Child Welfare Issues in the 108th Congress PDF Download

Author: Emilie Stoltzfus
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Category : Adoption
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Child welfare services seek to protect children who have been abused or neglected or who are at risk of maltreatment. These services take many forms, ranging from counseling and other supports for parents -- intended to prevent child abuse and neglect and improve child well-being -- to removal of the children from the home. At the most extreme, these services include termination of parental rights and placement of the children for adoption. States have the primary responsibility for designing and administering child welfare services. However, the federal government supports the services with significant funds and requires states to comply with federal standards. An estimated 896,000 children were the victims of child abuse or neglect in the year 2002. Some children who experience maltreatment are removed from their homes with protective custody given to the state. On the last day of FY2002, an estimated 532,000 children were living in foster care (foster family, group, residential or other kind of home or placement setting). In December, President Bush signed the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-145), which reauthorized and amended adoption incentives payments for states that increase the number of adoptions out of the public child welfare system. The Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-36), which reauthorized the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and several related programs, was signed into law in June 2003. In June 2004, P.L. 108-262 extended, through September 30, 2004, the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to approve new child welfare waivers. In May 2004 the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care released its recommendations for revamping the way federal child welfare funds are distributed. Among its suggestions, the Commission would end the current income eligibility requirements for federal adoption assistance and foster care maintenance payments; it also recommends keeping the current open-ended funding of these programs while reducing the federal matching rate for eligible claims. Introduced in July, H.R. 4856, would follow the Pew Commission's proposal by removing most income eligibility criteria for federal adoption assistance and foster care maintenance payments and by lowering federal matching rates for eligible adoption assistance and foster care maintenance payment claims. H.R. 4856, however, proposes to end open-ended federal funding for foster care maintenance payments (while retaining it for adoption assistance). A number of generally less broad legislative proposals related to child welfare financing have been introduced in the 108th Congress. Additional childwelfare-related proposals designed to improve services, promote timely placement of children across state lines, and for other purposes, are described in this report. On September 9, the House passed H.R. 5006, which would provide FY2005 funding for child welfare programs. The full Senate has not yet considered FY2005 appropriations for child welfare programs. However, on September 15, the Senate Committee on Appropriations approved a bill (S. 2810) with child welfare program funding levels similar, in many cases, to those passed by the House and requested by the President. (See Table 1 inside.) This report will be updated as needed.

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means. Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support
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Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Author: Melinda Gish
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Category :
Languages : en
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This report includes recent developments in federal child care programs and tax provisions. The report discusses several federal programs that support child care or related services, primarily for low-income working families. In addition, the tax code includes provisions specifically targeted to assist families with child care expenses. The report presents the legislative activity in the 108th Congress in regard to child care legislature and provisions.

Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Education and Labor
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Category : Child welfare
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education and Labor. Subcommittee on Human Resources
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Category : Child welfare
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Publisher: Government Printing Office
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1176

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Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The 108th Congress inherited several child care-related agenda items from the previous Congress: possible reauthorization of both the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and the welfare block grant (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and FY2003 appropriations for many programs, including child care-related programs under the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education. In addition to the variety of federal programs administered by HHS and the Department of Education that support child care or related services, there are tax provisions to assist families with the cost of child care. The task of passing an FY2003 appropriations measure was completed in the form of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution 2003, signed into law (P.L. 1087) on February 20, 2003. Among other funding, the law includes $2.1 billion (subject to a rescission of $13.6 million) in discretionary funds for the CCDBG and $6.668 billion for Head Start. Moreover, the law extends mandatory child care funding and TANF block grant funding (both of which expired at the end of FY2002) for a third quarter of FY2003 (at the same rate of funding as in FY2002), while each program anticipates reauthorization by this Congress. Two weeks prior to the signing of the FY2003 appropriations law, the Administration released the President's budget request for FY2004. The Administration proposes to maintain level funding for the CCDBG, TANF, and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), while providing increases for Head Start, Early Reading First, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) grants for infants and families. The budget requests cuts in funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers and Even Start. The FY2004 Labor/HHS/Education appropriations process is underway; the House and Senate have each passed versions of H.R. 2660, and conferees have been appointed to resolve differences. In addition to the requested funding levels, the President's budget includes proposals to transfer the Head Start program from HHS to the Department of Education, and to offer states the opportunity to administer the Head Start program, both in the context of the program's reauthorization, which is due this year. The reauthorization bill passed by the House (H.R. 2210) on July 25, 2003 does not include the transfer proposal, but does include an eight-state demonstration program. Other changes to the Head Start program, including a Strategic Teacher Education Program (STEP) and a national reporting system for assessing programs' effectiveness in producing positive outcomes for children with respect to school readiness, are currently underway, in keeping with the Administration's Good Start, Grow Smart Early Childhood Initiative, initially announced in April of 2002. This report will be updated to reflect legislative activity.

Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Indian Affairs
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Human Resources
Publisher:
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Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.