Two areas addressed in the House bill and supported by CWLA include the FMAP increase for state Medicaid and Title IV-E programs and an increase in funding of $9.6 billion for the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). The second COVID-19 bill increased each state’s Medicaid matching rate (FMAP—the federal medical assistance percentage) by 6.2 percent,
On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, child welfare leaders from Washington D.C. and Virginia discussed how the region’s foster care and child welfare services are being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic during the nationally syndicated public radio Kojo Nnamdi Show. The guests included Brenda Donald, District of Columbia, Director, DC Child, and Family Services Agency, Sharra
On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing, "COVID-19: Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School." The purpose of the hearing was to highlight what federal, state, and local governments are doing to help Americans return to work and school as rapidly and safely
On Tuesday, May 12, HHS published final rule for the updated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) regulations and requirements. AFCARS data reported by states annually helps to build a profile of the “child welfare” population by producing annual numbers on children in out-of-home (foster) care, adoptions and youth aging out to
On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) unveiled the $3 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, the next major coronavirus relief bill. The legislation provisions related to former foster youth and other vulnerable youth populations includes the following emergency assistance: • $50 million for the John H. Chafee Foster
CWLA is pleased to share with you a video diary special in collaboration with CBS News on COVID-19's impact to the child welfare and human services field. The video diary highlighted the significant role that child welfare workers play. Please take the time to view this nine-minute video diary of some of the dedicated child
The Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research released preliminary results of the online survey, “The Experiences of Foster Youth During COVID19” that was conducted in April 2020. Responses from over 200 young people spanning 32 states and the District of Columbia highlighted the economic and social needs of a vulnerable population during the
On Wednesday, May 6, 2020, Senator Ron Wyden introduced the Invest in Child Safety Act. The legislation, which CWLA has endorsed, attempts to deal with the child sexual abuse problem that has exploded as the use of the internet and related social media have expanded over the past decade. It creates an office to enforce and protect
On Thursday, May 7, 2020, the National Center for Victims of Crime (“NCVC”), the National Children’s Alliance (“NCA”), and the Child Welfare League of America (“CWLA”) sent a letter to the nation’s governors asking for them to focus attention on the need to address child sexual abuse. While there has been some attention to the concern that
New CDC data brief conducted by the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) reveals that between 2015-2017, around 40 percent of teenage girls and boys reported ever having had sexual intercourse. Among female teenagers, the numbers remained similar to rates observed in previous years going back to 2002, whereas the percentage of male teenagers who