May is National Foster Care Month and Sesame Street released “You Belong” featuring Karli, a Muppet living with her foster parents or “for-now” parents Dalia and Clem. With over 600,000 children who will enter the foster care system in a given year they only want to belong, the child welfare system provides a temporary safe
As a partnering member of the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, CWLA joins child advocates dedicated to ending child poverty, stands opposed to a recent proposal being explored by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to enact a new poverty calculation that would underestimate the number of children living in poverty and result in
While there is much debate in the child welfare world regarding the fate of expiring waivers for approximately half the states, a more significant source of state flexibility continues to be under assault in the Administrations’ budget: the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). While representatives of the administration tout their current budget proposal that would
The Family First Transition and Support Act (HR 2702/S 1376) bipartisan cosponsored by Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE), Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), Jim Langevin (D-RI), and Congresswoman Deb Haaland (D-NM) in the House and sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in the Senate.
On Wednesday, May 22, the House Judiciary “marked-up” or debated HR 6 an immigration reform bill. The legislation was split into three bills for Committee action purposes: H.R. 2820, the “Dream Act of 2019”; H.R. 2821, the “American Promise Act of 2019”; and H.R. 549, the “Venezuela TPS Act of 2019”. In March the DREAM
The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed regulation would prohibit “mixed status families” from living in public and other subsidized housing. Mixed status families are households that include members who are eligible and others who are ineligible for housing assistance based on their immigrant status. Currently, HUD allows families to live together in subsidized
On Thursday, May 23, AEI hosted, “After the fanfare: Family First one year later,” to discuss the challenges and opportunities of implementing the historic legislation – the Family First Prevention Services Act by October 1, 2019. Panel of experts included Naomi Schaefer Riley from AEI, Sean Hughes from Social Change Partners, Mark Mecum from Ohio
On Tuesday, March 26, the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services of the House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on the reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). The hearing entitled, Strengthening Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, is expected to focus on the historic
Congress was out of town last week, but the Administration did send up their detailed recommendations on their proposed 2020 budget. The CWLA budget summary can be found here with the budget chart found here. Behind the broad details of spending cuts of approximately 10 percent for the non-Defense Department discretionary (annually appropriated) funding,
The latest details on the Administration’s budget includes a continuation of last year’s optional waiver that would convert Title IV-E foster care into a block grant on a state by state basis. The goal is that converting foster care funds into a fixed five-year block grant would allow states to spend money on primary prevention