City Council to Consider Allocating Mid-Fiscal Year Funds to Support Services for Vulnerable Children
The population served by the Children's Services Act has increased in the past five years.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
Fredericksburg City Council on Tuesday will consider allocating additional funding in the current fiscal year to support services provided to vulnerable youth and families under the Children’s Services Act.
These services include foster care, private day school placement for children with special needs, and out-of-home placement due to extreme needs and behaviors. The need for all of these services is increasing, staff told Council at a work session last month.
Funding for these mandated services is split between state and local government. A budget amendment Council will consider on Tuesday would increase the transfer to the Children’s Services Act (CSA) Fund for fiscal year 2026, which ends June 30, by $500,000, using $350,000 in sales tax revenue from the general fund and $200,000 from the city’s contingency fund.
If approved, the city’s total transfer to the CSA fund for fiscal year 2026 would increase from $1.5 to $2 million.
According to information provided by staff, the increase in funding is needed to support the growing population served by CSA. In fiscal year 2022, about 70 Fredericksburg children received services through CSA. This year, staff estimate needing to serve about 100 children.
The total population served by CSA jumped from 80 to 100 between fiscal years 2023 and 2024 alone. In 2023, there were about 43 children in foster care in Fredericksburg. The next year, there were 61, and by 2025, there were 79.
Private day school placements for children with special needs, as identified by the public school system, have also increased from 20 to nearly 30 in the past five years. Private day school is expensive, costing as much as $400 per day, Kristin Shores, the city’s CSA program coordinator, told Council last month.
In Stafford County, the number of overall children served by CSA also increased between 2023 and 2025, from 151 to 185. The children in foster care or in private day school placements increased as well, from 49 to 65 and 86 to 104, respectively.
Year to date, 141 children have received CSA services, according to information provided by the county. There are 47 Stafford children in foster care and 89 in private day school.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
