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 they are also more specific and have been left out of the HEALS Act:
- No increase in the matching rate for Medicaid and Title IV-E (FMAP)
- No increase in CAPTA state grant funding, which can be used for child protection services and prevention services. (The proposal would provide $50 million for CB-CAP).
- More funding for child care—closer to $50 billion, instead of the bill’s $15 billion
- The additional Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding is good—but if states are making extreme cuts to their budgets, they will be unlikely to put new matches for TANF
- No increase in the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) funds
- No increase in nutrition (SNAP) funding
- No extension on the ban on evictions
- No access to funds for immigrant populations
- No general state and local state budget relief that governors have been seeking
