Child Welfare

Children depend on adults-usually their parents-to protect, support, and nurture them in their homes. The broadest mission of public child welfare agencies is to strengthen all families in ways that ensure children can depend on their parents to protect their safety, ensure they have a stable and permanent home, and enhance their well-being. More specifically, public child welfare agencies are expected to identify families where children are at risk of abuse or neglect and to provide services to prevent maltreatment. Public child welfare agencies are also expected to identify children who have been abused and neglected and to provide services and supports necessary to ensure no further maltreatment occurs. These services may be provided while the child remains living in his/her parent's home or, if an out-of-home placement is necessary to ensure the child's safety, while the child is living in foster care. Under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, the federal government provides funds to states, tribes, and territories to help ensure children's safety, permanence, and well-being through the provision of child welfare-related services to children and their families. These services may be made available to any child, and his or her family, and without regard to whether the child is living in his or her own home, living in foster care, or was previously living in foster care. Title IV-B funds are primarily distributed to states via two formula grant programs. Combined FY2014 federal funding for these two programs-the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services (CWS or Subpart 1) and the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF or Subpart 2) program-was $649 million ($269 million for CWS and $380 million for PSSF). Funding for these two programs, which represented 94% of the total $689 million in federal FY2014 funding provided for all programs and activities under Title IV-B, has been declining in recent years. The CWS and PSSF programs have overlapping purposes and are used to fund some of the same services. At the same time, the programs have distinct federal requirements and spending patterns. Many requirements under the CWS program are specific to protecting and otherwise ensuring the safety and permanency of children in foster care. By contrast, requirements under the PSSF program primarily focus on state planning for the delivery of child and family services for a broader population, including setting goals and regularly reviewing progress toward those goals. Under the CWS program states must ensure provision of case review and permanency planning for each child in foster care, including those children who do not meet the federal eligibility criteria to receive those services under the Title IV-E foster care program. Spending for "protective services"-including child abuse and neglect investigations; caseworker visits to, and permanency planning for, children in foster care; and other activities-represents the largest share of federal funds expended under the CWS program. Combined, states anticipated spending close to 41% of their federal FY2013 CWS funding on that purpose. At the same time, they expected to spend close to that same share of CWS funding (more than 38%) on the four categories of child and family services for which they are required to use their PSSF funding (i.e., family support, family preservation, time-limited family reunification, and adoption promotion and support).