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The National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators proactively works with the Administration for Children and Families to help strengthen state and federal relationships. NAPCWA members firmly believe that there should be a balance between state flexibility and reasonable federal oversight.
Find out more about ACF’s newly nominated and appointed officials, federal guidance and memorandums, Child Welfare Policy Manual updates and other recent activities.
- Fostering Connections to Success Act
- Health Reform
- National Youth in Transition Database
- Data Collection & Tracking Systems
- 2011 Budget
- Improper Payments
On October 7, 2008, President Bush signed The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351). This new federal statute makes significant changes to state child welfare programs. For the first time in history, states can claim federal guardianship assistance for eligible children living with relatives. Fostering Connections also makes meaningful strides to assist youth aging out of care by giving states the option to provide eligible youth with federal support from age 19 to 21. The Act also gives tribes the option to have direct access to Title IV-E funding to operate child welfare services to tribal youth in care.
Fostering Connections includes various mandatory provisions, which aims to improve relative and sibling connections, children's health care needs, educational stability, and outcomes for older youth. These requirements are providing states with numerous opportunities to improve their child welfare systems and state policies; however, it also presents some challenges. The most recent economic climate has greatly impacted the way states are implementing the Act's provisions. Currently, states are aligning their policies and practices and, when necessary, passing legislation to implement the new law. Find out more information about how states are implementing Fostering Connections.
- ACYF Releases Comprehensive Guidance on the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
- Program Instructions for Guardianship Assistance Program (August 26, 2009)
- Information Memo for Adoption Incentive Program (September 1, 2009)
- Program Instructions for Adoption Assistance Program (August 20, 2009)
Letters
- ACF response letter to State Associations on request to review interpretation of Guardianship Assistance Program (5-11-2009)
- Joint State Associations letter to ACF regarding Guardianship Assistance Program Instructions
Testimony
- September 15, 2009 Testimony before the Subcommittee on Income Security & Family Support, Ways and Means Committee U.S. House of Representatives Hearing on Fostering Connections Implementation (Illinois)
- September 15, 2009 Testimony before the Subcommittee on Income Security & Family Support, Ways and Means Committee U.S. House of Representatives Hearing on Fostering Connections Implementation (Maryland)
- NAPCWA Statement for the Record the Subcommittee on Income Security & Family Support, Ways and Means Committee U.S. House of Representatives Hearing on Fostering Connections Implementation (PDF)
- Youth Aging Out Statement for the Record (110th Congress)
Historic Health Reform Legislation Becomes Law
On March 23, President Obama signed the comprehensive health reform bill into law. The health care overhaul measure expands affordable health coverage to roughly 32 million Americans and makes significant reforms to basic insurance coverage. Provisions affecting child welfare include a $1.5 billion Title V Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visitation Program. Now that the bill has passed, federal funding will be granted to Title V agencies for the purpose of serving low-income mothers and their babies. Pregnant women, fathers, primary caregivers and foster parents may also participate in home visitation services. States must ensure that home visitation services are voluntary for this population and that staff are well-trained and have access to high-quality supervision. This funding is available for five years. This year's amount of $100 million must be obligated by Sept. 30, 2010.
Home visitation models must also be grounded in empirically based knowledge and reach four of the six benchmarks at the end of the third year. These benchmarks are as followed: improvement in maternal child health, school readiness and achievement, family economic self-sufficiency; crime or domestic violence and child maltreatment. Failure to demonstrate improvements will result in funding termination. Technical assistance is available to help states address performance. There must also be quality service delivery and continuous program improvements. In addition, these models must have been in existence for three years, be research-based and have a well-designed and rigorous randomized controlled or quasi-experimental research design.
The home visitation provisions make it clear that collaboration is critical to better meet the needs of the population being served. It requires Title V agencies to collaborate with child welfare agencies as well as other agencies that generally assist this group.
As a prerequisite for receiving grant funds, states must conduct a mandatory needs assessment, which must be coordinated with other assessments such as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and the Early Head Start Act. This needs assessment must be completed by September 2010. If the assessment is not completed, the state will lose its FY 2011 Title V grant.
