The Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) is a combination of funding streams for different but related services. Like Title IV-B part 1, Child Welfare Services (CWS), PSSF was reauthorized in 2014 as part of the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act. In FY 2017, the President is requesting PSSF funding at the
President Obama released his final budget for fiscal year 2017 last Tuesday. While the politics of this year and the President’s lame-duck status makes this a difficult budget to adopt there are some key proposals that can build on a vision for reforms and changes for child welfare. It also offers the potential for some
The Administration included in the budget a new strategy to expand and strengthen the child welfare workforce. The budget request would amend Title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance law to expand state access to current training funds. Currently states can receive a 75 percent match on state dollars spent on worker training. This funding,
Key child welfare programs including those that are authorized or are a part of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) were all flat funded for 2017. State grants would remain at $25 million a year. Discretionary funding would receive an $11 million boost to $44 million but as just in last year’s budget
The Administration carries over earlier child welfare reform measures submitted in the past few years. These include an ACF-CMS Demonstration Projects to address over use of Psychotropic Medication in the treatment of foster children. The proposal envisions for each of the next five years, $50 million a year through ACF matched by $100 million a
The Administration proposes several assists to tribal governments and consortia intended to build child welfare capacity in a number of ways. In addition to the continuing $3 million in technical assistance for tribes attempting to take over the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance programs, the Administration adds in three additional supports. Under Title
A new policy brief by Chapin Hall and the Chadwick Center, Using Evidence to Accelerate the Safe and Effective Reduction of Congregate Care for Youth Involved with Child Welfare was released in the past week. The research could be important in light of the Senate Finance Committee’s still-in-development Families First Act which could potentially open
CWLA and a number of groups have signed onto letters to the US Department of Education urging them to take several actions to implement changes enacted through the recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The law now referred to as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) made a number of improvements
Last week more than 80 organizations, including CWLA, started to recirculate a letter of support for S 1169 a bill to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). The legislation introduced early last year and passed out of committee is sponsored by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). If enacted,
The President will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 12 for the final time in his presidency. The speech is expected to be more general in tone than in the past speeches with the President focusing on his larger vision for the country rather than specific programs or budget requests. The