When Child Welfare Works: Reforming Federal Financing to Support Best Practices in Foster Care

#Costof­Do­ing­Noth­ing

Restruc­tur­ing of fed­er­al child wel­fare funds should improve kin­ship and fam­i­ly fos­ter care, reduce the amount of time kids are in state care and end fed­er­al spend­ing on shel­ter and non-treat­ment group care, says a new pro­pos­al aimed at help­ing more kids grow up in families.

When Child Wel­fare Works: A Pro­pos­al to Finance Best Prac­tices, a report and pro­pos­al from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and the Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive, would trans­form the out­dat­ed 30-year-old sys­tem of fed­er­al fund­ing for child wel­fare sys­tems to sup­port bet­ter out­comes for chil­dren and fam­i­lies while main­tain­ing the exist­ing over­all fund­ing level.

The report and oth­er resources are avail­able below:

When Child Wel­fare Works: A Work­ing Paper

This paper out­lines a pol­i­cy frame­work and rec­om­men­da­tions to encour­age best prac­tices in four areas: per­ma­nence and well-being; qual­i­ty fam­i­ly fos­ter care; a capa­ble, sup­port­ed child wel­fare work­force; and, bet­ter access to services.

Sum­ma­ry of Recommendations

This hand­out sum­ma­rizes pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions for realign­ing fed­er­al child wel­fare financ­ing to sup­port best prac­tices in four key areas: per­ma­nence and well-being; qual­i­ty fam­i­ly fos­ter care; a capa­ble, sup­port­ed child wel­fare work­force; and, bet­ter access to ser­vices. Graph­ics depict cur­rent fed­er­al spend­ing and the pro­posed realign­ment of Title IV‑E.

A Pro­pos­al for Financ­ing Best Prac­tices Presentation

Pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions designed to trans­form fed­er­al fund­ing to sup­port best prac­tices in child wel­fare were the focus of this pre­sen­ta­tion deliv­ered by Tracey Feild and Patrick McCarthy at an Octo­ber 23, 2013, brief­ing on Capi­tol Hill.

When Child Wel­fare Works: Dis­cus­sion from the Field on Pro­pos­als to Finance Best Practices

Since the release of When Child Wel­fare Works: A Work­ing Paper, many orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als have weighed in with sig­nif­i­cant feed­back, and in the spir­it of con­tin­u­ing a pub­lic dia­logue about this crit­i­cal issue, this doc­u­ment presents the col­lec­tive feed­back on the recommendations.

Child Wel­fare Fis­cal Reform Analysis

Child Trends, a non­par­ti­san research cen­ter, con­duct­ed analy­ses pur­suant to a child wel­fare financ­ing reform pro­pos­al, as out­lined in When Child Wel­fare Works: A Work­ing Paper. This find­ings memo pro­vides esti­mates of the fed­er­al cost and sav­ings result­ing from the pro­posed major provisions.

The Cost of Doing Noth­ing Infographic

Over the past decade, two key fed­er­al fund­ing sources for child wel­fare agen­cies have been shrink­ing. With­out leg­isla­tive change, these sources will con­tin­ue to decline pre­cip­i­tous­ly over the next ten years, pro­vid­ing states even less sup­port for the needs of vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and fam­i­lies than they do today. Learn more about the cur­rent state of Title IV‑E and Title IV‑B funding.

When Child Wel­fare Works: A Pro­pos­al for Financ­ing Best Prac­tices [VIDEO]

Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent & CEO Patrick McCarthy presents rec­om­men­da­tions to restruc­ture fed­er­al child wel­fare fund­ing to improve prac­tices and out­comes in this video of an Octo­ber 23, 2013, pol­i­cy brief­ing on Capi­tol Hill. The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion’s Tracey Feild kicked off the event with an overview of best prac­tices, and Gary Stan­gler of Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive led a pan­el dis­cus­sion react­ing to the recommendations.