NLV teen gets seat on state board

At 16, Ashley Macias has already demonstrated leadership through involvement in the student council and National Honor Society at Mojave High School in North Las Vegas.

But this year she’s taking her public service to a new level, serving as the voice of all Nevada students on the State Board of Education. She’s also serving on Gov. Brian Sandoval’s statewide school safety task force.

She acknowledges that the responsibility of being the lone student representative on the board is daunting, but she says other students are counting on her.

“It’s not about you. It’s about everybody else,” she said.

Her experience on the student council at Mojave, which enables her to interact with other student councils around the state, will help her make sure she’s aware of issues at other schools that may be relevant to the state board, she said.

From her perspective, she wants to make sure the state board is aware of the challenges high school students face “just making it” to graduation. Personally, Macias said she has very strong support from her family, friends and staff at the school, but she’s aware that’s not the case for every student.

She said she’s tried to help create that kind of environment at Mojave for students who may not have it at home. To be chosen as the stu

VOICE

istrator for the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.

“The less the kids move around, the better it is for them,” she testified Wednesday. “We’re also finding they’re having increased access to psychiatric care as well as mental health services.”

‘Looming crisis’

However, Doyle and other foster care officials remain worried because Together Facing the Challenge does not come with the $72.70 agencies received from Medicaid every day for each child enrolled in basic skills training.

And in July the state will begin reducing the amount of basic skills training funding they provide foster care agencies. After 180 days the funding will only be doled out when deemed medically necessary by Nevada’s Medicaid fiscal agent, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Foster care agencies will still receive $62 per child each day from Clark County, and they can collect money for other Medicaid-billable services. Doyle said that likely won’t amount to enough for agencies like Eagle Quest to keep their doors open.

“We have to pay the case managers, and we have to pay the foster parents,” he said. “And that alone is more than we’d be receiving.”

Following outcry, state officials last year postponed making any changes to the Medicaid funding. Former Nevada Division of Child and Family Services administrator Kelly Wooldridge said then that the state would work to bundle Medicaid-billable services from Together Facing the Challenge to help foster care agencies make up lost funding.

Wooldridge has since been reassigned, and it appears the reduction in funding is moving forward without a new plan in place. That came as a surprise to both foster care agencies and Clark County.

“We had been under the impression that there would be no changes to the current funding model until the permanent, sustainable model was in place, and have recently learned that is not the plan and not the case,” county Family Services assistant director Jill Marano testified Wednesday. “So there is some concern about placement stability around our youth in specialized foster care in Clark County.”

Department of Child and Family Services spokeswoman Karla Delgado wrote in an email Friday that the state is working with Clark County to find funding alternatives. Meanwhile, therapeutic foster care providers are preparing to send the county and state 30-day notices that they should ready themselves to find new homes for the affected foster children.

“There’s a looming crisis that can be prevented, but we need immediate intervention from the (Nevada) Department of Health and Human Services,” Doyle said. “We need to identify alternative funding before the rug is pulled out beneath these kids.”

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.