Child Welfare Reauthorization: Strengthening Families, Kinship Care, and Child Support Enforcement.
This law reauthorizes and strengthens key child welfare programs, focusing on family preservation, kinship care, and support for youth aging out of foster care. It introduces new provisions to prevent child removal solely due to poverty by allowing short-term financial assistance for basic needs, and grants tribal child support agencies parity with state agencies in enforcing overdue payments. The changes aim to reduce administrative burdens on caseworkers and improve the quality and stability of services provided to children and families in the welfare system.
Key points
Financial Support to Prevent Neglect: Allows funding for nonrecurring short-term benefits (housing, utilities, food) to address immediate crises and prevent child separation solely due to poverty.
Strengthened Child Support Enforcement: Tribal child support agencies gain the same authority as state and local agencies to use tax information for collecting past-due child support.
Reauthorization and Increased Funding: Child welfare programs are reauthorized through 2029, with increased funding for court improvement programs, caseworker visits, and regional partnership grants addressing parental substance use disorder.
Support for Kinship Caregivers: Enhances support for kinship caregivers (relatives caring for children) and establishes dedicated funding for Kinship Navigator programs to connect these families with resources.
Incarcerated Parents and Foster Children: Establishes demonstration grants to support meaningful relationships between children in foster care and their incarcerated parents, including enhanced visitation and case management.
Reduced Administrative Burden: Mandates the Secretary to review and revise data collection to reduce the administrative burden on child welfare agencies by at least 15%.
VOTING RESULTS
2024-09-18
98%
For
405
Against
10
Abstain
0
Became Law
Citizen Poll