State welfare officials arenâÂÂt expected to reveal plans for cutting $26.6 million from their budgets until next week.

âÂÂAll I can say is there are many, many things on the table,â said Marianne Deagle, director of the Office of Planning and Policy Coordination within the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

Deagle said Wednesday discussions were expected to âÂÂgo late into the afternoon.â The meeting, she said, would not be open to the public.

She did not return calls from the Journal-World seeking comment on decisions made during the meeting.

Directors of several advocacy groups have said they expected SRS to carry out a cost-cutting plan proposed last month.

The plan includes closing SRS offices in as many as 70 counties, cutting services for the physically and developmentally disabled, reducing payments to doctors and hospitals caring for the poor, and increasing premiums paid by families enrolled in the stateâÂÂs health insurance program for low-income children.

Support for the services aimed at helping troubled families could be on the chopping block as well.

A year ago, state officials cut family preservation by 30 percent.

âÂÂThat put us at $10.2 million,â said Bruce Beale, executive director at DCCCA, a Lawrence-based program that has the family preservation contract for the eastern two-thirds of the state.

âÂÂThis year, the Legislature gave us another $2.7 million,â he said. âÂÂBut in August, they took back a million (dollars), and now SRS is holding back the remaining $1.7 million. So weâÂÂre still at ground zero.âÂÂ

Beale warned that if SRS cuts to family preservation go âÂÂbelow zero,â heâÂÂll either âÂÂclose up shopâ or renegotiate the programâÂÂs contract with the state.

âÂÂTo meet all of the obligations spelled out in the contract, we have offices all over the state, and we have people working out of their homes and out of their cars,â he said. âÂÂThatâÂÂs fine, but if SRS goes below zero, I canâÂÂt keep that infrastructure together. The money isnâÂÂt there.âÂÂ

Based in Salina, Saint Francis Academy has the family preservation contract for the western one-third of the state.

Together, the two programs serve about 3,000 families a year. Both have been successful in keeping children out of foster care.

Kaw Valley Center oversees the stateâÂÂs foster-care contract for much of northeast Kansas, including Douglas, Jefferson and Franklin counties.

If its funding is cut, it too will ask that its contract be renegotiated.

âÂÂTo comply with the obligations and the outcomes that are spelled out in the contract, weâÂÂd have to renegotiate,â said Sherry Love, vice president of the centerâÂÂs human resources and development.

âÂÂWe are minimally staffed as it is — thatâÂÂs not to say weâÂÂre not adequately staffed, we are,â Love said. âÂÂBut thereâÂÂs no cushion.âÂÂ