Is There A Law That States Foster Parents Must Register With Officials When They Move

Rich Maynard holds his son, Alden, 3, afterwards Alden'due south adoption at the Superior Court in Portland, Maine. Alden was adopted every bit a foster kid. A new federal law completely overhauls the nation'due south foster care system.

Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

A new federal law, propelled past the belief that children in difficult homes nearly e'er fare best with their parents, effectively blows up the nation's troubled foster care arrangement.

Few outside child welfare circles paid any listen to the police, which was tucked inside a massive spending bill President Donald Trump signed in February. Simply it will force states to overhaul their foster care systems by irresolute the rules for how they can spend their almanac $8 billion in federal funds for child abuse prevention.

The law, chosen the Family Showtime Prevention Services Act, prioritizes keeping families together and puts more coin toward at-home parenting classes, mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment — and puts limits on placing children in institutional settings such equally group homes. It's the most extensive overhaul of foster intendance in nearly four decades.

"It'south a really significant reform for families," said Hope Cooper, founding partner of True North Group, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy consultancy that advised child welfare agencies on the new law. "The emphasis is actually on helping kids stay safe with families, and helping vulnerable families go help earlier."

Virtually child welfare advocates have hailed the changes, just some states that rely heavily on group homes fear that now they won't have enough money to pay for them.

The federal government won't release compliance guidelines until October, so states are yet figuring out how the changes might affect their often-beleaguered systems. Most expect the affect will exist dramatic, particularly states such as Colorado that have a lot of group foster homes.

For the first time, the Family First Act caps federal funding for grouping homes, as well known every bit "besiege intendance." Previously, there were no limits, Cooper said. The federal authorities won't pay for a kid to stay in a grouping home longer than two weeks, with some exceptions, such as teens who are pregnant or parenting.

Just even in states that are moving in the direction envisioned by the federal law, officials are worried nigh certain aspects of information technology.

In New York, state officials are concerned that the limits on group homes will cost counties also much. Under the new caps, New York counties will have to chip in as much as l percent more for certain children, said Sheila Poole, acting commissioner for New York's Office of Children and Family Services. That would be a pregnant hit for smaller counties with scant resources, she said.

In California, metropolis, canton and state officials and child welfare advocates worry the law will identify a burden on extended family members who are raising grandchildren, nieces and nephews outside of foster intendance. That's considering "kinship caregivers" won't be eligible for foster care payments under the new law.

This practice isn't new, but it is probable to expand nether Family First, said Sean Hughes, a California-based child welfare consultant and sometime Democratic congressional staffer who opposes parts of the law.

The new law, Hughes said, "closes the forepart door to a lot of safety nets that we've developed for kids in foster care."

Focus on Prevention

Kid protective services investigates alleged abuse or neglect in as many equally 37 pct of all children under 18 in the United States, co-ordinate to a 2017 study in the American Periodical of Public Health. African-American children are nigh twice as likely as white children to have their well-being investigated past child protective services. (The written report only looked at reports of child abuse and fail, not placement in foster care.)

A March report by the U.Due south. Department of Health and Human being Services institute the foster care population increased by more than ten per centum between 2012 and 2016, the last year for which data is available. The agency linked the increase in child welfare caseloads to the nation's opioid epidemic, which is ravaging families.

In vi states — Alaska, Georgia, Minnesota, Indiana, Montana and New Hampshire — the foster care population increased by more than one-half.

To aid reverse the trend, the new law places a greater accent on prevention.

The federal government underfunded prevention services for years, said Karen Howard, vice president of early childhood policy for Showtime Focus, a Washington, D.C.-based kid advocacy group that worked on the legislation. Before the enactment of Family Beginning, states got reimbursed for foster intendance through funding provided past Title Four-East of the Social Security Act — and that money could exist used but for foster care, adoption or family reunification. The coin could not routinely be used for prevention that might keep families from sending their children to foster intendance in the commencement place.

Now, for the first time, evidence-based prevention services will exist funded equally an entitlement, like Medicaid.

That means that prevention services will be guaranteed by the federal government for the families of children who are accounted "foster care candidates": usually kids determined to be victims of abuse or neglect who haven't been removed from their home.

Nether the new police, states may use matching federal funding to provide at-run a risk families with up to 12 months of mental health services, substance abuse handling and in-home parenting grooming to families. Eligible beneficiaries are the families of children identified as safe staying at home; teen parents in foster care; and other parents who need preventive help so their kids don't stop up in the organization. States must also come up with a program to keep the child safe while remaining with parents.

Some kid welfare advocates, such every bit Hughes, worry that 12 months of preventive care isn't plenty for parents struggling with opioid addiction. People with opioid addictions often relapse multiple times on the road to recovery.

Many preventive services, such as home visiting, clinical services, transportation assistance and task training aren't eligible for Family First funding, Poole said.

The law provides competitive grants for states to recruit foster families; establishes licensing requirements for foster families who are related to the child; and requires states to come upwards with a plan to prevent children dying from abuse and neglect.

In another first, the law also removes the requirement that states just use prevention services for extremely poor families. Because the income standards hadn't been adapted in 20 years, fewer and fewer families qualified for the services, advocates say. Now, states don't have to prove that an at-risk family meets those circa 1996 income standards.

"That'southward meaning," said Howard of First Focus. "Considering abuse happens in rich homes, centre-grade homes, poor homes. This is a game-changer, considering states can really go to boondocks" to provide innovative prevention services to troubled families, Howard said.

Redefining Grouping Homes

Under the new law, the federal regime will cap the amount of time a child tin spend in grouping homes. Information technology will exercise so past reimbursing states for but two weeks of a child'due south stay in congregate care — with some exceptions, such every bit for children in residential handling programs offering circular-the-clock nursing care.

The new restrictions begin in 2019. States can ask for a two-year delay to implement the group dwelling house provisions of the law, merely if they do, they can't get any federal funding for preventive services.

The group dwelling house provision comes after the U.Southward. Department of Health and Human Services issued a 2015 report showing that 40 percent of teens in foster care group homes had no clinical reason, such as a mental wellness diagnosis, for being in that location rather than in a family unit setting. Child welfare experts saw this as more evidence that group homes were being overused. Children's average stay in a grouping habitation is viii months, the report found.

Some states rely more than on grouping homes than others, with the amount of children in besiege care ranging from 4 to 35 percent of foster intendance children, co-ordinate to a 2015 written report past the Casey Foundation. Colorado, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Wyoming have the greatest percent of children living in group homes, though the report too found that over the previous 10 years, the group home population had decreased past about a 3rd.

 Those who oppose the group dwelling restrictions say they are too narrow in scope.

The law'southward boosted requirements for congregate care "reduce a country's flexibility to determine the most appropriate placement for a child and would negatively touch the likelihood of receiving sufficient federal funding," said Poole, the acting kid welfare commissioner in New York. She said the state is weighing whether information technology volition ask for a two-year filibuster.

It makes sense to not place foster youth in group homes unless absolutely necessary, said Hughes, the California consultant. Simply sometimes it is necessary. The vast majority of foster youth in group homes are in that location because staying in a foster home or with a relative didn't work out, Hughes said. For kids who've been through trauma, particularly older kids, a traditional foster domicile isn't equipped to give them the care they need, he said.

"The idea that kids are placed in group homes because the system is lazy and doesn't have whatever regard for their well-existence is unfounded," Hughes said.

Source: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/05/02/this-new-federal-law-will-change-foster-care-as-we-know-it

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