According to an examination released by Auditor Allison Ball this week, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services placed children in unlicensed or non-traditional locations that her office says put the young people at greater risk.
The report raised a number of concerns over what it called a lack of policy, and whether the children were receiving proper medical care and therapy, or able to attend school. Non-traditional placements includes agency office buildings, hospitals, hotels, state parks, and community centers.
The examination — tracking data between January 2023 and October 2024 — reported 174 children spent between two and 55 days in such placements.
Thursday, Beshear painted a different picture, drawing from information in the Finance Cabinet's independent Office of the Inspector General report.
"In contrast to the other recent reports, these findings confirm that non-traditional placements are rare in Kentucky and only account for 1-2% of cases," the governor said. "For the few children who are placed in a non-traditional setting, the stay is short — just over two days on average. But in more than 50% of cases, the length of stay was 24 hours or less."
Beshear said the stays often help social workers to take a pause following traumatic or sometimes violent incidents involving the children before placing them in another home where the problems could reoccur. The non-traditional settings, he said, are only used in "high acuity cases" where children have unique and complex needs.
While Auditor Ball has said the cabinet is failing foster children across the state, Beshear defended the work of the cabinet and again called on the General Assembly to fund more high acuity centers.