Macey Shabery Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Rep. Chuck Fleishmann (R-TN) convened a Congressional Baby Caucus briefing on Thursday February 15. The briefing centered on how babies learn language, the importance of exposing babies to “conversational duets” (talking to your child about everyday tasks and regularly communicating with them) and sign language. Dr. Roberta Golinkoff
The Family First Act made it into the CR/budget agreement after the House inserted it in their slimmed down CR proposal. The Senate picked up the package. It is close to the version that had been considered in late 2016 with some additional behind the scenes modifications added into the final version. It includes the
Many members of Congress (especially Democrats) voted against the CR/budget agreement because it lacked a firm commitment by congressional leadership (and the President for that matter) on action on DACA recipients. Shortly before the vote on the CR, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) said, “I can’t speak to what our rule is going to look like;
As part of the CR/budget deal, the child care community had one of their most significant victories since the creation of the CCDBG in 1990. Congress still has to finalize the appropriations, so there could still be challenges, but the deal explicitly included a $5.8 billion increase in child care funding with an expected split
When the CR/budget deal was agreed to it included a commitment to provide $6 billion more in 2018 and 2019 to address the opioid epidemic. It is unclear how that will break out between treatment, enforcement and prevention but that will be taking place in these next several weeks as appropriations are dealt with. Senator
In response to demands for more support on dealing with the increasing numbers of infants born dependent, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) has released a new comprehensive guide, Clinical Guidance for Treating Pregnant and Parenting Women With Opioid Use Disorder and Their Infants. The guide provides comprehensive, national guidance for
As part of the CR/budget deal, Congress has finally extended the home visiting or Maternal, Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) for a full five years. It has been a long haul for the home visiting coalition which originally sought a doubling of funding over five years. With the raging budget and health care
The budget agreement includes a further extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for ten years. The last CR had finally extended the expired CHIP program for six years. That was done because when Congress further restricted the ACA it meant that if CHIP disappeared it would be more costly to the federal
HHS through the Office of The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) has just release a review of the Title IV-E Kinship (Kin-GAP) program labeling it as “work in progress.” Since the enactment of the 2008 Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act, states have had the option to provide subsidized guardian assistance
On Wednesday, January 31, the Brookings Institution was the location for the 2018 CHAMPS kick off. Last December the coalition sponsored a briefing on Capitol Hill. CHAMPS – children need amazing parents is a campaign that promotes the need for state and local agencies to establish a new partnership between foster parents and child welfare