In addition to home visitation, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) championed a provision in the new health reform overhaul that would require states to provide Medicaid coverage to youth aging out of foster care up to age 26. The language was modified throughout the health reform debate. This provision would be effective in 2014. In addition, unmarried young adults not covered by their employer could be added to their parents' medical insurance or purchase affordable coverage up until this age. However, this provision was effective upon the bill's signage. Persons of all ages could no longer be rejected by insurance companies if they have a pre-existing condition.
The new law includes a refundable adoption tax credit that would permit adoptive parents to claim their 2010 and 2011 adoption expenses. Effective Oct. 1, 2010, states must include information on health-care power of attorneys to youth's transition plans.
- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
- HHS Solicits Public Comments on Home Visiting Regulations
- ACF and HRSA Release Q&A Document on Home Visitation Program
- http://www.healthreform.gov/
- HRSA Releases Title V Home Visitation Grants
- ACF Releases Program Instruction on Youth Transition Plans in Health Reform Law
- CRS Report on Health Reform
ACF Releases Program Instruction on NYTD and SACWIS
On April 2, ACF released a program instruction on the National Youth in Transition Database reporting in SACWIS. The PI provides guidance to states on incorporating NYTD data collection and reporting activities regarding youth outcomes while in foster care or aging out of foster care into SACWIS. To assist states with implementing NYTD requirements through SACWIS enhancement, states are encouraged to do the following:
- Use external web tools separate from SACWIS for youth survey.
- Enhance SACWIS to collect data on youth outcomes.
- Distinguish which tool is being used for case management data.
- Merge data within or external to SACWIS to produce the NYTD report.
Various states are beginning to and have been developing external web-based tools to assist with implementing NYTD. NAPCWA has been providing states with technical assistance on these tools. For more information, please click on here.
NYTD requirements must be in place by October 1, 2010. The new PI on NYTD can be found here.
ACF Releases Comments Letter on NYTD; NACPWA Responds
On September 30, NAPCWA submitted a comments letter to ACF on the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) and Youth Outcome Survey. On August 5th, the Federal Register issued a comments request on the burden estimates regarding NYTD and Youth Outcome Survey. The letter discussed the challenges that states are facing complying with NYTD mandates and making changes to their data base systems. Consequently, NAPCWA urged ACF to extend the deadline for NYTD implementation from October 1, 2010 to October 1, 2012 due to the most recent economic downturn and it's affect on states meeting these requirements.
Children's Bureau Releases new AFCARS Data
In late August, the Children's Bureau posted updated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System data (Oct. 1, 2008 - Sept. 30, 2009) on its web site. The federal site includes trends in foster care and adoption from FY2002 through FY2009, state specific foster care statistics that reviews foster care entries, exits and numbers of children based on state data submitted before July 2010. FY2009 AFCARS data show that there were approximately 423,000 children in care, compared with 463,000 in FY2008. In addition to the reduction of the number of children in care, foster care entries have moderately decreased by 18,000 children from FY2008 through FY2009. Recent AFCARS statistics also show that children mostly exit care by reunifying with their birth parent(s) or primary caregiver(s).
New AFCARS data can be located on the Children's Bureau web site at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report17.htm
State Specific Foster Care Statistics (Foster Care FY 2002- FY2009 Entries, Exits, and Numbers of Children In Care on the Last Day of each Federal Fiscal Year) can be found on the Children's Bureau website at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/statistics/entryexit2009.htm
Trends in Foster Care and Adoption-FY 2002-FY 2009 can be found on the Children's Bureau website at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/trends.htm
ACF Issues Request for Public Comment on SACWIS and NPRM on AFCARS
On July 23, the Administration for Children and Families released two requests for public comment in the federal register on the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting Systems and the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System. In January 2008, the ACF issued a notice for proposed rulemaking to amend AFCARS reporting and data collections requirements regarding children in out-of-home placements. The National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators interviewed states and submitted a joint statement to the ACF on the NPRM. NAPCWA's public comments letter noted the significant administrative burden and cost to states in implementing these new requirements.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 makes additional changes to AFCARS and therefore, the ACF will issue a second AFCARS NPRM to hear states comments. The AFCARS Federal Register notice can be located here.
