On Wednesday, February 13, 95 Members of the House signed a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar criticizing the Departments decision to grant a waiver to South Carolina from nondiscrimination provisions of the federal child welfare programs. A few days later Americans United filed a lawsuit against HHS. The House of
On Tuesday, January 16, an impressive array of state and national organizations joined in support of Tribal nations and representatives in defense of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and last week the opposition submitted their arguments. The response was more limited to the State Plaintiffs’-Appellees’ Response Brief (Texas, Indian and Louisiana); Individual Plaintiffs’-Appellees’ Response
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
On Wednesday, January 23, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a long-delayed decision that grants a child welfare agency in the state of South Carolina a waiver from anti-discrimination requirements under Title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance. The action permits one child welfare agency, Miracle Hill, to continue restricting their recruitment practices
This week CWLA reached out to the more than 100 new members of the 116th Congress with a child welfare background package of information including Investing in All of Child Welfare. This piece argues for investing in ALL of child welfare services: Child welfare’s continuum of care includes prevention of child abuse before it happens
On Tuesday, January 16, an impressive array of state and national organizations joined in support of Tribal nations and representatives in defense of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The briefs were filed with the Fifth Circuit in response to a ruling by a judge late last year. The Amicus Brief by national organizations was
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced the State Flexibility for Family First Transitions Act. It would allow current Title IV-E waiver states to extend their child welfare waivers for two years although there is no provision that would stop another extension after the next two-year extension. As part of an
In a letter dated, January 2, 2019 the Children’s Bureau informed state child welfare directors that all programs and services will be rated using the Prevention Services Clearinghouse Handbook of Standards and Procedures in the beginning of May 2019. Release of the ratings will indicate if programs and services are rated as “promising,” “supported,” “well-supported,”
This past December, Child Trends released a new survey of state child welfare spending based on 2016 state fiscal years. The biennial survey indicates that overall spending in combined federal, state and local child welfare dollars remained somewhat stable from the past survey (based on 2014) with spending up by 5 percent. But over ten