Swings Pendulum Away From Family Preservation/Towards Out-of-Home Permanency

• Child’s health and safety paramount concern in making placement decisions
• Lists situations where "reasonable efforts" at family preservation are not required
• Criminal background checks required for prospective foster and adoptive parents; states can opt out of this provision

• Permanency planning hearing must be held within 30 days of a court determination that reasonable efforts to reunify are not required
• Agency may concurrently make efforts to reunify and place a child for adoption or with a legal guardian
• Institutes adoption incentive payments to states (maximum $20 million a year) which increase number of adoptions of foster children

• To remain eligible to receive Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance funds, a state must provide health insurance coverage for any child with special needs who cannot be adopted without medical assistance
• This coverage could be provided through Medicaid or a state health insurance program

• Shortens deadline for holding permanency planning hearings from 18 to 12 months after a child’s placement
• A permanency planning hearing must be held within 30 days of a court determination that reasonable efforts to reunify are not required

• Requires that a termination of parental rights petition must be filed in most cases when a child is under the responsibility of the state for 15 months out of the most recent 22 months
• Requirement applies to children already in the system and those who will enter in the future
• Priorities for phasing in children already in the system include children for whom the permanency plan is adoption or who have been in care the longest
• One third must be filed within six months of the end of the first state legislative session, two-thirds within 12 months and all of them within 18 months

• Continues the program, now called the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program, through Fiscal Year 2001
• Increases the funding about $20 million each year over the current baseline (an earlier version of the bill would have added $100 million over five years)
• No more than 10% of total allotment may be spent on administrative costs
• Funds can be used to prevent child abuse and neglect, assist families in crisis, time-limited reunification services, adoption promotion, and support services
• Funding is maintained for the State Court Improvement Program

• Allows child welfare agencies to use the Federal Parent Locator Service to locate absent parents for the purposes of making or enforcing child custody or visitation orders

• Allows the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to grant up to 10 federal waivers a year to states to try new approaches to changing child welfare systems
• States will be eligible for waivers only if they are providing health insurance to adopted children with special needs who cannot be adopted without this assistance
• HHS will take into consideration the effect of approving a proposed waiver request on terms and conditions of court orders
• HHS must consider applications relating to reductions in adoption barriers, innovative approaches to substance abuse treatment, and kinship care

• HHS may provide technical assistance to help states reach targets for increased adoptions or alternative permanent placements for children in foster care
• Congress will appropriate a maximum of $10 million a year for three years
• At least 50% of these funds must be used to provide technical assistance to the courts

• By January 1, 1999, states must develop and implement standards to ensure that children in foster care placements in public or private agencies are provided quality services that protect the health and safety of the children

• HHS, in consultation with public officials and others, must establish outcome measures, and a system of rating states based on the outcomes, that can be used to assess the performance of states in operating their child welfare programs under Titles IV-B and IV-E.
• Beginning May 1, 1999, HHS must issue an annual report to Congress on the performance of each state, explaining the reasons for the performance and how it could be improved
• HHS must give Congress a final report on a performance-based incentive system for providing payments to states under Titles IV-B and IV-E by February, 1999

• By June 1, 1999, HHS must prepare and submit a report for Congress on the extent of children’s placement in foster care with relatives and to convene an advisory panel on kinship care to review and comment on the report before it is submitted

• The $2 billion federal Contingency Fund for state welfare programs, created by the 1996 welfare reform law, will be reduced by a total of $40 million to fund child welfare services

• Within one year, HHS must prepare a report for Congress which describes the extent and scope of the problem of substance abuse in the child welfare population, the types of services provided currently, and the outcomes
• The report must include recommendations for any legislation that may be needed to improve coordination in providing substance abuse services to this population

• The legislation was effective on the date it was enacted

• Allowing Title IV-E funds to support reunification services for up to one year
• Providing additional funds for training staff
• Establishing child death review teams
• 12 months statute of limitations on appealing a termination of parental rights order

Beginning October 1st 2000, Federal fostercare regulations require that all family placements must be licensed if the families are to receive fostercare payments.

Kinship placement, as it's commonly referred to, is the first alternative when a child cannot be returned to live with their natural parent(s). Previously, many states allowed grandparents or other kinship family members to receive fostercare payments without the family members being trained and licensed.

Advantages & Disadvantages: Licensing of Kinship placements will make it easier for extended family members to enroll children in school, get medical treatment, and allow the children to be covered under state health insurance. Previously, extended family members found it difficult if not impossible to get these services without first obtaining formal guardianship from the natural parent(s). In cases of abandonment or where the parent(s) refused to have any contact with the extended family, this posed a serious problem.

The main disadvantages for families seeking fostercare licensing are meeting the training hours qualification and finding training locally available. Many kinship placements are in areas where fostercare-licensing training is not offered locally. If you know of any kinship families in this situation, refer them to FosterParentTraining.com!

Are you aware of Public Law 105-89 (otherwise known as the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997) and the impact it will have on placement numbers? (See this link for a good explanation from the American Bar Association: http://www.abanet.org/child/adofost.html)

States risk losing millions of dollars in Federal welfare reimbursements if they fail to terminate parental rights within 15 months of placement or fail within 12 months to establish a permanency plan. The two time lines run concurrently.

Furthermore, all states are now required to begin processing one-third of the children already in foster care the longest (the second one-third in six months, and the final third six months later).

The implications: States have filed an unprecedented number of parental terminations in the past two months. Caseworkers are overwhelmed. There will be more turnover of placements, more pressure to get kids placed permanently (with extended family, or by adoption or guardianship).

With the mandate to terminate parental rights of any child who's been in foster care 15 out of the last 22 months, we may see an increase in foster placements while also seeing a faster exiting of children to permanent placements.

* "AGING OUT" FOSTER YOUTH TO RECEIVE FUNDING

The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999: An opportunity to expand Independent Living Programs

Agencies serving older youth may want to take advantage of the additional funding available to states for foster children "aging out" of the system at age 18.

Effective in June of this year, funding is now available to cover housing, Medicaid and education costs of children 18 to 22.

Here is a summary of the Act (from Social Security Legislative Bulletin 106-12 November 24, 1999)

FOSTER CARE PROVISIONS

Title I of the bill provides States with flexible funding to help children who are likely to "age out" of foster care at age 18 to obtain employment or continue their education. States would promote the self-sufficiency of these young people by providing assistance in obtaining a high school diploma, post-secondary education, career exploration, housing, vocational training, job placement and retention, training in budgeting, substance abuse prevention education, and education in preventive health measures including smoking avoidance, nutrition education, and pregnancy prevention.

Title I also increases the current-law resource limit of $1,000 to $10,000 for the purpose of determining a child's eligibility for Federal foster care payments.

Changes in the Medicaid law permits States to provide Medicaid coverage to those 18-, 19-, and 20-year olds who have left foster care. States would also be permitted to use means testing to provide Medicaid to former foster care youths if their income and resources are below certain specified levels.

Title I of the bill increases funding for adoption incentive payments to states.