States Should Use New Guidance to Stop Charging Parents for Foster Care, Prioritize Family Reunification
The federal Administration for Children & Families recently issued new policy guidance that allows state agencies to stop referring Title IV-E foster care cases for the establishment of a child support order. The old policy had very little benefit. These families are low-income. A support obligation takes money out of an already financially fragile family. Collecting support wasn’t cost-efficient. The new guidance promotes reunification efforts and help the custodial parent maintain the family home.
Read MoreBuilding Connections: Using Integrated Administrative Data to Identify Issues and Solutions Spanning the Child Welfare and Child Support Systems
This article explores the process one state used to change policy using data. The state of Wisconsin used data to inform its policy change regarding referrals to child support in foster care cases. The results of the analysis of this data led to both the child welfare and the child support divisions working together on…
Read MoreChild Support Collections to Offset Out-of-Home Placement Costs: A Study of Cost Effectiveness
Families that experience out-of-home placement (OHP) of a child in the child welfare or juvenile justice system are disproportionately poor, and the reasons for OHP often stem from poverty. Because OHP is expensive, and society values parental responsibility, federal and state laws require that parents be referred to the child support system to help offset…
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