Child Welfare

  • Child Health

    The Senate Promised to Focus on Kids in the Next COVID-19 Relief Package. Here’s What They Should Do

    The Senate returned to work in Washington this week promising to act on additional COVID-19 relief legislation that their Republican leadership says will be focused on “bringing back jobs and making sure we take care of our kids.” But for more than two months, as children and families suffered, with Black families and other families of color disproportionately losing their lives and livelihoods to this crisis, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “hit pause” on additional relief legislation and refused to take up the HEROES Act passed by the House of Representatives in mid-May, which builds on the groundwork laid by previous coronavirus relief packages to ease the damaging health and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Senate considers additional relief legislation this week, they must prioritize the needs of children and families

    | National

  • Child Welfare

    #FreetheFamilies

    Family Unity: It’s the foundational principle of child welfare law and woven into the moral fabric of our society. Families belong together. This is not supposed to be a controversial concept. Yet the Trump Administration continues to advance family separation policies for immigrant families, both at the border and within the interior of the U.S.

    | National

  • Child Welfare

    U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown, Kamala D. Harris, Bob Casey and Catherine Cortez Masto Introduce Much-Needed Legislation to Support Child Welfare Services During COVID-19

    On July 2nd, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), alongside Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), introduced the Child Welfare Emergency Assistance Act. The bill will provide a much-needed infusion of resources to help the child welfare system adequately respond to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    | National

  • Child Welfare

    Increase Chafee Funds to Protect and Support Foster Care Youth

    The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the failure of the child welfare system to appropriately prepare older youth for adulthood. Each year, nearly 20,000 children “age out” of the child welfare system, reaching adulthood without the security, consistency, and support of a permanent family. When children are thrust into adulthood without that support, they have worse outcomes and are confronted with obstacles no young person should face alone. In ordinary times, youth who age out of care experience high rates of homelessness and poor educational attainment; these outcomes are exacerbated by the current crisis. Across the country, youth from foster care are losing their jobs and their homes and are facing serious food and economic insecurity without the support of family, yet Congress has failed to provide them with relief. Congress must act now to provide $500 million in emergency funding for the John H. Chafee Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood to ensure these youth with unique needs are not left behind.

  • Child Welfare

    New Analysis from CDF: Increase Chafee Funds to Protect and Support Foster Care Youth

    To date, Congress has failed to provide older youth from foster care with relief amid the pandemic. Surveys show that the majority of these youth who have lost jobs have not received the increased unemployment insurance provided in the CARES Act and most have not received stimulus payments. Still, there have been no federal funds dedicated to meet their pressing needs. CDF, and our other child welfare partners, urge Congress to provide $500 million in emergency funding to the John H. Chafee Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood to help stabilize these youth.

    | National