spending

Just days after being impeached by the House of Representatives, President Donald Trump signed a spending bill for 2020 that includes hundreds of millions in funding to assist states with a recent overhaul of federal child welfare financing.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is counting on foster youth to help solve the state’s financial crisis. By eliminating the three years of transitional care that currently supports foster youth until the age of 21, the state expects to save approximately $5 million annually.

Pending DOF Decision Regarding EPSDT Allocation Formula Will Significantly Affect Access to Mental Health Services for Low-income Youth in California Last month, we at Young Minds Advocacy Project shared highlights from the California Senate Budget Subcommittee’s hearing on proposed changes to the methodology used to allocate 2011 Realignment Behavioral Health Growth funding to county mental health programs.

California’s record drought is driving a lot of change with public alarm matching the rising temperature.  According to a recent poll, a record 94 percent of Californians “believe that the drought is serious, and one-third support mandatory rationing.”

An across-the-board downturn in federal dollars sparked an overall decline in child welfare spending, according to research by the group Child Trends, and it did not fall by a slight percentage.

Washington, D.C.-based youth advocacy organization First Focus released its annual “Children’s Budget” today, a document that groups federal grants and programs into several silos of youth-related funding. This year’s Children’s Budget captures the effect of two significant developments: the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which bolstered many services for families and children in the immediate wake of the recession; and the Sequestration, which forced sizable cuts to many domestic spending programs in fiscal 2013.

The federal government is required to reimburse states for certain costs related to children in foster care under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 modified Title IV-E so adolescents and emerging adults in foster care can receive continued assistance until the age of 21 instead of 18.