During the summer break Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and their offices reached out through a conference calls to supporters and other stakeholders encouraging them to promote the bill while Congress was out of session. Also holding webinars along with power point presentations were a coalition of California groups including state,
It is unclear how long Congress will be in session this month but many expect that the session will not extend into October despite a calendar that sets October as adjournment date. Front and center will be the appropriations for FY 2017 which starts on October 1. There is little possibility that Congress will enact
Some critics of the Families First Prevention Services Act have recently argued that the proposed bill does not truly provide prevention services. In part this depends on how the individual defines prevention. CWLA views the Families First Act as providing an important part of the child welfare continuum, intervention services that can prevent placement into
The two Title IV-B programs along with the adoption and kinship incentive fund expire on October 1, 2016 and so they need to be reauthorized either through the Families First Act or or another measure which could include a short term extensions included any CR. A CR however may just extend the program for a
You may have missed it in August but the Brooking Institute released important findings and conclusions about the Head Start program with, The Long-Term Impact of the Head Start Program. In the past some critics of Head Start have argued that the benefits of Head Start “fade-out” as the child moves further into grade school
Three organizations have come together to provide a toolkit, SSI for Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care, that could help test out a new Social Security Administration pilot that seeks to extend SSI benefits to youth exiting foster care. The three groups authoring the report, the Juvenile Law Center, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and
Monday, August 22 represents something of an anniversary. It will be twenty years since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, PL 104-193, more commonly referred to as “TANF.” TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) converted the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, which had provided an
A new study by the Urban Institute, The Cost to States of Not Expanding Medicaid indicates that states could leverage a significant amount of funding by expanding health care services through the ACA while expanding insurance coverage by 4 to 5 million people. The ACA expanded Medicaid coverage to people at 138 percent of poverty.
When the 115th Congress begins next January less than fifteen percent of Congress will include members that had been through a complete and on-time appropriations process. Depending on the election results, combined with announced retirements, members that had been in office when appropriations was on time (1996) will dwindle to at least 11 percent in
WE WILL BE BACK NEXT ON AUGUST 22-- On Monday, August 1 the Child Welfare League of America opened its annual 2016 conference, What Works for Families Affected by Substance Use, in Orange county, California. Orange county, as the sixth largest county in the country with over 800,000 children, was an appropriate setting for the
