--WE WILL BE BACK NEXT ON AUGUST 8-- During the summer break child care advocates will be seeking more child care funding in an effort to make progress on implementing the new mandates enacted through a reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). The 2014 reauthorization sought to improve the quality
On Thursday the House Subcommittee on Appropriations for the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-HHS) approved a bill that reduces spending below current year funding and attaches a number of provisions the President would reject. Overall the bill provides $161.6 billion which is a cut of $569 million below this year.
Congress acting on an omnibus appropriations bill is certain. The only question is when they will pass such a bill and how long it will run. There are days not weeks left before the summer break starts. That break will run through Labor Day. It is expected that there will be limited days in September
On Thursday the Education Department and HHS issued guidance, Non-Regulatory Guidance: Ensuring Educational Stability for Children in Foster Care that is intended to help implement new provisions of the reauthorized Education and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that seek to protect the education access for student who are also in foster care. The guidance includes 40
On Monday, June 13 a group of advocates and organizations led by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) hosted a forum to discuss the challenges of homeless students in America’s public schools. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Education Act there is a small amount of money in the federal budget
After the GAO report was released Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member on HELP Committee, sent a letter urging the Department of Education to address obstacles unaccompanied homeless students face in applying for and receiving financial aid. The Senator asked the Department to exclude burdensome parental information requirements and to clarify the definition of
The resource kit released by the Education Department follows a report by the GAO earlier this month, Actions Needed to Improve Access to Federal Financial Assistance for Homeless and Foster Youth (GAO-16-343: May 19, 2016) that program rules can make it more difficult for unaccompanied homeless youth (those not in the physical custody of a
On Thursday, May 26, the White House capped off May as National Foster Care Month with a two-day “White House and Foster Care and Technology Hackathon.” The event sought to bring together child welfare leaders, organizations, families and foster alumni into a meeting with engineers and leaders from the technology sector. As part of the
The resource kit released by the Education Department follows a report by the GAO earlier this month, Actions Needed to Improve Access to Federal Financial Assistance for Homeless and Foster Youth (GAO-16-343: May 19, 2016) that program rules can make it more difficult for unaccompanied homeless youth (those not in the physical custody of a
Last week a bipartisan group of Senators joined onto a letter to HHS and the Department of Education calling on the two departments to implement new provisions in the new reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) regarding the education rights of children in foster care. The senators, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the