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CWLA 2008 Children's Legislative Agenda
Financing Child Welfare Services
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Action
- Enact a comprehensive legislative package of reforms of
the child welfare system.
- If a comprehensive package cannot be enacted this year,
a number of other important bills represent key steps
toward reform.
- Enactment of kinship care legislation, S. 661 and H.R.
2188.
- Extending access to Title IV-E funding to tribal governments,
S. 1956 and H.R. 4688.
- Extending Title IV-E funding to age 21, S. 1512.
- Legislation to address the outdated eligibility requirements,
S. 1462 and H.R. 4091.
- Extending Medicaid coverage to age 21 for youth that age
out of care, H.R. 1376.
- Provide short-term training of staff of certain private
child welfare agencies, H.R. 2314.
The Partnership to Protect Children and Strengthen Families
- During spring 2007, seven organizations, including CWLA,
came together to issue a statement that outlined a proposal
for comprehensive reform of the nation's child welfare system. 1
More than 40 national, state, and local groups now support
the proposal.
Changes Needed in Federal Child Welfare Law to
Better Protect Children and Ensure Them
Nurturing Families
Organizations representing public human services directors,
public child welfare directors, private child and family service
agencies, unions representing child welfare workers, and
advocates for children, have come together in partnership to
call on the 110th Congress to join them in a renewed commitment
to protect the nation's children. The partnership
will work for a system that better protects all children by:
- supporting the full range of services necessary to prevent
child abuse and neglect;
- ensuring all children who have been abused and neglected,
including those in foster care, have the services
and supports they need to heal; and
- guaranteeing the more than half million children in foster
care the help they need not just to survive, but to thrive
and return to their families, or to live permanently with
adoptive families or legal guardians (often grandparents
or other relatives).
We cannot afford to waste the potential of another child.
It is time for Congress to update outmoded financing strategies
so the federal government can better help states prevent
child abuse and neglect, protect and care for many
more abused and neglected children, support a high quality
child welfare workforce, and do more to increase accountability
for outcomes for our most vulnerable children and
their families. This year marks a decade since Congress
passed major bipartisan child welfare reforms. Although
progress has been made in those 10 years, much more
remains to be done. It is time to build on gains made and
lessons learned and for Congress to act now.
Innovations are underway in selected states and communities,
but the federal-state partnership to help children and
families in need must be renewed and strengthened if we
are going to ensure progress for all children. Despite the
efforts of creative leaders and dedicated staff, too many
children today remain in harm's way. A child is abused and
neglected in America every 36 seconds. The U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports
that only 6 of every 10 abused and neglected children get
services. Those children who enter foster care remain an
average of nearly two and a half years. An estimated
114,000 children wait in foster care for adoptive or other
permanent families. Eroding federal supports reach fewer
than half of the children in foster care. Federal dollars for
services to keep children out of care, and to get them out
and keep them out once they are placed, fall far short of the
need. The average tenure of a child welfare agency worker,
who is often called upon to make life and death decisions
for children, is less than two years.
It will take all of us working with others across the country
to keep children safe and in nurturing families. We will
need to invest additional funds and to support a broad range
of services and supports, including prevention, treatment,
and post-permanency services. On behalf of America's children,
we ask Congress to act now to do its part.
This partnership of diverse organizations recommends a
comprehensive package of reforms that will:
Guarantee services, supports, and safe homes for
every child who has been or is at-risk of being abused or
neglected through strengthening the federal-state child welfare
partnership by amending the federal Title IV-E statute
to do the following without converting any of the Title IV-E
to a block grant.
Promote investments in a broad continuum of services
for children and families by allowing states that offer services
and supports that safely reduce their foster care caseloads
and expenditures to retain the Title IV-E federal funds
they would have otherwise used for foster care. They can
reinvest those funds in a range of services and supports that
prevent child abuse and neglect, provided that state dollars
no longer needed for foster care are similarly invested.
Ensure federal as well as state financial support for
all children when they must be placed in foster care by eliminating
the income eligibility criteria applicable to Title IV-E,
provided that state funds currently used for foster care are
reinvested in prevention and treatment services for children
who are at-risk of being or have been abused or neglected.
Guarantee children have access to critical postpermanency
services by amending Title IV-E of the Social
Security Act to allow funds to be used to provide such services
and supports. These services will prevent the return to
foster care of children who are reunited with their parents,
placed permanently with relatives, or adopted from care.
