waiver

This month, a slate of federal waivers offering states flexibility on child welfare funds came to an end. Many of the big child welfare systems with waivers have forecasted big cuts to the federal supply of dollars to their budgets as a result.

Enter the terms “languish” and “foster care” into Google, and you get more than 40,000 results. It’s one of the most common critiques of the foster care system: Many youth spend too much time within it, waiting for stable, permanent family homes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced last week that it opposes federal legislation that would temporarily preserve child welfare waivers and delay implementation of the landmark Family First Prevention Services Act.

According to California child welfare officials, the state’s foster care system will take a big hit if federal Title IV-E waivers are allowed to expire at the end of September. “Our counties are likely to see a decrease of federal funds in the neighborhood of $320-some odd million at the conclusion of the waiver,” said Greg Rose, deputy director of the Children and Family Services Division of the California Department of Social Services (DSS), in a state budget hearing last week.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Campaign for Youth Justice, an organization founded by Liz Ryan with help from the Public Welfare Foundation to directly take on the use of adult courts to prosecute juvenile offenders.

Massachusetts has long had a good reputation for its low reliance on secure settings and for its development-minded approach to secure services. It will now include 17-year-olds, who have long been considered adults in the Bay State, in its juvenile justice system.

The L.A. County child welfare agency received a waiver from the federal government on Title IV-E Foster Care funding. Whereas most IV-E funding is statutorily directed at foster care placements, the waiver allowed Los Angeles to use the funds for a broader portfolio, including family preservation, alternative response, and on the juvenile side, probation.

House Subcommittee Adopts Labor-HHS Appropriations The House Appropriation Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) approved an appropriations bill for the three departments for the first time in two years.