The ABA Legal Center for Foster Care and Education, the Center, and CWLA held a special member call on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, to discuss the education needs of children and families involved with child welfare during COVID-19. In normal circumstances, foster students experience unique challenges in the education system, but now given the nature
Last month, on Wednesday, August 19, 2020, the House Ways and Means Committee Democrats released a report led by Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Chairman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, the late John Lewis (D-GA) on the issue of discrimination in placement decisions for foster care and adoption. The
The recently released AFCARS, Report Number 27, indicates that foster care numbers decreased in FY 2019. The report lists 423,997 children in foster care at the end of the federal fiscal year 2019 (September 30, 2019) compared to 435,031 for the same point in 2018. The report may be adjusted in the next few months, but
CWLA continues to support the Child Welfare Emergency Assistance Act (Brown), S4172, which now has 15 cosponsors, including 7 Senators from the Senate Finance Committee. On Thursday, July 2, 2020, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced the Child Welfare Emergency Assistance Act. The bill’s original cosponsors include Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).
On Monday, July 27, 2020, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) released his party’s counter to the House of Representatives HEROES Act. The rest of last week left the impression that Senate Republicans are not sure about the next steps. The HEALS Act, as it has been labeled, is actually eight different bills from different members
While the Senate COVID-19 bill provides minimal state supplements, it does provide some funding through the Senate Finance Committee bill and the Senate Appropriations bill for limited child welfare programs. Funding includes an appropriation of $75 million through the Child Welfare Services (Title IV-B part 1),$50 million for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevent (CB-CAP) funds and $65 million for Family
There are several priorities CWLA holds for the next package that reach beyond “child welfare” but are critical to families and to future trends for child welfare caseloads. These can be as broad as tax rebates (that need to reach families that adopt, foster parents, kinship care and youth that transition from foster care) but
As the end of the week approached, Washington was still waiting for a complete initial package from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on what will be a fifth COVID-19 relief measure. Negotiations that had started within the White House on Monday between the President’s staff and Republican Congressional leaders from the House and Senate
On July 20, 2020, the Children’s Bureau released a Child Welfare Policy Manuel (CWPM) that explains some of the more technical questions and approaches to funding legal representation for parents and children by tapping into federal Title IV-E funds. The Frequently Asked Questions: Independent Legal Representation. Over the past three years, the Children’s Bureau has promoted
On Wednesday, July 22 the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) held the modified 2020 Foster Youth Internship Program congressional briefing webinar. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the twelve current and former foster youth interns (FYI 2020 cohort) spent their summer participating in a virtual internship where they provided policy solution to address four areas