They will also help older youth who age out of foster care
successfully transition to adulthood.
Guarantee children placed permanently with legal
guardians (often grandparents or other relatives)
receive federal as well as state financial support by
amending Title IV-E to allow funds to be used for subsidized
guardianships when returning home or adoption are not
appropriate options.
Ensure that children living with relatives while in
foster care have access to Title IV-E federal and state
financial support, so long as the relatives have met state
licensing standards that contain safety protections and
criminal background checks.
Ensure Native American children have access to federal
support by allowing Indian tribes to have direct access
to Title IV-E funding.
Promote Program Effectiveness
Improve outcomes for children by enhancing and sustaining
a competent, skilled, and professional child
welfare workforce by allowing Title IV-E training funds to
be used for training on all topics relevant to ensuring safety,
permanency, and well-being for children and for training to
all staff who work with children who come to the attention
of the child welfare system, including staff with private
agencies, as well as public agencies, court personnel, and
those with expertise in health, mental health, substance
abuse, and domestic violence services.
Ensure that all children involved with the child welfare
system receive intensive, quality casework services
by increasing the Title IV-E federal match for casework
services from 50% to the Federal Medical Assistance
Percentage (FMAP), and thus increasing the capacity of
child welfare agencies to address the needs of children and
families. Assessments of children's and families' needs, and
development and refinement of permanency plans, recruitment,
licensing, and supervision of foster and pre-adoptive
parents are at the heart of child welfare casework and these
activities should be reimbursed as more than simple administrative
expenditures. General overhead and purely administrative
expenditures would continue to be reimbursed at a
50% match.
Promote rigorous evaluation of programs and
practices and prevent the loss of critical child welfare
funding by allowing states to reinvest penalties and disallowances
back into the child welfare system to conduct
evaluations of promising approaches to achieving safety,
permanence, and well-being for children and to implement
practices and approaches that have been demonstrated to
improve these outcomes.
Enhance Accountability
Enhance fiscal accountability by requiring states to
report annually on the funds spent on particular services
and categories of services, the number of children and
families provided each service, the duration of those
services, and the number of children and families referred
for services who are unable to access such services.
Evaluate the effectiveness of this package of
reforms five years after enactment by directing the
Government Accountability Office conduct a study of:
(1) enhancements of preventive, permanency, and postpermanency
services; (2) changes in foster care placements;
(3) recruitment, retention, and workloads of child
welfare workers; and (4) improved outcomes for children
who are at-risk of entering or have entered the child
welfare system.
Increase the knowledge about outcomes for children
by allowing states to submit additional state level
data during the Child and Family Service Review process.
Important Bills that Represent Key Steps Toward Reform
CWLA believes that if a comprehensive reform cannot
be completed by the end of 2008, there are a number
of bills now before Congress that can be enacted and
would be important steps on the road to a comprehensive
reform.
Kinship Caregiver Support Act
(S. 661 and H.R. 2188)
This bipartisan legislation creates first-time federal
support for children living with relatives in guardianship
placements. The bills provide support for both relative
and non-relative guardianship placements. The bills would
also establish a Kinship Navigator Program, and ensure
notice to relatives when children enter foster care.
Tribal Foster Care and Adoption Access Act
of 2007 (S. 1956)
This bipartisan legislation allows tribal governments to
apply directly to HHS for Title IV-E funding for eligible
children in foster care and adoptive homes. A tribal government
applying to draw down funds directly would
have to meet most of the same requirements and standards
that states do. Similar to current state requirements,
a tribe would have to submit a plan indicating its
area of service, which may not coincide with such geographic
lines as city, county, or state borders.
Foster Care Continuing Opportunities Act (S. 1512)
This bipartisan legislation would extend federal foster
care funding (Title IV-E) to youth up to age 21. Currently,
federal funding supports foster youth to age 18. A few
states extend this to age 21 with state dollars only.
Every year, more than 22,000 children age-out or leave
foster care merely due to turning age 18.
The Adoption Equality Act (S. 1462)
and (H.R. 4091)
This bipartisan legislation would ensure all special needs
children adopted from foster care receive federal support
in order for the newly created family to have a good
foundation for the future. It would eliminate the eligibility
requirement for Title IV-E special needs adoption that
now bases eligibility on the long-repealed AFDC cash
assistance program.
