President Obama released his final budget for fiscal year 2017 last Tuesday. While the politics of this year and the President’s lame-duck status makes this a difficult budget to adopt there are some key proposals that can build on a vision for reforms and changes for child welfare. It also offers the potential for some
The Administration carries over earlier child welfare reform measures submitted in the past few years. These include an ACF-CMS Demonstration Projects to address over use of Psychotropic Medication in the treatment of foster children. The proposal envisions for each of the next five years, $50 million a year through ACF matched by $100 million a
A new policy brief by Chapin Hall and the Chadwick Center, Using Evidence to Accelerate the Safe and Effective Reduction of Congregate Care for Youth Involved with Child Welfare was released in the past week. The research could be important in light of the Senate Finance Committee’s still-in-development Families First Act which could potentially open
CWLA and a number of groups have signed onto letters to the US Department of Education urging them to take several actions to implement changes enacted through the recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The law now referred to as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) made a number of improvements
When Congress returns this week it will mark the beginning of a very short congressional calendar. The President is scheduled to deliver his last State of the Union address on January12 which will unofficially begin the new budget debate for FY 2017. The official budget will come a little more than four weeks later in
According to published news reports he was removed from his home and his mother due to child abuse allegations. He was three years old at the time and he spent the next two months in foster care. He left that first foster care placement to stay with a relative. Details aren’t clear but that arrangement
The draft bill, the Families First Act, will likely come up early in the New Year rather than this month as had been originally hoped. The legislation would allow Title IV-E funding on a limited category of substance abuse, mental health and in-home parent support programs for up to 12-months contingent on a child being
On Thursday, December 3, Capitol Hill was the location for a briefing on Substance Use Treatment: A Core Component of Child Welfare Reform, the briefing entitled the Elephant in the Room discussed the roll that substance abuse is and has been playing in child welfare and foster care in particular. CWLA was one of the
When Congress returns this week there is the possibility the Senate Finance Committee could take up a child welfare bill that is still very much in flux. The draft bill, the Families First Act, would allow Title IV-E funding on a limited category of substance abuse, mental health and in-home parent support programs for up
On Friday, November 20 the American Youth Policy Forum sponsored a Capitol Hill briefing on the topic of How Research Evidence Informs Foster Youth Medication Policies. The panel discussion included an examination of definitions, usage and oversight of psychotropic and other medications for youth and children in foster care. The discussion reached beyond the numbers
