Woman writes to Child Welfare Committee seeking return of her child

Woman writes to Child Welfare Committee seeking return of her child - The Hindu:

The woman, who had lodged a complaint with the police against a doctor and others in Hassan of forcibly taking away her child, has written to the Child Welfare Committee seeking the return of her child. Shwetha, the complainant, had the opportunity to spend some time with the baby at the office of the Child Welfare Committee on Saturday.

Bill to Overhaul Child Welfare Funds Will Move in Both Chambers

Bill to Overhaul Child Welfare Funds Will Move in Both Chambers - The Chronicle of Social Change:

The slightly re-named Family First Prevention Services Act, an overhaul of federal child welfare financing aimed at supporting more efforts to prevent foster care placements, will likely be introduced next week in both the House and Senate.“At a time when an opioid epidemic is tearing families across the country apart, Congress is fighting to keep families together,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), in a statement released late on Friday.

'Foster dad' jailed for treating teen in his care as sex slave making her pregnant twice

'Foster dad' jailed for treating teen in his care as sex slave making her pregnant twice | Leicester Mercury:

A "foster dad" treated a teenage girl in his care like a "sex slave" and twice made her pregnant, a court heard.The first abuse happened after he plied the 16-year-old with cannabis – and had sex with her while his sleeping wife was sedated on medication in the same bed.

Mexican father battles to raise his U.S. son

Mexican father battles to raise his U.S. son | Albuquerque Journal:

A Mexican father living in his homeland has won back the chance to raise his young son after the New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled that child welfare workers wrongly rushed to terminate the father’s rights using faulty justification.

MARCUS: Parents aren’t always to blame

MARCUS: Parents aren’t always to blame:

WASHINGTON — Somehow, it’s always the parents’ fault. We are too lax, except when we are too helicoptery. We coddle the kids too much, except when we drive them into neurotic overachievement. We are enablers. No, we are Tiger Moms. The societal urge to blame is matched only by the parental instinct to second-guess — ourselves as much as our fellow parents.

Families torn apart by tragedy celebrate their reunions

Families torn apart by tragedy celebrate their reunions:

The third annual Reunification Day Celebration honored parents who regained custody of their children from foster care and have been reunited for at least a year.

No Celebrations in New Hampshire. There's nothing to celebrate!

Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016

Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BUCHAN_031_xml2.pdf

Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016
Strengthen families by providing evidence-based prevention services to
keep children out of foster care and reduce inappropriate group home
placements.
This proposal would:
 Strengthen families and reduce unnecessary foster care placements by
allowing states to use federal foster care dollars to pay for up to 12 months
of family services to prevent children from needing to enter foster care.
Biological families, adoptive families, and families in which a relative is
caring for the child would all be eligible for services, if needed to keep the
child safely at home. Only prevention services classified as “promising,”
“supported,” or “well-supported,” based on an evidence structure developed
by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse, would be eligible for
reimbursement. These services would include:

 o Mental health services;

 o Substance abuse services; and

 o In-home parent “skill-based” programs (parent training, home
visiting, individual and family therapy)

I love this one! It's about time!
 Ensure more foster children are placed with families by ending federal
reimbursement when states inappropriately place children in non-family
settings, such as group homes or congregate care facilities. To be eligible for
federal payment:

 o The state would have to assess the child’s needs and determine the
non-family setting was the most appropriate, subject to ongoing
judicial approval.

o Non-family settings would be subject to licensing and accreditation
standards to ensure they provide appropriate supervision and have the
necessary clinical staff to address their needs.
Prepared by the Human Resources Subcommittee Staff

 Support family relationships by allowing states to receive a partial match for
evidence-based Kinship Navigator programs to help children remain with
family members whenever possible. Kinship Navigator programs provide
information, referral, and follow-up services to grandparents and other
relatives who unexpectedly assume caregiver responsibility for children who
cannot remain safely with their parents. 

 Help families stay together by reauthorizing the Regional Partnership Grant
program, which provides funding to state and regional grantees seeking to
provide evidence-based services to prevent child abuse and neglect related to
substance abuse. Grant requirements would be updated based on lessons
learned from the most effective past grants. In addition, the bill updates the
program to specifically address the opioid and heroin epidemic and leverage
what’s been learned to ensure that new foster care prevention funding
provided under the bill is used effectively.

 Improve support for the transition to adulthood by updating the John H.
Chafee Foster Care Independence Program to allow states the option of
continuing to assist older former foster youth up to age 23, including
providing education and training vouchers.

 Reduce the amount of time foster children wait to be adopted, placed with
relatives, or placed with foster parents by incorporating reforms in the
bipartisan House-passed H.R. 4472, which encourages states to use
electronic systems when placing children across state lines.

 Help relative caregivers avoid bureaucracy by promoting best practices for
states by providing model foster care licensing standards with a focus on
ensuring states promote placements with family members for children in
care. Keeping children with family members, when possible, improves
outcomes for children and families.

  Support existing child welfare services by extending for five years the
Promoting Safe and Stable Families and Child Welfare Services programs
(each in title IV-B of the Social Security Act) as well as the Adoption and
Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments, whose authorizations are set to
expire at the end of the fiscal year

 Delay final implementation of additional federal reimbursement for the
adoptions of infants and toddlers to allow for a Government Accountability
Office (GAO) review. The study will examine compliance with the
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
(P.L. 110-135) requirement that states reinvest the state funds freed up by
providing additional federal reimbursement. All adoptive families would
remain eligible for either state or federally-funded services, and adoptive
families with a child at risk of reentering foster care would be newly eligible
for evidence-based prevention services provided under this bill.
Savings:
The Congressional Budget Office preliminarily estimates that the cost of the upfront
prevention services to strengthen families would be more than fully offset by
reducing inappropriate group home placements and the short delay in providing
additional funding to states for adoption assistance to allow the GAO review to be
completed.
Over the long term, providing evidence-based prevention services has been shown
to reduce the need for costly, long-term foster care and improve outcomes for
children and families.