Introducing Child Welfare Wonk
Digesting details, & dad jokes...
Hello Everyone:
Welcome to Child Welfare Wonk, dedicated to serving all of you working on federal policies impacting children and families in or likely to enter the child welfare system.
There’s just not enough hours in the day to dig into the details and data, legislative history, and complex tradeoffs in the laws and funding comprising child welfare policy.
That’s where Child Welfare Wonk comes in! You’ll find something here for all levels of experience, whether you’re:
A new Hill staffer who just got child welfare as your first policy portfolio, and began googling “what is child welfare policy?” once your boss walked away (I see you, and have been you, no shame there!);
A seasoned advocate looking for better ways to explain how Title IV-B and Title IV-E of the Social Security Act are different when onboarding new staff (and even what they are, for the really new folks); or
A salty road dog researcher who knows the difference between the service provider administration component of Title IV-E foster care maintenance payments, and allowable costs permitted under Title IV-E administrative claiming (if you’re still awake, yes, those are different things).
What you won’t get is a “what’s it going to take to get you into this Toyota Corolla today?” sales pitch to advance an agenda or the interests of a constituency.
I am here to give you nonpartisan educational information and context, so you can have interesting insights that inform your policy discussions.
So now, let’s get started!
Wait…First, What is Child Welfare Policy?
Child welfare policy is…complicated. But also, it’s not!
The simple version: child welfare policy is the laws and funding to prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect, support families to avoid unnecessary foster care, and provide care when children can’t remain safely with their family.
The complicated version: child welfare policy is an interlocking thicket of federal, state, tribal, and local laws and funds. While state and local funding is over half (~$15.9 billion1) of total annual child welfare spending (~$31.4 billion2), there are key federal laws and financing tools that drive policy, practice, and pecuniary details:
Title IV-E of the Social Security Act: This is the biggie, about 57% of federal child welfare spending. It covers foster/kinship care for certain children (more on that to come!), adoption assistance & subsidized guardianship, prevention services, kinship navigator programs, supports for older youth, and more.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): TANF is 19% of federal child welfare spending, including supports for kinship caregivers, foster care (for children not covered by IV-E, more on that later), and other child welfare services.
Social Services Block Grant: This incredibly flexible funding source is 10% of federal child welfare spending, supporting an array of services.
Medicaid: Nearly all children in foster care are eligible for Medicaid. Medicaid also provides 7% of federal child welfare financing, funding child welfare agencies for services they provide directly (e.g. targeted case management).
Title IV-B of the Social Security Act: 4% of federal funding, but with key policy requirements. See more below!
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA): A rounding error when it comes to funds, but a key policy driver of child protective services.
And so much more!
As Child Welfare Wonk continues, we will go deeper on all of these topics. For now, you have a sense of the breadth of relevant policy.
Child welfare policy is also incredibly bipartisan. Think that’s just my eternally optimistic nature trying to Beetlejuice that into existence during These Polarized Times? Then let’s talk a little more about Title IV-B…
Title IV-B: Bipartisanship by Moonlight
Around the sleepy hour of 1:30 in the morning on Saturday, December 21st (yes, some of us nerds were still awake and anxiously watching CSPAN), the Senate by unanimous consent passed the Protecting America’s Children by Strengthening Families Act (H.R. 9076). It previously passed the House 405-10, and is now law.
Those are “renaming a post office” vote #s, so you’re probably wondering, does it actually do anything?
Yes! It’s a comprehensive five-year IV-B reauthorization, with fully paid-for new investments (thank you, efficiencies from allowing tribes and third-party contractors to access taxpayer data for child support enforcement!).
Drawing on consensus recommendations and a call for updating the program’s long period of level funding, these bipartisan reforms include:
Increasing mandatory Promoting Safe and Stable Families funding by $75 million per year;
Supporting Kinship Navigator Programs and clarifying that IV-B services can support kin caregivers (e.g. grandparents raising grandchildren);
Increasing Tribes' IV-B funding and reducing their barriers to participating in IV-B;
Providing new grants to get more prevention and Kinship Navigator Programs into the Family First Clearinghouse (another topic that needs its own deep dive!);
Requiring states to consult with youth, parents, and others with lived experience in the child welfare system when developing Title IV-B plans, and making those plans public;
Reducing administrative burden with streamlined data collection and reporting;
Eliminating ineffective penalties on states that don’t improve outcomes for families;
Developing new federal guidance on oversight of residential treatment facilities; &
Clarifying that poverty is not neglect and that IV-B funds can support Family Resource Centers and other supports for families.
For a more detailed rundown, you can see this topic-by-topic summary, and this excellent CRS report breaks down the new funding increases so you can see how much more each state will get starting on October 1st.
You can also see a thank you letter from 280 organizations to Congressional leaders about this major step for children and families. The bipartisan leadership and collaboration of key Members and staff made that reauthorization possible.
This Congress and the incoming Administration will have a key role in overseeing implementation of this law. Stay tuned for lots more on IV-B in our next issue!
I’m Still Reading, What’s Next?
Each week keep an eye out for more information coming your way from Child Welfare Wonk. We will bring you:
Deep dives into key child welfare laws and funding streams;
Analysis of timely federal policy discussions;
Updates on new data/research, legislation, and regulations;
And more!
Next week, BOLO for more on IV-B, and a look ahead at child welfare policy in the 119th Congress and Trump Administration. In the meantime, thanks for reading!
See more from ChildTrends here, at page 1, and a great chart on page 16 for federal funding by %. If you can’t already tell, ChildTrends has excellent writing and research on child welfare policy, particularly their biennial state financing survey.