With the latest AFCARS data official, there are now clear indications that foster care numbers are trending upward. A third consecutive increase in foster care to 427,910 children in care represents an eight percent increase since 2012. Likely these numbers will be even higher when the 2016 numbers are reported next year. The numbers are
On Wednesday, November 2 there was a Capitol Hill briefing on the home visiting program, MIECHV (Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting). The target audience included Capitol Hill staff from both houses and both parties. The goal of the briefing was an early education of congressional staff on the program and how it works. The
Late last month the White House Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force released an important and long-awaited report addressing mental health parity in health care plans. The task force is the result of a March 2016, presidential order creating the task force to build on recent changes in federal law and recent
Nearly a month in the new fiscal year the fate of the FY 2017 budget is anything but certain. When the Congress returns on November 14, they must act on 11 of the 12 appropriations bills. Military Construction, separate from defense appropriations, is the only appropriations bill signed into law. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) has
The National Center for Children in Poverty has released a new policy paper on the status of Medicaid access for young people formerly in foster care. The paper, FOSTERING HEALTH: The Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and Youth Transitioning from Foster Care, describes the impact of a provision in the ACA that requires that youth
Recently National Public Radio (NPR) ran a report on a fateful turn in the history of this nation’s child care system dating back to the early 1970s. The story outlines how close we came to a universal child care system. Close enough for a Democratic Congress to pass in 1971 a system of care that
A new Child Trends survey of state child welfare spending shows a slight decrease in funding between 2012 to 2014 with a slightly bigger decrease in federal spending. The survey showed a continued pattern of great variations across the fifty states. A pattern that has existed since the first such surveys provided detail on spending
For the states that raised objections to parts of the Families First Act, specifically California, New York, Texas and Wyoming, the Child Trends survey gives some perspective. California and New York which raised serious concerns over the re-structuring both draw-down and spend significant amounts on child welfare. In 2014 California spent slightly more than $4
Massachusetts has reported some new and detailed information on the impact of substance abuse on child abuse reports. The data, reported recently by the Boston Herald indicates that within a six month period substance abuse was a factor in 14,000 cases, or 30 percent, of the 47,700 total reports of abuse and neglect the state
In the past week two discussions were taking place across the two houses of Congress that could dramatically effect budgets, entitlements and policies. In comments made at his regular press briefing, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) made clear that he intends to use the budget reconciliation to adopt his conservative agenda if Donald Trump is President
