On Thursday, February 7, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, co-chair of the Baby Caucus and Chair of the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee sponsored and moderated a Capitol Hill briefing on the State of Child Care in America. DeLauro offered opening remarks focusing in on how support for expanded child care has grown since the early days of
Appropriately timed, CLASP has released a new analysis of state efforts to implement the new regulations and funding under the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). New CCDBG regulations are a result of a new authorization enacted in 2014. The 2014 reauthorization was the first one since 1996. The regulations and law instituted new
On Thursday February 7, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held their first hearing in the 116th Congress on family separation policies in regard to immigration enforcement. According to testimony from the Inspector General’s Office at HHS, Ann Maxwell, “…the total number of children separated from a parent or guardian by U.S. immigration authorities and
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has re-introduced the Families Not Facilities Act, legislation that CWLA endorsed in the last Congress and now in this 116th Congress. • The bill prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from using U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) information provided by an unaccompanied child, or initially obtained to evaluate
Shaquita Ogletree CWLA has joined a number of organizations signing onto a letter urging Congress to reauthorize H.R. 494, The Tiffany Joslyn Juvenile Accountability Block Grant (JABG) Program. The letter circulated by the National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Coalition (NJJDPC) and can be read here. The JABG program reduces juvenile offending through a range
Jay Williams On Wednesday, January 30, Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) reintroduced the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (S.274), similar to legislation he sponsored along with Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA) last year. The legislation, which CWLA does not support, would require HHS to penalize state child welfare agencies who are found in violation of “provider inclusion”
Building on efforts such as the Enzi legislation, a report in the Washington Post last week says that the President’s coming FY 2020 budget will request language to expand its authority to allow discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs. The Post article states “In a 2020 draft budget request that has not been made
GLSEN has released a new school guide and national survey of school counselors, social workers, and psychologists (SMHP). The Supporting Safe and Healthy Schools for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Students finds: The guide includes results from a survey of mental health professionals regarding issues dealing with the student LGBTQ population. Survey categories include:
Last week, H.R. 507, the Put Trafficking Victims First Act, sponsored by Congressperson Karen Bass (D-CA) passed the House of Representatives by a near unanimous margin. The legislation addresses a need for expanded victim services, improved data-gathering on the prevalence and trends in human trafficking, and effective mechanisms to identify and work with victims in
HHS has released the annual child abuse report: Child Maltreatment 2017. The numbers are similar to past years. For FY 2017, there are an estimated 674,000 victims of child abuse and neglect. The victim rate is 9.1 victims per 1,000 children in the population. The numbers are like the previous year—2016 when 676,000 victims. Much