1 / 18

Child Welfare Financing Reform

Child Welfare Financing Reform. Foster Family-Based Treatment Association’s 20 th Annual Conference. Context for Reform – Many Abused & Neglected Children Get No Services.

nanji
Download Presentation

Child Welfare Financing Reform

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Child Welfare Financing Reform Foster Family-Based Treatment Association’s 20th Annual Conference

  2. Context for Reform – Many Abused & Neglected Children Get No Services • 40% of children whose situations are reported, investigated and abuse or neglect is found, get no services – no counseling, no foster care – nothing!! • This does not include the number of children who are maltreated but get no services because they are not even reported or investigated • To provide those 40% who are substantiated and still get no services with a basic home-visiting package would cost an additional $1 billion plus annually Center for Law & Social Policy

  3. Context for Reform – Many Children & Families Get Inadequate Services • The fact that 60% of children who have substantiated cases are getting some post-investigation service does not mean they are getting what they need • For example, one national study found that about 50% of children involved with the child welfare system have clinically significant behavioral or emotional problems, but less than 25% receive mental health treatment • For example, as many as 2/3 of the parents of children in foster care need substance abuse treatment, but only about 1/3 get the services they need Center for Law & Social Policy

  4. Overview of Child Welfare Spending: • Over $23 billion was spent on child welfare in 2004 • These funds are a combination of federal, state and local funds. • Five funding streams contribute the bulk of federal funding for child welfare services Center for Law & Social Policy

  5. Center for Law & Social Policy

  6. Center for Law & Social Policy

  7. Title IV-E Foster Care – the National Picture • About 46% of children in foster care were eligible for Title IV-E in 2003. • Maintenance payments accounted for about 40% of the IV-E foster care claims in 2004. • Administrative and child placement services accounted for about 49% of the IV-E foster care claims in 2004. • Training accounted for about 5% of the IV-E foster care claims in 2004. • Expenditures under waivers accounted for 3% of IV-E foster care claims in 2004. Center for Law & Social Policy

  8. Fiscal Context for Financing Reform: • States vary widely in use of federal, state and local dollars • States vary widely in use of different federal funding streams • States vary widely in proportion of the caseload that is eligible for Title IV-E • States vary widely in use of Title IV-E components Center for Law & Social Policy

  9. Examples of Variation: • Federal funds accounted for 77% of child welfare expenditures in Mississippi but accounted for only 27% of such expenditures in Indiana. • State funds made up 67% of child welfare expenditures in Delaware, but only 11% in Indiana. • Local funds contributed to 62% of child welfare expenditures in Indiana, while such funds accounted for no child welfare expenditures in a number of states. Center for Law & Social Policy

  10. Additional Examples of State Variation: • Title IV-E funds accounted for 89% of federal child welfare funds in Maine, but accounted for only 15% of such funds in Alabama. • Rhode Island relied on Medicaid for 62% of it’s federal child welfare funds, while eight states used no Medicaid funds. • TANF contributed to 51% of the federal child welfare expenditures in Connecticut, while TANF contributed nothing in eight states. Center for Law & Social Policy

  11. Other Variation Across States: • In Illinois, 95% of children in foster care were eligible for IV-E, while only 9% were eligible in Alaska. • In Utah, child placement and administrative expenses constituted 68% of IV-E foster care claims, while such expenditures accounted for only 8% in West Virginia. • Maintenance payments accounted for 85% of IV-E foster care claims in West Virginia, but only 15% of such claims in Alaska. Center for Law & Social Policy

  12. Principles of Reform: • Provide increased access to the full continuum of services – from prevention, to quality foster care, to aftercare. • Permit states sufficient flexibility to tailor services to the needs of individual children and families. • Enhance accountability – better reporting of spending and outcomes for children and families. • Maintain or increase protections for children. Center for Law & Social Policy

  13. Administration’s Budget Proposal to Block Grant Foster Care: • Gives states the option to accept a cap on federal foster care maintenance, training, administration and child placement funds in exchange for promises of greater flexibility and reduced administrative burden • Appears to maintain entitlement to adoption assistance and continues link to AFDC to determine eligibility • Permits broad use of capped funds Center for Law & Social Policy

  14. Administration’s Budget Proposal to Block Grant Foster Care: • Permits use of TANF contingency fund to address a severe foster care crisis • Purports to maintain child safety protections in ASFA but enforceability threatened • States would be required to continue to participate in the Child and Family Service Reviews • Purports to require states to continue existing levels of state investment in child welfareprograms • Purports to be cost neutral, but detailed budget tables show costs Center for Law & Social Policy

  15. Recommendations of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care: • Maintain entitlement to foster care maintenance payments and make them available to all children, while reducing the federal match rate by 35% • Maintain entitlement to adoption assistance payments and make them available to all children with special needs, while reducing the federal match by 35% • Open Title IV-E to cover subsidized guardianships Center for Law & Social Policy

  16. Additional Pew Commission Recommendations: • Combine Title IV-B funds, Title IV-E training, administrative & child placement funds and add $200 million to create a new indexed Safe Children, Strong Families Program • Permit transfer of “unused” foster care funds to the Safe Children, Strong Families Program & require states to match transferred funds Center for Law & Social Policy

  17. Leave No Abused or Neglected Child Behind HR 3576 • Opens IV-E to all children (“delinks”) and reduces the federal match rate • Opens IV-E to services that decrease number of children in foster care; decrease length of stay in foster care; increase placements in family-like settings and increase the well-being of children in care • Opens IV-E to Indian tribes • Opens IV-E to subsidized guardianships • Provides grants for enhancing the child welfare workforce Center for Law & Social Policy

  18. For Additional Information, Contact: Rutledge Q. Hutson Senior Staff Attorney Center for Law and Social Policy 1015 15th Street, NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20005 Phone: 202-906-8007 Fax: 202-842-2885 E-mail: rhutson@clap.org Web: www.clasp.org Center for Law & Social Policy

More Related