Last week CWLA called on the Office of Management and Budget to include new funds in the 2018 budget to better address key child maltreatment strategies.

The preparation of the 2018 budget is a placeholder for the new administration.  The new President will be sworn in on January 20 and as a result the 2018 budget, due in early February, is likely to be delayed as the new administration uses the budget being worked on now as the basis for developing the new President’s priorities.

With a lone exception, the CWLA letter focuses on discretionary funding issues with a focus on CAPTA programs.  The requests include a doubling of funding for CAPTA state grants, discretionary spending and Community-Base Child Abuse Prevention (CB-CAP) grants. The CAPTA requests tie some increases to taking some of the first steps to implement the recommendations of the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities. The letter also proposes some priority on addressing the new expanded directives under CAPTA on plans of safe care for infants born exposed to substance use.

In addition, the letter asks for a one-time increase in adoption-kinship incentives funding which has a shortfall of funding each year.

The letter also addresses one area outside of discretionary spending and that is the area of child welfare workforce development.  The letter requests that this year’s budget proposals around workforce development be continued in the next budget. The Administration proposed several changes under Title IV-E to enhance and strengthen the child welfare workforce, an area CWLA sees as vital to any reforms within child welfare.