The President will release his proposed budget this morning. Some of the proposals have been leaked from the President and White House including his proposals to expand child care and the child care tax credit or the proposal to expand access to community colleges. Under the new proposal for child care, the President would provide
On Wednesday, January 28 members of congress and several advocacy groups came together to unveil the introduction of the Homeless Children and Youth. Act of 2015. The legislation would amend federal housing law to change the definition of homeless youth to align with other federal programs such as the Runaway and Homeless youth Act, the
Last Wednesday Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) offered an amendment in a committee deliberation to assure Medicaid coverage for young people who had been in foster care. Under the ACA a young person who exits foster care at 18 (or older) is covered by Medicaid to age 26. There has been a complication with the provision
On Tuesday, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a bill to reauthorize the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA). The program provides three different grants to community-based organizations to reach out to homeless youth on the streets, provide crisis intervention housing, basic life necessities, family interventions and longer-term housing options when
On Tuesday, January 27, Capitol Hill was the scene of a briefing and a report-release by the Children's Advocacy Institute and First Star that leveled heavy criticism of federal oversight of the nation’s child welfare services. The report, Shame On U.S , details an examination of the federal government and its oversight of the nation’s
On Tuesday, The Children’s Defense Fund released a new report called Ending Child Poverty Now highlighting proposals they say could end child poverty, as defined by the Supplemental Poverty measure. CDF argues that we can make this happen by investing another 2 percent of the federal budget to improve existing programs and policies that increase
Last week the House of Representatives on suspension of the rule (a fast-track vote process) passed a dozen bills intended to address or help combat human trafficking while improving services to survivors. The one most significant to child welfare would amend the Child Abuse Prevention and treatment Act (CAPTA). H.R. 469 – Strengthening Child Welfare Response
Last week the office of Community Services released two new annual reports on the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). The 2011 and 2012 reports show similar results as the 2010 report and reaffirms how the $1.7 billion in funding continues to support a range of child welfare services—especially as a prime funder of child
On Thursday, January 22, the President’ released a child care expansion proposal to build on his support for an expanded child care tax credit first announced at the state of the Union Address on Tuesday of last week. Under the new proposal the President would provide significant increases to the child care block grant, the
Last week the Children’s Bureau released the annual 2013 Child Maltreatment Report. During the year, there were an estimated 3.5 million referrals or calls to child protective services agencies. The reports of child abuse or neglect were estimated to include 6.4 million children. Of the reports, an estimated 60.8 percent were screened in, meaning they
