The latest analysis from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Colombia University on the impact of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) shows that the October Child Tax Credit payments kept 3.6 million children out of poverty. While that was being released, the advocacy community, including CWLA, are having increased concerns that these same families
On December 1, 2021, ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine published an article titled, ‘They Took Us Away From Each Other’: Lost Inside America’s Shadow Foster System” by reporter Lizzie Presser. The article details what some have labeled diversion from foster care by using informal kinship care placements. It doesn’t question kinship care, but
The House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act reconciliation bill (HR 5376) on Friday, November 19, 2021, after a week of waiting. The waiting was driven by the need for a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) “score” or estimation of costs and savings. That score came back on Thursday at the expected $1.7 trillion.
On Thursday, November 18, 2021, HHS announced it was rolling back a controversial Trump Administration waiver that allowed some child welfare agencies to discriminate in their placement decisions. The Biden action quickly gained the praise of key House Democrats who are backing the anti-discrimination-in-placement-decisions legislation. Early in the Trump Administration, HHS had issued a waiver
In celebration of National Adoption Month, Voice for Adoption (VFA) hosted its 17th annual Adoptive Family Portrait Project on November 10th, 2021. This year's theme: 2021: Unresolved ACES - Access to mental health services and impacts it has on permanency. With a special thanks to VFA Communications Policy Associate intern, Derya Ozcan, and in collaboration
On Monday, November 1, 2021, the Child Welfare League of America submitted its recommendations to the Senate Finance Committee on how the Committee and country can make critical changes to the nation’s mental health and substance use treatment systems. The Committee had asked the behavioral health community and other parties to submit recommendation to the
On Thursday, November 4, 2021, Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA) introduced 21st Century Children and Families Act (HR 5856). The bill bans discrimination in placement and recruitment of foster and adoptive parents and places added emphasis on kinship care. It requires states to substantiate with clear and convincing data and analysis that the child welfare agency
On Monday, October 25, 2021, the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC) started a new campaign, Counsel for Kids. According to a statement by the organization, “With 673,000 children navigating America's child welfare courts every year and enduring concerns about unequal access to justice, today the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC) launches
The HHS Prevention Services Clearinghouse released more program evaluations last week. The clearinghouse identified Familias Unidas as a “well supported.” Familias Unidas is a “family centered intervention that aims to prevent substance use and risky sexual behavior among Hispanic adolescents” by empowering parents with adolescents aged 12-16. The program implements five steps: parent support network
On October 12, 2021, Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau Aysha Schomburg, issued a letter to the child welfare community urging continued vigilance in assisting young people who exit foster care and to be proactive in reaching out and helping. The end of federal fiscal year 2021 on September 30, 2021, meant the expiration of
