The board also will ask the county mental health agency to be more helpful in evaluating and certifying children for federal and state assistance.

Last month, the county picked up a tab of $80,000, primarily for room and board for 28 troubled children, most in their early teens. Many require 24-hour supervision because of violent behavior, aggressive sexual tendencies, a history of setting fires and other problems.

Several months ago, county officials predicted the cost of caring for troubled children could soon reach $1 million a year.

Social Services Director Sandra Wilkes and Tom Brewer, director of Children’s Services, recommended three ways to reduce costs while providing the same level of service.

The Social Services Board previously heard presentations from six agencies that provide intensive therapeutic care in home settings.

Brewer headed up a staff committee that recommended the Children’s Home Society develop and operate three to five therapeutic foster homes in Rowan County.

Children’s Home Society is based in Greensboro and began as an outreach ministry, the Child Care Ministry of the Presbyterian Church in 1973. The society now operates 45 foster homes over an eight county area, providing care for 60 to 70 children. The society has equipped and licensed homes to serve children needing intensive care.

Officials speculated that costs for individuals could be reduced from around $5,000 per month to a few hundred dollars per month.

The second element of the plan is to work with Lutheran Family Services to convert the Donnelly Home into a long-term residential facility, and develop another short-term emergency receiving home.

Lutheran Family Services, based in Raleigh, operates the Donnelly Home in Rowan as an emergency care facility. It houses nine children, primarily teens.

Lutheran Family Services operates 10 group homes and 23 foster family homes, with four of those in Rowan.

The board unanimously agreed to pursue arrangements with those two agencies.

The board also agreed to meet with the staff and board of the Piedmont Behavorial Healthcare, the multi-county mental health organization based in Concord.

Brewer and several other staffers said Piedmont has not been helpful or cooperative in evaluating the children.

Responding to questions from board member Lee Piper, staffers said Piedmont has basically been inflexible, refusing to make any allowances in procedure.

Federal and state funds will pick up a large share of the cost for children certified for “High Risk Intervention.” The county mental health agency must do the assessments.

Wilkes said problems arise in part because her agency must deal with emergency situations when there is no time to follow the established procedures.

As an example, staffers cited a case that occurred last Friday. The department was told that morning that they would have to pick up a teen-ager who was being released from a detention center in Asheville at 5 p.m. the same day.

Wilkes said the boy’s mother had refused to accept custody of him.

A case worker then drove to Asheville, and returned with the boy, a repeated sex offender, in Salisbury about 10 p.m.

The only available place to put him overnight was the Donnelly Home, which was filled with troubled teen-age females. The placement required constant supervision until he could be moved elsewhere.