eligibility

Just before Congress shut down the federal government, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) proposed a bill that would make a slew of changes to federal policy in regards to older foster youths, particularly those on a course to age out of foster care.

Last week, the Chronicle ran the first in a series of stories describing how the federal government pays for child welfare; and the movement afoot to reform foster care financing. Federal dollars only flow out of the Title IV-E entitlement for youths whose birth families would have qualified for financial assistance in 1996 under the now-defunct welfare program: Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).