Policy & Law : Reforming Foster Care
Reforming Foster Care: NCFA's Adoption Leader Engagement Project
Advocating safe, loving, permanent families for America’s half-million children in foster care
In partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, NCFA has expanded its advocacy for children in foster care through the Adoption Leader Engagement Project (ALEP). ALEP educates policy makers, judicial leaders, the media, and the general public on the importance of reforming certain pieces of the foster care system, including flexible and reliable federal assistance for children in care, and greater accountability for family courts through establishment of and adherence to performance-based measures, as well as stronger judicial leadership in permanency planning.
Below are some of the products, programs and activities of ALEP:
I. Reasonable and necessary federal foster care financing reform:
NCFA’s President Atwood has delivered expert testimony to Senate and House Committees on Capitol Hill on a number of important adoption, foster care and child welfare issues. Most notably for the ALEP agenda is Atwood’s May 23, 2006, testimony before the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means at the “Hearings to Review Proposals to Improve Child Protective Services.” These hearings were held in conjunction with the re-appropriation of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (PSSF). President Atwood’s testimony addresses the following issues:
- Preserving and Increasing Flexible Funding
- Supporting Adoptive Families Through Post-Adoption Services
- Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Concurrent Planning
- Parent Recruitment: A Crucial, Neglected Strategy
Click here to link to a transcript of Tom Atwood's oral testimony.
NCFA submitted a written statement to the House Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Ways and Means Committee for its June 9, 2005 hearing record. The statement analyzed the current federal foster care financing system, its impact on children living in foster care, and offered recommendations regarding principles and policies to guide reform.
NCFA introduced its resolution on federal foster care financing reform during the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)’s Spring Task Force Summit. ALEC is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, individual membership association of state legislators. The resolution was approved by a unanimous vote during ALEC’s Health and Human Services task force meeting this spring, and became official model legislation upon approval by the ALEC Board of Directors in May 2007. It is the hope that state legislators will use the model legislation to send a message to Congress on the need for changes in federal law to allow states more flexibility in how they use their federal foster care dollars.
Click here to view the full text of the resolution on federal foster care financing reform.
II. Allowing states greater flexibility in spending federal foster care dollars necessary for reform
The fourth issue of NCFA's Adoption Advocate policy series is entitled "Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Programs: Pointing the Way to Reform." This brief, authored by Research Associate Marc Zappala, is written in support of Title IV-E waiver demonstrations in four states which suggest that permitting states greater flexibility in how they spend their federal dollars leads to improved outcomes for at-risk children and children in foster care.
Click here to read the brief.
III. Town Hall Project - August 2007
Does the distance of the U.S. Capitol keep you from meeting with your elected officials? Now is your chance to meet with members of Congress. As the senators and representatives leave the Capitol for the month of August, many travel back to their home states and host town hall meetings. These meetings give the members a chance to hear concerns from their constituents.
Please consider attending a town hall meeting in your area, and demonstrate to members of Congress that their constituents are concerned about children in foster care. Your presence at a town hall meeting can help urge Congress to reform the foster care financing system. There are 513,000 children in foster care, and 114,000 of them are waiting to be adopted. Don’t wait another day. Use your voice to speak for these children. Your presence at a town hall meeting can make a difference for the children waiting to be adopted and welcomed in a loving, permanent family.
Click here for a list of scheduled Town Hall meetings.
Click here for a sample script you can use at Town Hall meetings to highlight needed foster care reforms.
Click here to read NCFA's legislative priorities.
IV. Sound and timely permanency decisions through strong judicial leadership
The second issue of the Adoption Advocate policy series is entitled "Judicial Leadership to Ensure Sound Permanency Decisions for Children in Foster Care: Practical Guidelines for Juvenile and Family Courts.” Co-authored by NCFA President Atwood, Assistant Editor Nicole Ficere Callahan, and Research Associate Virginia Ravenel, the brief focuses on the need for proactive judicial leadership to ensure the right, timely, and permanent placement of children in foster care. The brief provides an overview of the judicial permanency process for children whom the state removes from their homes for their safety, and serves as a guide to best practices for judges and others involved in managing and monitoring the permanency process.
