The Center on Policy and Social Policy at Columbia University has released an important new report that rounds up the wide range of available research about the expanded Child Tax Credit. Since the introduction of the expanded credit in July 2021, there has been a significant amount of research conducted to measure the impact on
At first talks between the President of the United States and a single senator last week did not result in an agreement on a reconciliation bill and, as a result, the legislation was delayed until January at the earliest. That senator, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), first appeared to be taking aim at the Child Tax
The Prevention Services Clearinghouse, created under the Family First Act, has issued a new call for additional recommendations. As noted in the announcement the call is an opportunity for the public to recommend mental health, substance abuse, in-home parent skill-based, and kinship navigator programs and services for systematic review. Additional public calls for recommendations will
The Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentives released earlier this year provided just $24 million in incentive funding for states that placed children in adoptive families or in legal subsidized guardianship during 2020. In recent years the awards have exceeded over $60 million. In fact, in recent appropriations, Congress has appropriated additional funding ($75 million) so
Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced the Helping Foster and Homeless Youth Achieve Act last Thursday, December 9, 2021. CWLA has endorsed the legislation. The bipartisan legislation seeks to improve access to educational opportunities by requiring that higher education institutions receiving federal assistance waive application fees for young people who are
On December 1, 2021, ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine published an article titled, ‘They Took Us Away From Each Other’: Lost Inside America’s Shadow Foster System” by reporter Lizzie Presser. The article details what some have labeled diversion from foster care by using informal kinship care placements. It doesn’t question kinship care, but
November 29, 2021 New AFCARS data indicates foster care number down, but a closer examination may suggest a pandemic impact on entries and exits. The new AFCARS report was released last week, and it shows a significant decrease in foster care placements decreasing from the 2019 figure of 426,566 children in care to 407, 493
The House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act reconciliation bill (HR 5376) on Friday, November 19, 2021, after a week of waiting. The waiting was driven by the need for a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) “score” or estimation of costs and savings. That score came back on Thursday at the expected $1.7 trillion.
On Thursday, November 18, 2021, the President nominated Rebecca Jones Gaston to become the Commissioner for the Administration on Children Youth and Families (ACYF). The position has been vacant since Elizabeth Darling stepped down during the presidential transition. Currently Gaston is the Child Welfare Director for the State of Oregon’s Department of Human Services. Before
Data released by to CDC on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, confirmed earlier reports that drug overdoses continued to skyrocket with the country reaching 100,000 for the first time in U.S. history. The data measures overdose deaths from May 1, 2020, through April 30, 2021, a big heart of the pandemic. The total is even more