Last week, the House Financial Services Committee unanimously voted to send “The Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Act (H.R. 4300) (FSHO) to the House for a full vote. FSHO would give preference in housing vouchers to youth transitioning from foster care. The bill, which has bipartisan support, led by Congressman Mike Turner (D-OH) and Steve Stivers
On September 20, 2019 a Federal District Court in Maryland rejected a challenge to Maryland’s recent law that prohibits conversion therapy of minor children. A Maryland psychotherapist, Christopher Doyle, claimed that the law violated his religious freedom. The plaintiff was supported by the Liberty Counsel based in Orlando Florida. Conversion therapy generally seeks to change
Last week the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services (Approps Labor H) held hearings to discuss family separation policy and the conditions of children placed in the Office of Refugee and Resettlement (ORR) facilities based on the Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, “Care Provider
Capitol Hill is working on a bipartisan deal that is intended to assist states to implement the Family First Prevention Services Act. The bipartisan, bicameral legislation would give states an added $500 million in child welfare funds, allowing states to spend more flexibly on the three categories of evidence-based services and create a guarantee of
On Friday, September 20, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provided guidance on whether or not the new classification of Quality Residential Treatment Programs (QRTPs) will fall under the Medicaid classification as an Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMDs). There has been great concern that the new QRTP standards would cause these same child
The Senate unveiled their Labor-HHS-Education appropriations legislation last Wednesday, September 18, 2019 and it shorts human services severely. Gone are the increases for child care, Head Start, CAPTA state grants, CB-CAP child abuse prevention funds and many other vital human services. While there was always an understanding that many of the House increases could not
On Tuesday, September 17, Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HA) introduced the Protect American Values Act that would restrict the Administration from using federal funds to implement its new “public charge” rule scheduled to go into effect on October 15, 2019. On August 14, 2019 the Administration published a new final rule to expand the definition of
The findings of the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) report, Focus on Youth CFSR Findings: 2015-2017, published by the Children’s Bureau details how child welfare agencies are working with older youth between the ages of 16 and 17 in foster care. The report addressed the following questions: (1) How well do agencies meet the
On Tuesday, September 17, the Urban Institute released their 13th annual Kids’ Share report, Kids’ Share 2019: Analyzing Federal Expenditures on Children, on federal expenditures on children through 2018 and future projections. The report and a panel discussed federal spending on children younger than 19 from 1960 to 2018 and makes future projections through 2029.
The census report on health insurance coverage showed that the percentage of people with health insurance decreased by 0.4 percent last year. That represents the first decrease in coverage since the Affordable Care Act and the first increase since the 2008-2009 period. The health insurance report is based on both the Current Population Survey and