The Bill Passes On Wednesday, June 15 the House Ways and Means Committee passed the Family First Prevention Services Act, (HR 5456). The legislation was adopted by a voice vote but only after more than an hour of debate that outlined some of the challenges regarding the proposal and the process. Most members, both Republicans
With Congress returning and approximately 27 to 24 potential days in session for the House and Senate before their summer break, appropriations bills are likely to be the prime focus. That leaves little space for addressing the Families first draft legislation unless there is some strong consensus between the two houses. There are also some
Last week hundreds of researchers gathered in Washington for what is now a biennial event to discuss issues related to the TANF block grant. The event, Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) provided two and a half days of discussion around assistance to TANF families, education and training, youth development, immigrant families and child
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 House adopted an amendment offered by Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) and Congressman Todd Young (R-IN), (and endorsed by CWLA), that will allow Justice Department funded substance abuse treatment diversion grants to focus on parents whose incarceration could result in their children entering foster care. The amendment was considered as part of the House debates
On Wednesday, April 11, House Ways and Means Committee began a markup on a package of bills that may result in a reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). House Republicans are promoting the TANF reauthorization and limited package of changes as part of their programs to reduce. In announcing the hearing Committee
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation's All Children - All Families project is conducting a survey of public and private child welfare agency staff. Responses to this survey will help HRC understand your agency's experiences working with a diverse range of resource parents, volunteers and youth. Information will help inform resources and technical assistance for child
There was little change in the appropriations status last week. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) has now made clear in several comments that he does not have the votes to pass a budget resolution so far this year. He tried a closed door meeting on Thursday with some comments from participants that they were making progress
On Thursday, April 7, 2016, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published an add-on in proposed regulations to last year’s (February 9, 2015) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to amend the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) The original notice, and still under evaluation, are regulations that would modify the requirements
The Child Welfare League of America has released its annual national and state fact sheets. The state and national fact sheets are released every spring in conjunction with the national conference. The National Fact Sheet includes twelve categories that help measure how children and youth are doing based on the latest categories of data. The