On Friday, November 1, HHS announced a “notice of exercise of enforcement discretion” along with an unpublished notice of proposed rulemaking to say that they would not enforce nondiscrimination rules or regulations except those specifically passed in law or ruled on by the Supreme Court. In effect, they won’t enforce the Obama era nondiscrimination rules
On Thursday, November 7, a federal appeals court announced that it would revisit the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) August decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that upheld ICWA as constitutional. The 5th Circuit rejected a lower court ruling that sought to strike down ICWA. The decision by the U.S.
On Wednesday, October 30, 2019, the District of Columbia became the first state to have their Family First Prevention Plan, “Putting Families First in DC,” approved by the Children’s Bureau under the federal Family First Prevention Services Act. . DC was the first jurisdiction to submit their plan. Arkansas, Kentucky, and Utah plans are pending
Last month the Children’s Bureau provided guidance allowing states to use Title IV-E Administrative funding for the costs of evaluation of the new Family First Act prevention services. The Child Welfare Policy Manual in response to the question: May a title IV-E agency claim title IV-E administration for the costs of conducting a well-designed and
On Thursday, October 24, 2019 HHS released the 26th AFCARS Report indicating 3,788 fewer children in foster care in FY 2018 (437,283) from the 441,071 in FY 2017. The AFCARS reports are based on the number of children in the system as of the last day of the federal fiscal year, which is September 30,
Last week, the National Foster Care Youth & Alumni Policy Council hosted a webinar to highlight the policy recommendations outlined in their new document, A Historic Opportunity to Reform the Child Welfare System: Youth & Alumni Priorities on Preventing Unnecessary Removal of Children from Families. The webinar featured members from the Policy Council Justin Abbasi
On October 16, 2019, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) and Kidsave presented a special screening of the A&E documentary series “The Day I Picked My Parents.” NBC-4 veteran reporter and creator of the Wednesday’s Child program, Barbara Harrison, opened up the briefing discussing the role that the Freddie Mac Foundation had on helping
Capitol Hill is working on a bipartisan deal that is intended to assist states to implement the Family First Prevention Services Act. The bipartisan, bicameral legislation would give states an added $500 million in child welfare funds, allowing states to spend more flexibly on the three categories of evidence-based services and create a guarantee of
The findings of the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) report, Focus on Youth CFSR Findings: 2015-2017, published by the Children’s Bureau details how child welfare agencies are working with older youth between the ages of 16 and 17 in foster care. The report addressed the following questions: (1) How well do agencies meet the
CWLA continues to engage with committee staff and member offices on a pathway forward to address the proposed legislation. At this time, it is critical that we unite in our message – the Family First Transition and Support Act must pass as a comprehensive package, including the “de-link” from the 1996 AFDC eligibility requirements for