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1 1 (December 03, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdcrg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Updated December 3,2020 Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding Whatis te W k f Cht ela Age ndci s? Children depend on adults-usually their parents-to protect and support them. The broadest mis sion of child welfare agencies is to stengthen families s o that children can depend on their parents to nurture them, keep thems afe, and provide themwith a permanent, stable home. More specifically, child welfare agencies are expected to act to prevent abuse or neglect of children by their p awnts/caregivers. If abuse or neglecthasalreadyhappened,theagencies areexpectedto provide assistance, services, orreferrals as needed to ensure children do not re-experience maltreatment. For some children, this means placement in foster care. Federal child welfare policy has three primary goals: ensu ring children's safdty, enabling permanency for children, and promoting the wd being of children and their families. Fos ter 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. Most often this is doneby offering services that enable children to safely reunite with their parents or relatives. If thatis 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 usually emancipated whenthey reachtheirstate's legal age of majority. These youth are saidto have aged out ofcare. During FY2018 (the mostrecent data), public child protection agencies screened allegations of abuse or neglect involving 7.8 million children, caried out investigations or other protective responses involving 3.5 million of those children, and piovided follow-up services in the homes of some 1.1 million of those children. Following a child protective services investigation, some children are removed to foster care. During FY2019, more than 251,000 children entered care. The circumstances most often associated with children's entry to foster care are neglect and/orparental drug abuse. Among the 424,000 children who were in fos ter care on the last day of FY2019, the majority (82%) lived in family homes (non-relative or relative fo ster family homes and pre-adoptive homes), 10% lived in a group home or institution, about 7% were on trial home visits, or in supervised independent living; close to 1% had run away. Among the 249,000 children who formally left fo ster care during FY2019, more thanh alf returned to their parents or went to live informally with a relative (53%), while 37% left care for a new permanentfamily viaadoption or legal guardianship (including with kin). At the same time, 8% aged out ofcare, while most of the remainder (1%) were transferred to the care of another agency. WhVo soars Public R sorsibilty ftor 1This~ Wrkz 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 cairy out child welfare activities. This workis done consistent with state laws andpolicies. At the same time, the federal governmenthas longprovided technical support and funding intended to improves tate child welfare work. Further, by providing funding for this work, the federal government compels states to meetprogramrules, such as requiring pennanency planning protections for all children in foster cant. Compliance with these requirements is monitored via federalplan approvals, audits, andreviews. At the federal level, child welfare programs are administered by the Children's Buirau within the U.S. Departmentof Health and Human Services (HHS).At the state level, federal child welfare programs are often administered within the s tate human services department,or by an independent, s tate-level child and family services agency. However, some states have county-administeredprograms supervisedby the state agency. Chid Welf are Sp ni n and ProgJ` ra s State child welfare agencies spent about $30 billion on child welfare purposes during state FY2016, accoding to a survey by theresearch group Child Trends. Most ofthat spending drew froms tate and local coffers (56%). Of the remainder, 27% was suppliedby federal programs solely dedicated to child welfare-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)-and 17% fromother federal programs not solely child welfare-focused (principally, these are Social Services BlockGrant [SSBG and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF). Federal child welfare policy requirements are linked only to programs dedicated solely to child welfare purposes. For FY2020, Congress provided about $10.2 billion for such programs. Most ofthis was provided in , including as part of the Family First Transition Act (FFTA). Title IV-E of the SSA primarily supports provision offo ster care, adoption assistance, and (at s tate option) guardianship as s istance to children who meet federal IV-E eligibility rules. Under IV-E, s tates mustprovide fo ster care and adoption aid to eligible children, and the federal government is committed to paying a partof the cost of that aid (50% to 83%, depending on the s tate), as well as a part of the cost of administering the program(50% in alls tates) and for training (75% in all s tates). States may opt to provide Title IV-E gu ardianship assistance under this s ame cost sharing structure. Definite budget authority for these Title IV-Ecos ts was given at $8.4 billion in P.L. 116-94. As partofits COVID-19 response (P.L. 116- \ Q xa S

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