New York State has created a flow chart that can help unemployed persons understand the routes to unemployment compensation. In non-economic crisis times, the unemployment system is funded, and systems are run by the individual states with the federal government assisting in some of the administrative costs. In times of economic stress, the federal government,
Older youth, including transition-aged youth, in foster care, are most vulnerable during this public health pandemic because of placement instability, placement in congregate settings, disruptions to their education and employment, social isolation, and lack of access to health. This population is not able to rely on families for support and often will depend on the
Last week the CDC announced that suicide rates increased by 35 percent since the start of this century. From 1999 to 2018, the suicide rate went from 10.5 per 100,000 to 14.2. The CDC report shows that the increases have accelerated over time, increasing by one percent a year through 2006 but have been going
Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) and Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) joined together in a bipartisan plea through the Washington Post: What governors need from Washington during this health emergency. In their comments posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2020, the two governors, who have both been bold and aggressive in their actions to contain COVID-19, called on
Last week the Congressional Research Services released Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) Increase Available for Title IV-E Foster Care and Permanency Payments, a brief description of how the Coronavirus relief package #2 will impact on foster care and adoption assistance funding. The Medicaid matching rate was raised for all state Medicaid programs by 6.2 percent.
As the IRS rolls out the implementation of the economic impact payments, they are still outlining some of the details on who is eligible and how they receive the checks, but coverage will include foster parents who filed either a tax return for 2018 or 2019 (this year’s income tax filing) and had a claim
On Tuesday, March 31, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) urged the Trump Administration to provide guidance to child welfare agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. The letter was addressed to Vice President Mike Pence and the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) Commission Elizabeth Darling urging for immediate relief for youth, support
On Tuesday, March 31, FosterClub announced the #UPChafee Challenge to bring awareness to the importance of an increase in support for foster youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the message is heard, FosterClub asked young people with lived experience in foster care to contact their Members of Congress and share why it is so
HR 748, the third COVID-19 emergency spending legislation, includes some human services and state relief, but the targeted human services funding did not go as far as many groups had been seeking. The biggest source of support is a $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund that governors had been pushing for, but it is not as
On Thursday, March 19, 2020, the Children's Bureau and Think of Us hosted a Virtual Town Hall for Older Foster Youth. The hosts in order in which they spoke were: Sixto Cancel, co-founder and CEO of Think of Us, Dr. Jerry Milner, Associate Commissioner at the Children's Bureau in the Administration of Children and Families