On Tuesday, July 17, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute hosted their annual Foster Youth Intern (FYI) legislative forum. The annual invent invites in a number of young people who have been in foster care and have served as interns on Capitol Hill to share their ideas and proposals on child welfare policy. This year’s
According to numbers released last Friday, of the 2551 children and youth ages five through 17 originally counted as eligible for reunification, 450 have been reunited. Another 954 had been interviewed and are ready for reunification. According to the same information provided by HHS to Judge Dana Sabraw, 136 parents have waived their right to
On Monday, July 9 the Administration for Children and Families released their first guidance on the Family First Prevention Services Act. The program instruction (PI), ACYF-CB-PI-18-07, was released along with the • Children’s Bureau Regional Program Managers • Certification of Required Legislation • Request for Delay • Title IV-E Plan Pre-Print (including Pre-Print Attachments I
On Monday, July 9 the Administration for Children and Families released their first guidance on the Family First Prevention Services Act. The program instruction (PI), ACYF-CB-PI-18-07 does not deal with the services component of the new law (see below for comment request) but directs states on how they need to amend their Title IV-E and
Last Thursday, when the House Appropriations Committee acted on their Labor-HHS-Education bill, Committee Republicans included an amendment that could promote discrimination in the placement and recruitment of children and parents based on gender and sexual preference. The amendment was offered by Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL) and it is similar to language and legislation sponsored by
As of this past weekend, it was unclear how many of the approximate 100 children under the age of five that had been reunited with parents. By last Tuesday’s deadline HHS was saying they had reunified over 50 of the approximate 100 children. Some of the reasons for failure to reunite children included parental failure
On Thursday, July 12 the House Appropriations Committee passed their Labor-Health and Human Services and Education bill after two previous delays. Most of the votes cast were along party line with a great deal of the debate focused on immigration and family separation. In the end the bill was approved along party lines with several
On June 26, 2018, Judge Dana M. Sabraw, United States District Court for Southern California directed the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Control to reunite the more than 2000 children that have been separated from their children at the U.S. border. The Judge said that
Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee acted on their Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations and sent it on to the Senate floor for future consideration. On the other side of the Capitol Building, the House Appropriations Committee once again delayed action on the Labor-HHS-Education bill reported out by the Subcommittee. Their bill for FY 2019 has been delayed
In the Senate Appropriations Report to the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations, the Committee directs HHS to provide monthly data and weekly updates on the status of children in HHS custody. The directive is attached to the $1.3 billion appropriated to the Unaccompanied Alien children line item. In the Committee comments they note the trauma and hardship being