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1 1 (August 1, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govbaqe0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 1 Congressional Research Service hfo1krinr the legisivye debate since 1914 Updated August 1, 2019 Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding What Is the Work of Child Welfare Agencies? Children depend on adults-usually their parents-to protect and support them. The broadest mission of child welfare agencies is to strengthen families so that children can depend on their parents to nurture them, keep them safe, and provide them with a permanent, stable home. More specifically, child welfare agencies are expected to act to prevent abuse or neglect of children by their parents/caregivers. If abuse or neglect has already happened, the agencies are expected to provide assistance, services, or referrals needed to make sure children do not experience maltreatment again. For some children, this means removal from the home and placement in foster care. Foster care is understood as a temporary living situation, and a primary task of a child welfare agency is to find children in foster care a permanent home. Usually this is done by providing services that enable children to safely reunite with their parents or relatives. If that is not possible, then the child welfare agency works to find a new permanent family for the child via adoption or legal guardianship. Foster youth who are not reunited or placed with a new permanent family are most often emancipated from care when they reach their state's legal age of majority. These youth are said to have aged out of care. Federal child welfare policy has three primary goals: ensuring children's safety, enabling permanency for children, and promoting the well-being of children and their families. Children Served During FY2017, state and local child protection agencies screened allegations of abuse or neglect involving some 7.4 million children, carried out child protection responses involving 3.5 million of those children, and provided follow- on services in the homes of some 1.1 million of those children. Some 270,000 children entered foster care during FY2017, and as of the last day of that fiscal year, 443,000 children remained in care (including those who entered care during FY2017 or in earlier years). Circumstances most often associated with foster care placement were neglect and/or parental drug abuse. Among children who were in foster care on the last day of FY2017, the median length of stay in care was just over a year (12.9 months). The majority (8 1%) were living in a family setting, 12% lived in a group home or institution, and the remainder lived in other settings. Among the 248,000 children who formally exited foster care during FY2017, the majority returned to their parents or went to live with a relative (56%), while more than one-third (34%) left care for a new permanent family via adoption or legal guardianship (including with kin). However, some 8% aged out of care, 1% were transferred to the care of another agency, and the remainder left foster care for other reasons. Who Bears Public Responsibility for This Work? As the U.S. Constitution has been understood, states are considered to bear the primary public responsibility for ensuring the well-being of children and their families. Public child welfare agencies at the state and local levels work with an array of private and public entities-including the courts and social service, health, mental health, education, and law enforcement agencies-to carry out child welfare activities. This work is done consistent with state laws and policies. At the same time, the federal government has long provided technical assistance to improve state child welfare work. Further, through the provision of child welfare funding, the federal government compels states to meet federal program rules, including providing case review protections to all children in foster care. Compliance with federal requirements is monitored via federal plan approvals, audits, and reviews. At the federal level, child welfare programs are administered by the Children's Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). At the state level, federal child welfare programs are often administered within the state human services department, or by an independent, state-level child and family services agency. However, some states have county-administered programs supervised by the state agency. Child Welfare Spending and Programs State child welfare agencies spent close to $30 billion on child welfare purposes during state FY2016, according to a survey by the research group Child Trends. The majority of this spending (56%) drew from state and local coffers. The remaining funds were supplied by federal programs dedicated to child welfare purposes (27%)-including those authorized in Title IV-E and Title IV-B of the Social Security Act (SSA) and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)-or from other federal programs that share some child welfare purposes but are not solely focused on child welfare (17%). Principally, these are the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Total FY2019 federal funding authority dedicated solely to child welfare is about $9.8 billion. Title !VoE Title IV-E of the SSA primarily supports provision of foster care, adoption assistance, and (in jurisdictions electing to provide this) guardianship assistance to children who meet federal Title IV-E eligibility criteria. Beginning with FY2020, as authorized by the Family First Prevention Services Act (Family First, Title VII, Division E of P.L. 115-123), states may also use Title IV-E to fund certain foster care prevention services. Funding is authorized permanently (no expiration) and on an open-ended entitlement basis. Under Title IV-E, states are required to provide assistance to eligible children, and the federal government is committed to ips:#crsrepors cong tessgo

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