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1 [1] (March 3, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/govesse0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congres&onal Research SerVo I ~forming the legislative debate since 1914 Updated March 3, 2025 Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding The ork of Ch d W efare Agenie 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. Child welfare agencies also aim to prevent abuse or neglect of children in their own homes. If this has already occurred, the agencies are expected to identify and offer needed 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 as 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 must work to find a new permanent adoptive or legal 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. Chidren Served During FY2022, public child protective services (CPS) agencies screened abuse or neglect allegations involving 7.5 million children, and carried out investigations or other responses involving 3.1 million of those children. Among children receiving CPS services after such responses, most (an estimated 84%) received them while living at home. Roughly 187,000 children entered formal foster care during FY2022. Neglect and/or parental drug abuse are the concerns most often linked with entry to care. Among the 369,000 children in foster care on the last day of FY2022, most (87%) were placed in family settings (relative or non- relative foster family homes and pre-adoptive homes) or were on a trial home visit; around 9% lived in a congregate setting; and most of the remainder were in supervised independent living, although 1% had run away from care. More than 201,000 children formally left foster care during FY2022. Just over half returned to their parent(s) or went to live informally with a relative (51%), and 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 another agency's care. 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. State and local public child welfare agencies 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 in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) administers most federal child welfare programs. State-level administration may be housed in a state human services department or at an independent state-level child and family services agency. Some states have county-administered programs that are supervised by the state agency. Child Welfare Spendin and Programs State child welfare agencies spent about $31.4 billion on child welfare activities during state FY2020, according to a survey by researchers at Child Trends. More than half of those dollars came 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. FY2024 federal funding made available for programs solely child welfare-focused totaled $11.0 billion. P.L. 118-158 continues funding at this same rate up to March 14, 2025. Figure I. Federal Child Welfare Funding by Purpose (FY2024 total: $11.0 billion. Dollars shown in millions.) asps I ection & g W-E ~ ~ ~ Fote Prevena -Jon -esre Source: CRS, based on P.L. 118-47 and P.L. 118-42, except for IV-E funding, which is based on FY2024 current law budget authority as given in the President's FY2025 budget request. Amounts shown are post-sequestration, which principally impacts a portion of IV-B funds. * Includes formula grant funding in IV-B and CAPTA. ** Includes competitively awarded funding and incentives in IV-E, IV-

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