Specialized emergency foster homes will get $40 more a day per child starting Nov. 26

Foster homes that specialize in taking children on an emergency basis will get $40 more a day per child from the state starting Nov. 26, under a rule filed Tuesday.

In Anchorage, that brings the emergency shelter rate to $90.91 a day, up from $50.91. In Bethel, where the state pays more to reflect higher costs, it rises to $115.85, according to the state's current rate sheet.

The extra $40 goes only to licensed foster homes with the state's emergency shelter care specialization. Under state rules, a foster home can't take children for emergency shelter care without that specialization and an agreement with the department.

Other foster families who take in a child on less than 24 hours' notice will keep getting the existing short-notice rate. The rule gives that payment its own name, the emergency placement rate.

That rate is 125% of the state's base rate for children 12 and older, adjusted for where the family lives, whatever the child's age. It's $50.91 a day in Anchorage, compared with a standard rate of $34.01 for a child under 6 there.

The new rule caps that payment at 10 days. Under the old rule, the department could extend the short-notice rate to as long as 30 days in special circumstances. That extension now applies only to the specialized shelter homes.

The Department of Family and Community Services proposed the change in August. No one commented on it, according to the department's adoption order, and the department said the change isn't expected to need more money from the Legislature.