When the CR was passed last Thursday, it did not extend pandemic relief funding for youth exiting foster care including additional $400 million in Chafee-pandemic relief funding (annual mandatory Chaffee funds are set at $143 million). The addition $400 million expired at the end of fiscal year 2021. It is not clear how much of
A House companion bill to address the IMD/QRTP issue was introduced in the House on Wednesday, September 29, 2021. The bill H.R. 5414, is the same as the Senate version (S. 2689) with Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12) and Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-FL-14), as primary sponsors. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
November is national adoption month. This year’s theme is “Every Conversation Matters”, which means engaging youth in permanency plans through open conversations about adoption. As Adoption Month approaches, the Children’s Bureau kickstarted the conversation by hosting the webinar Every Conversation Matters featuring two young women with lived experience and an adoption supervisor. The first young
On Tuesday, September 28, 2021, the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) and the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) presented a panel to discuss Empowering the Child Welfare Workforce and its Emerging Leaders. The webinar provided information about CWLA’s Emerging Leaders Committee and insightful steps, tips, and strategies to promote growth and development of
On September 18, the Concord Monitor published a story about the child welfare workforce that is probably too typical of several state and local child welfare workforce situations. The workforce is vital to any successful changes, improvements, or reforms in prevention, reducing the number of separated families, and helping children and youth reach a permanent
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released a new report, Foster Care Entry Rates Grew Faster for Infants than for Children of Other Ages, 2011-2018, that found that infants accounted for more than 70 percent of the total increase in foster care entries in recent years at the national, state, and
Last week the House Ways and Means Committee released and then worked on perhaps the biggest parts of reconciliation and the Biden Administration’s “Build Back Better” agenda when they published the tax provisions. The tax pieces can be divided into two broad parts, tax deductions and incentives and tax increases to pay for the tax
An important provision in the House Committee version of the CTC allows some flexibility for both birth parents and foster parents. A parent can still receive the CTC for temporary absences “under the facts and circumstances, it is reasonable to assume that the individual will return to reside at the place of abode.” There is
ASPE released a new brief, How Some States Use Title IV-E Foster Care Funding for Family-based Facilities that Treat Substance Use Disorders, highlighting four states, California, Minnesota, Montana, and Utah. The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) allows states to claim reimbursement from the federal title IV-E foster care program for foster care maintenance payments
Mathematica Planning Title IV-E Prevention Services: A Toolkit for States includes a section on Identifying and Engaging Partners in implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). With states at various stages of successfully planning and implementation and must consider the following things: 1) understanding their candidacy of foster care, 2) figuring out the