In addition, the ACF released a public comment notice regarding the proposed SACWIS redesign. In lieu of this proposed redesign, the ACF has issued comments to review current SACWIS regulations and address existing state information technology models while considering state flexibility in their design. The federal register notice on SACWIS can be found here.
The ACF has listed several questions in the notice on both AFCARS NPRM and SACWIS. Similar to the comments letter submitted in 2008, NAPCWA reached out to states to prepare a joint statement to the ACF. The deadline for comments is Oct. 21, 2010.
States Respond to Child Data Collection Notices
APHSA and its affiliate the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators have submitted responses to the Children's Bureau July 23, 2010, Federal Register notices requesting comments on changes in the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting Systems and Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System. To ensure that the responses aligned with the state challenges, solutions, and priorities, NAPCWA established work groups for the two automated systems.
APHSA Comments on SACWIS Federal Register Notice (10-20-2010)
APHSA Comments on AFCARS Federal Register Notice (10-20-2010)
ACF Releases Program Instructions on Data Collection and Reporting for Caseworker Visits
Program Instructions issued August 20, 2009 provides guidance on available options and offers technical assistance to states that discovered data error or other circumstances determined to have impact on the achievement of monthly caseworker visits (MCV) targets established by the State in their June 30, 2008 APSR.
States may want to request revised target for one or more FYs as follows:
- Completed FYs (currently FY 2008) – The CB will make exception to its normal policy that does not allow adjustments to a target set for a FY that has already been completed.
- FY 2009 – Any proposed change affecting the FY 2009 target must be by September 15, 2009.
- FY2010 – Requests for change in the FY2010 target due to discovery after the September 15, 2009 of erroneous reporting must be submitted by June 30, 2010.
Requests for an adjusted MCV target must:
- explain the data error or other circumstance in writing and be submitted to the appropriate CB Regional Program Manager;
- be supported by appropriate documentation;
- be reasonably designed to achieve the 90 percent threshold by October 1, 2011.
This does not change the calculation of monthly visits and states are reminded that unless a specific sampling plan is approved by the CB data must be assembled from the universe of all children in foster care for at least one calendar month during the Fiscal Year.
Caseworker Visits
President Obama Releases FFY 2011 Federal Budget; Child Welfare Receives Some Freezes and Increases
On Monday, President Obama released his plan for the federal fiscal year 2011 budget. His proposal includes $3.8 trillion in FY 2011 for government spending.
The Administration for Children and Families received an overall increase of $9.3 billion for FY 2011. In addition, CAPTA discretionary grants were increased by $10 million for states to create evidence-based child abuse and neglect prevention programs. The President also extended the ARRA Title IV-E FMAP increase of 6.2 percent for two quarters (ending on June 20, 2011), which would provide an additional $237 million for foster care, adoption and guardianship assistance programs. This extension would be subject to legislation and paygo rules. Other increases to child welfare include Refugee assistance, adoption incentives and domestic violence programs. The home visitation program was among the numerous initiatives that were cut from the budget. The President included a place holder to support this program in last year's budget; however, it was eliminated in this year's proposal.
President Obama Releases Executive Order on Improper Payments
On November 23rd, President Obama signed an executive order on improper payments. This order is designed to reduce improper payments in state human service agencies, increase transparency, hold these agencies accountable, and increase greater incentives for maintaining compliance. In early November, the Office of Management and Budget issued a statement discussing this initiative and released improper payment rates in various federal programs. For Title IV-E foster care programs, the improper payment rate is 4.7 percent. A new website will be established to post these rates, methods of computation, and targets for reduction.
According to the executive order, a workgroup consisting of federal, state, and local government officials must be established to make recommendations to OMB on the measurement of states' access to federal funding. This workgroup must be established within 90 days and recommendations are due within 180 days of this order. Additionally, two similar workgroups must be established; one to make recommendations on the effectiveness of single audits on improper payments and the other to make recommendations on administrative action regarding improper payments. These workgroups must be established within 30 days of this order. OMB will also develop policy recommendations, including legislation, designed to reduce improper payments. For more information, please contact Larry Goolsby at larry.goolsby@aphsa.org or 202-682-0100 ext. 239.
The executive order can be found on the White House's website at here.