Foster care provides round-the-clock substitute care for nearly 700,000 U.S. children who are temporarily or permanently separated from their family of origin each year. Each state manages its own foster care system according to federal regulations. Despite numerous large-scale federal policy reforms over the past several decades, substantial…

This Research-to-Impact brief is the seventh in a series by Chapin Hall's Voices of Youth Count on understanding and addressing youth homelessness. Each year, nearly 4.2 million adolescents and young adults in America experience some form of homelessness. This brief focuses on the subset of young people who experience homelessness after spending…

David Stoesz offers a sweeping critique of the Children's Bureau and social work education by claiming the existence of a "child welfare cartel." He also attacks the quality of social work education and research, which he claims has poorly invested government funding and helped create the unmitigated failures of the American child…

Although they make up a relatively small proportion of all children in the U.S. foster care system, foster youth approaching adulthood have over the years attracted considerable attention from policymakers. Three times in the past 25 years the Social Security Act has been amended to try to better support the transition to adulthood for foster…

"Child Welfare Outcomes 2002-2005: Report to Congress" (Child Welfare Outcomes Report) is the seventh in a series of annual reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the Department). The reports are developed in accordance with section 479A of the Social Security Act (as amended by the Adoption and Safe Families Act…

The provisions of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-272 of the 96th Congress) are delineated in this legislative bulletin. The primary purposes of the Act are (1) to establish a program of adoption assistance; (2) to strengthen the program of foster care assistance for needy and dependent children; and (3) to…

The first part of this report of the U.S. House of Representatives presents the text of the "Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980." The Act consists of three parts: Title I: Foster Care and Adoption Assistance; Title II: Social Services; and Title III: Other Social Security Act Provisions. Objectives of the Act are to (1)…

Legislation has been proposed by the Administration to revise the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) foster care program. This committee print provides background information on the AFDC foster care program under Title IV-A (from 1962-1980); discusses the changes made in the program since the passage of the Adoption Assistance and…

The purpose of Part D of Title IV of the Social Security Act is to enforce the support obligations owed by absent parents to their children, locate absent parents, establish paternity and obtain child support from parents. This Senate report provides an overview of the child support enforcement program and 23 tables of statistical data. Many of…

This document reports on proposed Federal reform of the welfare system. Amendments are suggested to proposed legislation that would accomplish the following goals: (1) replace the existing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with a new Family Support Program that emphasizes work, child support, and a need-based family support…

This document provides information on U.S. federal support for maternal and child health programs from 1935-1985. After a brief history of the Children's Bureau, which was the first unit of the federal government concerned with maternal and child health, funding and allocation formulas for Title V of the Social Security Act of 1935 are examined.…

Title IV-B of the Social Security Act authorizes federal funding for services to help families address problems leading to child abuse and neglect and prevent unnecessary separation of children from their families. Subpart 1 of Title IV-B provides funds for almost any child welfare activity, but has statutory limits on foster care maintenance and…

Reviews the history of Federal health policies affecting children. Focuses particularly on Title V of the Social Security Act and identifies the forces leading to its enactment, grouped into four closely related themes: responsibility of government, resource development, economic security, and special measures for protection. Briefly discusses…

Under P.L. 93-647 major changes in the child support enforcement system were mandated. The law became Part D of Title IV of the Social Security Act; thus, the child support enforcement program is commonly referred to as the IV-D program. This comprehensive measure brought into existence a major federal agency to correct the problem of desertion…

This report recommends that Title I of the proposed Family Welfare Reform Act of 1987 (H.R. 1720) be replaced with a Fair Work Opportunities Program. H.R. 1720 is proposed to replace the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program of the Social Security Act Title IV. The purpose of the proposed amendment is to assure that needy children…