On Monday, March 30, the Administration for Children and Families announced that it is removing the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) regulations in their entirety effective June 29, 2015. They are not seeking comments. In their announcement they say: “These regulations no longer apply to the CAPTA programs they were originally designed to
Late last week congressional leaders from both parties announced what appear to be an agreement to eliminate the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SRG) formula, what is commonly referred to as the “Medicare Doc Fix.” It is expected that the legislation would also include an extension of some health related provisions included last year’s bill including
HHS through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has unveiled new resources and information on the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV). The new information includes an Issue Brief which begins to shed light on the significant impact that the program is having in just a few short years. The number of
On February 25 the Bureau of Indian affairs in the Interior Department issued new guidelines and regulations regarding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The guidelines are the first update since 1979 shortly after the law was enacted by Congress. These updated guidelines are intended to provide procedures and best practices for use in Indian
A Tuesday, February 10 congressional briefing entitled, Reducing Overreliance on Psychotropics and Increasing Use of Psychosocial Treatments for Children and Youth in Foster Care focused attention on the need for stronger treatment options for children in foster care. The briefing was cosponsored by First Focus, Voice for Adoption and the State Policy Advocacy Reform Center.
Last Monday, the President started the FY 2016 appropriations process when he sent to Congress his formal budget request. Although many observers like to describe such budgets as “dead on arrival” or DOA whenever there are two different parties controlling the White House and Congress it none-theless starts a process and sets goals in
The Administration’s budget includes several proposed appropriations increases or changes in law to expand child welfare services, particularly for children and families involved with foster care. It is in fact a change for a budget area that rarely experiences any requested increases beyond what happens under the entitlement programs. Whether any action takes place will
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
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 Wednesday, December 10, the President focused attention on early childhood education and child care with the White House Early Learning Summit. The goal of the event was to build on recent work by the Administration over the last several years and to hopefully build momentum around early learning and get the word out about