Medicaid Foster Care Coverage Act
of 2007 (H.R. 1376)
This bipartisan legislation addresses a critical issue for
young people leaving foster care-lack of health insurance.
For some youth leaving foster care at age 18, their
Medicaid and health coverage end at the same time.
While some states have taken the option to extend
Medicaid coverage to age 21, this legislation would
extend Medicaid to age 21 for all youth who age out of
foster care.
Provide Short Term Training of Staff
of Certain Private Child Welfare Agencies
This bill addresses an important issue that has been
on the CWLA agenda for several years. Given the need
to strengthen the child welfare workforce as a building
block for any reform of the child welfare system,
the legislation allows private child welfare agencies
contracted by the state to use federal funding for
on-going training.
Key Facts
- In 2005, an estimated $3.3 million referrals of possible
child abuse and neglect were made.2
- In 2005, 899,000 children were substantiated or
indicated as abused or neglected. 3
- In 2005, 1,460 children died as a result of abuse
or neglect. 4
- Of the children substantiated as abused and neglected,
only 60.4% received follow-up services. Of
the children reported as abused and neglected but
not substantiated, 26.9% received follow-up services.
One-fifth of victims (21.7%) were placed in foster
care as a result of an investigation. 5
- As of September 30, 2005, 506,483 children were in
foster care. 6
- Of the 286,005 children exiting foster care in 2005,
64.1% were reunited with their parents or other
family members. 7
- Of the 506,483 children in foster care in 2005, 122,195,
or 24.1%, were waiting to be adopted. 8
- In 2005, 51,278 children were legally adopted through
the public child welfare agency, a 1.4% decrease from
51,993 in 2004. 9
- In 2006, approximately 2.4 million grandparents
nationwide had primary responsibility caring for their
grandchildren. 10
- Of the 506,483 children in foster care in 2005, 23.9%
were living with relatives while in care. 11
- Of all the children in kinship care in 2005, 36.9% were
white, 35.5% were black, 18.8% were Hispanic, 2.2%
were Native American, and 6.5% were all other races. 12
- In 2004, 935,225 children were enrolled in Medicaid on
the basis of being in foster care, representing approximately
3.4% of all children enrolled in Medicaid. 13
- In 2004, $350 million of the total Medicaid spending for
foster children was spent on Targeted Case Management
(TCM) services and $545 million on Rehabilitative
Services in the United States, representing approximately
18% of total Medicaid spending. 14
- Children in foster care receiving TCM are much more
likely to receive other important services such as
physician, prescription drug, dental, and home health
services than children in foster care who do not
receive TCM services. 15
- In 2005, 24,211 children aged-out of out-of-home care. 16
- In 2004, the country spent $23.3 billion for child welfare
services. Child welfare services refer to all direct and
administrative services that the state agency provides to
children and families. Of this, 50% was from federal
funds, 39% from state funds, and 11% from local funds. 17
- In 2004, of the $11.7 billion in federal dollars spent
for child welfare, 50% was for Title IV-E Foster Care
and Adoption Assistance, 4% for Title IV-B CWS and
PSSF, 10% for Medicaid, 11% for Social Services
Block Grant, 20% for TANF, and 3% for other federal
sources, including Supplemental Security Income and
Survivors Benefits. 18
Sources
- In addition to CWLA, the original group comprising the Partnership to Protect Children and Strengthen Families included: the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSME), the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), Catholic Charities USA, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), and Voices for America's Children. back
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families. (2007). Child maltreatment 2005. Available online. Washington, DC: Author. back
- Ibid. back
- Ibid. back
- Ibid. back
- Child Welfare League of America. (2007). Special tabulation of the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS). Arlington, VA: Author. back
- Ibid. back
- Ibid. back
- Ibid. back
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey. (2006) Data profiles: Selected social characteristics. Available online. Washington, DC: Author. back
- CWLA, Special tabulation of the AFCARS. back
- Ibid. back
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2007) FFY 2004 Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS) annual summary file. Available online. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. back
- Ibid. back
- Geen, R., Sommers, A.S., & Cohen, M. (2005) Medicaid spending on foster children. Available online. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. back
- CWLA, Special tabulation of the AFCARS. back
- Scarcella, C.A., Bess, R., Zielewski, E.H., & Geen, R. (2004). The cost of protecting vulnerable children V: Understanding state variation in child welfare financing. Available online. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. back
- Ibid. back
CWLA Contact
John Sciamanna
703/412-3161
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