Click here to read an executive summary.
Click here to read the entire brief.
V. Improved juvenile and family court services through accountability and performance measures
NCFA’s first policy brief on the new Adoption Advocate masthead is entitled“Performance Measures for Courts: The Next Step in Foster Care Reform.” Written by NCFA President Thomas Atwood and Research Associate Virginia Ravenel, this policy paper addresses the importance of establishing performance measures for juvenile and family courts.
Click here to read an executive summary.
Click here to read the entire brief.
VI. Adoptive and foster parent recruitment and retention – Families for All
In addition to the goals and activities surrounding financing and court reforms, NCFA is a strong advocate of adoptive and foster parent recruitment and retention through public-private partnerships.
Through its publications and conferences, NCFA emphasizes two strategic concepts for promoting adoptions out of foster care: faith and community-based adoptive and foster parent recruitment, and greater involvement of private adoption agencies in providing services to children in foster care (public-private partnerships).
There are three places of worship for each child waiting to be adopted out of foster care and all of America’s faiths urge their adherents to care for orphans. Adoption professionals and child welfare advocates can work more proactively with faith-based and other community leaders to provide America’s families the inspiration and practical education regarding how to parent and otherwise care for children in foster care.
Private adoption agencies are another potentially greater resource for foster children. The resources of the public foster care system are stretched thin. Most private adoption agencies service domestic infant adoptions and/or intercountry adoptions, but not adoptions out of foster care. Involving more private agencies in serving foster children could increase the number of adoptions out of foster care by tens of thousands. There are some private agencies that have shown that it is possible to work productively in the foster care area.
NCFA seeks to marry these two strategies through our proposed program called Families for All (FFA). Once necessary funding is secure, FFA will organize and conduct state-based trainings and deliver them with the help of qualified training partners from NCFA’s national network of adoption agencies. Trainees will include private agency directors interested in providing services to foster children, faith-based and other community leaders with networks of prospective adoptive and foster parents, and public foster care managers interested in working with these constituencies to promote public-private partnerships for foster care adoptions.
Click here to read NCFA's research, "Parent Recruitment and Training: A Crucial, Neglected Child Welfare Strategy"
VII. NCFA in the News: Two national op-eds focusing on foster care reform
November 28, 2005, Rosemary McDonough, NCFA Board Chair, was a featured editorial contributer in The Washington Times. The op-ed entitled “Endangering Children” focused on the need for juvenile and family courts to establish and adhere to performance-based measures of self evaluation.
September 25, 2006, Jeff Lawson, NCFA Intern and former foster care youth, was published on the editorial page of The Washington Times. Entitled, “Caring for foster care,” Jeff’s op-ed shares parts of his dramatic personal story to make the case for necessary policy changes, including: encouraging Congress to reform federal foster care financing by adding increased spending flexibility; the need for judges and courts to make tough decisions in a timely manner for better permanency outcomes for youth; and, improved and increased foster and adoptive parent recruitment efforts.
New Report Released by Kids Are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now Highlights Need for Increased Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Services
A new report from Kids Are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now, a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts, highlights the lack of federal funds allocated toward child abuse and neglect prevention services. The report, entitled “Time for Reform: Investing in Prevention, Keeping Children Safe at Home,” notes that only 10 percent of federal funds earmarked for child welfare services are available for prevention and family reunification services. The report cites the effects of a number of promising family preservation programs in support of its argument that increasing the amount spent on prevention and reunification services results in a decreased incidence of abuse and neglect, better outcomes for children, and lower costs of care per child. The report also recommends specific policy options such as, ensuring a sufficient source of flexible federal funds to support the full continuum of child welfare services by at-risk children and families, permitting states to reinvest money saved from safely reducing the number of children in foster care in other child welfare services, and making all children who have been removed from their families due to abuse and neglect eligible for federal foster care support.
Click here to read the report.
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