(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball escalated her fight with the Beshear administration over support for kinship caregivers Sunday, submitting a formal comment letter arguing that proposed regulatory changes fail to implement a law designed to help family members caring for foster children.
Ball’s letter to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services coincided with testimony delivered by her General Counsel, Alexander Magera, at a public hearing on the proposed regulation.
“The family members who step up to care for foster children across the Commonwealth are making heroic and sacrificial choices,” Ball said in a statement. “It is time to implement Senate Bill 151 and meet the clear and growing needs of kinship families across the Commonwealth.”
At the heart of the dispute is Senate Bill 151, which passed the General Assembly unanimously in 2024 and was signed by Governor Andy Beshear. The law aimed to ease placement of children removed from their homes with relatives or close family friends, giving kinship caregivers additional time to make crucial custodial decisions.
However, Ball’s comment letter accuses the proposed regulation of unconstitutionally delaying the law’s implementation by requiring an appropriation of unspecified state general funds before it can take effect. Ball argues that funding is already available to implement the law immediately.
“Refusing to execute SB 151, therefore, is unconstitutional, unlawful, and just plain wrong,” the comment letter states.
After signing the bill, Governor Beshear alleged that the General Assembly had not appropriated sufficient funding for implementation and declined to put the law into effect. Ball’s office has since launched an investigation into the administration’s failure to implement the law and filed a lawsuit seeking to compel the governor and CHFS to enforce it as written.
The legal and regulatory battle highlights ongoing tensions between the auditor’s office and the governor over kinship care policies affecting foster children across Kentucky.
