Foster Child Advocates Urge Reform Child Welfare Funding to Focus on Family

Info, Reports, Laws Below. PEW: TIME FOR REFORM & INVESTING IN PREVENTION, KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE AT HOME. http://kidsarewaiting.org/tools/repor...

2008 PEW Charitable Trusts Child Welfare Symposium, developed and presented in partnership with Prevent Child Abuse America. http://www.preventchildabuse.org
and http://www.pewtrusts.org

Child Abuse and Neglect Cost Nation over $100 Billion per year; Most Federal Child Welfare Funds Unavailable for Prevention Services and Supports. WASHINGTON, DC An economic impact analysis released today estimates the costs of child abuse and neglect to society were nearly $104 billion last year, and a companion report highlights the unavailability of federal child welfare funding for programs and services known to be effective at reducing incidences of child abuse and neglect. The KAW report finds that the current federal child welfare financing structure does not adequately support services and supports that could help keep more children safely with their families. The report shows that the majority of dedicated federal funding for child welfare is currently reserved for placing and maintaining children in foster care and cannot be used for prevention or reunification services or supports. States may access dollars under Title IV-E, the principal source of federal child welfare funding, only after children have been removed from their home and enter foster care. Of the $7.2 billion federal funds dedicated for child welfare in 2007, approximately 90 percent supported children in foster care placements ($4.5 billion) and children adopted from foster care ($2.0 billion). States can use about 10 percent of federal dedicated child welfare funds flexibly for family services and supports, including prevention or reunification services. http://kidsarewaiting.org/news/press_...

Pew Foster Care Commission: 1/2 Million Children in Foster Care. Voices from the Inside, Executive Summary. - Today, more than half a million children in the United States are in foster care, placed there by public authorities because they could not live safely with their own families. Foster care is vital to protecting seriously abused and neglected children. But too many children languish for years in foster care, moving from one temporary home to another. Federal financing mechanisms contribute to this foster care "drift" by restricting the majority of federal child welfare dollars to foster care and providing only a relatively small amount to other important services. This report, commissioned by the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, examines the experiences of children in foster care as well as the experiences of parents whose children were placed in foster care and of foster and adoptive parents. It illustrates serious shortcomings in the nation's child welfare system—of which foster care is the largest component. http://pewfostercare.org/research/voi...

LAWS WHICH STARTED THE FEDERAL FUNDING REVENUE FEEDING FRENZY OF CHILD WELFARE IN AMERIKA. http://jec.unm.edu/resources/benchboo...

Social Security, Welfare, and Child Support Enforcement, How federal welfare funding drives judicial discretion in child-custody determinations and domestic relations matters. Get Back to the Nationwide Blueprint for Title IV-D Reform (CSE Reform). Introduction: There is a growing pandemic in this country where the very fabric of our society, the family, is being attacked and destroyed. Our children are systematically being torn away from willing and capable parents who want to be involved in parenting their children. Families are systematically being torn apart instead of being helped when they turn to the states' family courts to solve domestic relations disputes. This document demonstrates an attempt to trace this problem back to its source. http://www.laryholland.com/ssacse/