Last Monday, the President started the FY 2016 appropriations process when he sent to Congress his formal budget request. Although many observers like to describe such budgets as “dead on arrival” or DOA whenever there are two different parties controlling the White House and Congress it none-theless starts a process and sets goals in
The Administration’s budget includes several proposed appropriations increases or changes in law to expand child welfare services, particularly for children and families involved with foster care. It is in fact a change for a budget area that rarely experiences any requested increases beyond what happens under the entitlement programs. Whether any action takes place will
On Friday, HHS released the first preliminary information and research on the home visiting program the Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV). The research referred to as, Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation or MIHOPE focuses on the initial planning, outreach and target families. The research partners for this and future reports are
Last week the office of Community Services released two new annual reports on the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). The 2011 and 2012 reports show similar results as the 2010 report and reaffirms how the $1.7 billion in funding continues to support a range of child welfare services—especially as a prime funder of child
On Thursday, January 22, the President’ released a child care expansion proposal to build on his support for an expanded child care tax credit first announced at the state of the Union Address on Tuesday of last week. Under the new proposal the President would provide significant increases to the child care block grant, the
This past November the Office of Inspector General at HHS issued an updated report on the challenges states are facing regarding the required health screening of children through Medicaid. The IG report indicated that health screenings have increased (nationally) from 56 percent in 2006 to 63 percent in 2013, but also found that both ratios
To coincide with National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Research Council (NRC) have released a PowerPoint presentation focusing on highlights of their report Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States. The presentation shares findings on how schools, law enforcement, victim
The National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response in Child Protective Services (QIC-DR) has released the final report from the Cross-Site Evaluation on Differential Response. Differential Response (DR) represents a different way of structuring a state’s child protective services system (CPS). DR allows CPS agencies to respond differently to child abuse and neglect based on
The Commission To Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities conducted a second field hearing last Thursday, July 10 when they went to Tampa Florida. The Commission heard from both Florida officials as well as national experts. Panelists included Interim Secretary Mike Carroll, Florida Department of Children and Families, Dr. Celeste Philip, Florida Department of Health,
On Tuesday, July 8, 2014, the Subcommittee on Children and Families of the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on “Falling Through the Cracks: The Challenges of Prevention and Identification in Child Trafficking and Private Re-homing” Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) opened the hearing with remarks that focused on two key goals: prevention and identification in