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1 [1] (October 1, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveqve0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congres&onal Research Servt Informing the legislative debate since 1914 0 Updated October 1, 2024 Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding The ork of Ch d elfare Agendes 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 aim to prevent abuse or neglect of children in their homes. If this has already happened, the agencies are expected to offer aid, services, or referrals to ensure children do not reexperience 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 to be a temporary living situation. When a child enters care, the first task of the child welfare agency is to provide services to enable the child to safely reunite with family. If that is not possible, then the agency works to find a new permanent adoptive or guardianship family for the child. 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 FY2022, public child protection agencies screened allegations of abuse or neglect involving 7.5 million children, and carried out investigations or other child protective services (CPS) responses involving 3.1 million of those children. Among the children receiving services after a CPS response, most (roughly 84%) received them in their own home. Some children are removed from their homes following an investigation; roughly 187,000 children formally entered foster care during FY2022, the only time in more than 20 years of regularly reported data that the number of children entering care in the given year was less than 200,000. Neglect and/or parental drug abuse are the circumstances most often linked with foster care entry. Among the 369,000 children in foster care on the last day of FY2022, most (83%) lived in foster family (relative or non-relative) or pre-adoptive homes, 9% lived in a congregate setting, 7% were on trial home visits or in supervised independent living, and 1% had run away. More than 201,000 children formally left foster care during FY2022. Just over half returned to their parents or went to live informally with a relative (51%), while 38% left care for a new permanent family via adoption or legal guardianship. At the same time, 9% aged out of care, while most of the remainder (1%) were transferred to the care of another agency. ho bears public responsibity 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. As part of accepting this funding, states must agree to meet certain federal program rules, such as required 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 at an independent, state-level child and family services agency. Some states have county-administered programs supervised by the state agency. Child efare Spendng and Programs State child welfare agencies spent about $31.4 billion on child welfare purposes during state FY2020, according to a survey by researchers at Child Trends. Most of that spending drew from state and local coffers (51%). Of the remainder, 30% was supplied by federal child welfare programs included in the Social Security Act; 18% was from other federal programs, most of which are not solely child welfare-focused (principally, the Social Services Block Grant and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Less than 1% was from offsets or private and in-kind support. For FY2024, about $11.0 billion is provided for federal programs dedicated wholly to child welfare. P.L. 118-83 continues funding at this same rate up to December 20, 2024. Figure I. Federal Child Welfare Funding by Purpose (FY2024 total: $11.0 billion. Dollars shown in millions.) r foTt-EbAd on F c Source: Prepared by CRS based on P.L. 11847 and P.L. 118-42, except for Title IV-E funding, which is based on FY2024 current law budget authority as given in the President's FY2025 budget request. * Includes formula funding in IV-B and CAPTA. ** Includes competitively awarded funding and incentives in IV-E, IV-B, CAPTA, and the Victims of Child Abuse Act. *** Includes Chafee general and ETV funding.

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