The White House used a four-hour public convening on child welfare last week to announce some clarifications to federal policy for the field. Those were made by updating the Child Welfare Policy Manual (CWPM), an online reference presented in a “Q&A” fashion.
Here is a quick explainer of the subjects covered by these updates, with links to where you can go to read the entire update to the CWPM as well (just look for the Q&As that were posted on July 30, they are noted in red). Before we start: Many of these changes relate to the Family First Prevention Services Act that was passed in 2018; here is a basic explainer we did on this law if you need to read up beforehand.
Flexibility for Tribes
The gist: Just over a dozen tribes in the United States have their own Title IV-E program, meaning they draw in federal funds for child welfare services directly through that entitlement. And it has been understood that for those tribes, when it comes to the IV-E prevention money initiated in the Family First Prevention Services Act, they are permitted to make cultural adaptations to the programs that are approved for this funding.
This update makes clear that this flexibility also applies to tribes that enter into agreements with states or other tribes to provide IV-E funded services. Further, the CWPM now advises that tribes can establish the criteria for determining what foster care prevention services pass muster — a notable clarification, given that almost no Indigenous programs have been approved under the standard measurements used by the clearinghouse.
Link: https://bit.ly/3yHbra9
Fringe Costs of Prevention Work
The gist: As more states have begun to make use of foster care prevention services under the Family First Act, there has been some question as to what administrative costs for such operations are covered by federal funds. The CWPM update confirms a few major costs that can be reimbursed at 50% by federal dollars. This includes costs related to determining eligibility, making referrals, doing outreach, and coordinating services.
It also permits a 50% federal match on child care costs around efforts to “facilitate a parent or kin caretaker participation in provision of prevention services,” which seems quite significant. While scarcity of child care options remains a big problem in many states, paying for it in situations where a family’s had success with interventions just got a lot easier.
Link: https://bit.ly/4dBn41a
Use of Information in Prevention Work
The gist: There has been concern among some observers that in providing support to parents aimed at helping them avoid a family separation, child welfare systems could be collecting and storing information that might ease the removal of a child down the line. The update to the CWPM does not disallow the use of information from prevention cases in future child welfare assessments, but makes clear that it is not required by federal law.
Link: https://bit.ly/4dxsiuY
Background Checks
The gist: The Biden administration acted earlier this year to let states create an alternate path to licensing kinship caregivers as foster parents, enabling systems to remove structural and technical barriers to prioritizing relatives and family connections. But all foster parents, including kin, must submit to a background check that involves fingerprinting, and the cost of this process adds up. The CWPM update states that the feds will now pick up half the cost.
Link: https://bit.ly/3LUNpLU
Poverty and Neglect
The gist: There is a legislative effort afoot right now to wall off the circumstances of poverty from neglect findings, at least as far as federal law and funding are concerned. The Biden administration used a CWPM to prime that conversation at the state level by making clear that a “state statute may exempt specific circumstances or conditions, including poverty and income-related factors, from the definitions of child abuse and neglect.”
Link: https://bit.ly/4chIu2k
