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1 1 (January 19, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govebqq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: * Congressional aes ih Service Informiing the legisilive debate since 1914 0 Updated January 19, 2021 Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding The Work of Child Welfare Agencies Children depend on adults-usually their parents-to protect and support them. The broadest mission of public child welfare agencies is to strengthen families so that children can depend on their parents to provide them with a safe and loving home. More specifically, child welfare agencies work to prevent abuse or neglect of children by their parents/caregivers. If abuse or neglect has already happened, the agencies are expected to provide aid, services or referrals 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: ensuring children's safety, enabling permanency for children, and promoting the well-being of children and their families. Foster care is understood as a temporary living situation. The first task of a child welfare agency is to provide services to enable children to safely reunite with their families. If that is not possible, then the agency works to find a new permanent family for the child via adoption or guardianship. Youth in care who are neither reunited nor placed with a new permanent family are typically emancipated at their state's legal age of majority. These youth are said to have aged out of care. Children Served During FY2019, public child protection agencies screened allegations of abuse or neglect involving 7.9 million children, carried out investigations or other protective responses involving 3.5 million of those children, and provided 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/or parental drug abuse. Among the 424,000 children who were in foster care on the last day of FY2019, the majority (82%) lived in family homes (nonrelative or relative foster 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, and close to 1% had run away. Among the 249,000 children who formally left foster care during FY2019, more than half returned to their parents or went to live informally with a relative (53%), while 37% left care for a new permanent family via adoption or guardianship. At the same time, 8% aged out of care, while most of the remainder (1%) were transferred to the care of another agency. Who Bears Public Responsibility for This Work? Under the U.S. Constitution, 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 support and funding that is intended to improve state child welfare work. By providing this funding, the federal government compels states to meet certain program rules, such as requiring permanency planning for all children in foster care. Compliance with these child welfare requirements is monitored via federal plan approvals, audits, and reviews. The Children's Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) administers most federal child welfare programs. State level administration may be housed in the state human services department, or by an independent, state-level child and family services agency. Some states have county-administered programs supervised by the state agency Child Welfare Spending and Programs State child welfare agencies spent about $30 billion on child welfare purposes during state FY2016, according to a survey by the research group Child Trends. Most of that spending drew from state and local coffers (56%). Of the remainder, 27% was supplied by 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% from other federal programs not solely child welfare-focused (principally, these are the Social Services Block Grant and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Federal child welfare policy requirements are linked only to programs dedicated solely to child welfare purposes. For FY2021, Congress provided at least $11.6 billion for such programs via the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (P.L. 116-260), including regular annual funding (primarily in Div. H) and supplemental COVID-19-related funding (Div. X). Figure I. Federal Child Welfare Funding by Purpose (FY202 I total: $1 1.6 billion) Dollars shown in millions 260roe rwe rvded for F202 I. Amounts shown for foste care and prevention and adoption, and guardianship, are based on definite budget authority provided. Actual federal spending may be greater due to support authorized as part of COVID-l 9 response. * Includes regular and supplemental COVID 1 9-related support. https://crsreports~cong ressago,

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