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
As the reconciliation bill is fought over, several prominent groups are weighing in support of a major expansion of child care as part of the final reconciliation. In the past two weeks, more than 120 economists, forty-five business leaders, and 100 House members have called on Congress to include the robust child care expansion that
On Friday, September 17, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an expanded open enrollment period for people signing up for or renewing their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Consumers will have an extra 30 days to review and choose health plans through Open Enrollment, which will run from
September 15th marks the first day of National Hispanic Heritage Month! Hispanic Heritage Month began as a mere week in 1968 when Congressman George E. Brown of East Los Angeles, California, proposed the celebration to honor the cultural impact Latinos had on America. After being passed by Congress in September of 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson
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
On Wednesday, 15, 2021, over 400 prominent economists outlined their strong support for a permanent extension of the CTC. In part they said: “Childhood poverty is a staggering problem in the United States, affecting approximately one in seven children, and one in five children of color, even before the Covid-19 pandemic began. Children growing up in
While Congress continues to wrestle with a reconciliation package, they also must deal with the start of the fiscal year 2022 on October 1, 2021. Aside from the reconciliation, which doesn’t have an actual deadline, there is a need to provide funding for the new fiscal year by October 1. At the same time Congress
An earlier piece of reconciliation adopted through the House Ways and Means Committee is the creation of a paid family and medical leave program. The version the House Committee has envisioned could start as early as 2023, and lost wages would be replaced on a sliding scale formula based on a worker’s annual income. An employee