administrator.

How often clients are required to test also varies depending on individual circumstances and what a judge presiding over the case mandates, Ghneim said. Typically, tests are required twice a week, but they can be done as infrequently as twice a month or as often as four times a week, according to DCFS.

At present, DCFS pays for "almost" all drug testing, she said. In a few, very rare exceptions, clients choose to pay for their own tests. If a client is already being tested by a treatment provider or through juvenile or adult corrections, DCFS tries to use those results to avoid duplicate testing.

And there are "a couple of courtrooms around the state where clients are ordered by the court to reimburse DCFS for positive tests," Ghneim said.

Most of those tested are adults, but DCFS does some drug testing of youth involved in the juvenile justice system and, using hair samples, of children to determine exposure to substances — primarily methamphetamine — used by their parents. The proposal does not indicate who would pay for those tests.

Ghneim said DCFS settled on the $5 charge after trying to balance lawmakers’ desire to cut costs and hold parents accountable, while also addressing the realities of the clients they serve, many of whom are indigent.

The fee "would reduce our costs and make it more manageable, while also helping [clients] invest in their own recovery and treatment without being such an overwhelming burden that they give up and we end up paying for their children in foster care for years," Ghneim said. "We don’t want to set it so high it is a deterrent."

But even a $5 co-pay can add up.

Orem attorney Nathan Shill said two clients he represented in a 2010 DCFS-related case were ordered to do multiple tests. One had nine tests in a single month, the other had 10.

"Even at $5 a test, you could be looking at upward of $50 a month," he said.

Counting inability to pay the fee as a missed — and thus "dirty" — test could have dire consequences, he added.