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FY 2007 Budget in BriefAdministration for Children and FamiliesOn this page: Discretionary Spending Overview Table
Administration for Children and FamiliesThe Administration for Children and Families promotes the economic and social well-being of children, youth, families, and communities, giving special attention to vulnerable populations, such as children in low-income families, refugees, Native Americans, and the developmentally disabled. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) administers over 60 programs that provide services to children, families, and communities through cooperative efforts with Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments, and through public and private non-profit organizations. The FY 2007 budget for ACF totals $46.7 billion, a net increase of $795 million, or 2 percent above FY 2006. The discretionary budget includes $6.8 billion for Head Start and $685 million in program reductions. Among the mandatory programs, the FY 2007 budget includes $17.2 billion for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, $6.9 billion for Foster Care and related programs, and a proposed reduction of $500 million to the Social Services Block Grant to help fund more effective discretionary programs.
Discretionary Spending The FY 2007 discretionary budget totals $13.8 billion, a net increase of $60 million above FY 2006. This includes a net increase for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) of $621 million, which is comprised of a reduction of $379 million in the budget and a onetime increase of $1 billion from the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The budget eliminates the Community Services Block Grant, which was funded at $630 million in FY 2006 and is unable to demonstrate long-term outcomes. Head Start The budget request includes $6.8 billion for Head Start to provide 917,000 children with services including 62,000 children in Early Head Start. The President’s Good Start Grow Smart Initiative strengthens Head Start by providing information on child development and early learning to teachers, caregivers, parents, and grandparents and by closing the gap between research and practice in early childhood education. The National Reporting System, a key component of the initiative, will assess all four-and five-year-old children at the beginning and end of the year to determine some of the skills with which they enter Head Start, their level of achievement when they leave Head Start, and the progress they make during the year. This information will support the success of the Head Start program in preparing children for school. Head Start programs help ensure that children are ready to succeed at school by supporting social and cognitive development. Head Start programs provide comprehensive child development services, including educational, health, nutritional, social, and other services, primarily to low-income families. They also engage parents in their child’s preschool experience by helping them achieve their own educational and literacy goals as well as employment goals, supporting parents’ role in their children's learning, and emphasizing the direct involvement of parents in the administration of local Head Start programs. The Head Start program has enrolled nearly 24 million children since it began in 1965. Faith-Based and Community Initiative The budget continues a commitment to fund faith-based and community organizations. A total of $141 million in ACF will support grassroots organizations in expanding services to their communities. The HHS Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (CFBCI) leads the Department in efforts to better utilize faith-based and community-based organizations in providing effective services. CFBCI works with Agencies across the Department to eliminate barriers in regulations, policies, and procedures to the participation of faith-based and other community organizations and to propose the development of innovative pilot and demonstration programs. Helping America's Youth Initiative: In the 2005 State of the Union Address, the President announced a new initiative to help youth at risk of gang influence and involvement as part of a broader outreach effort to at-risk youth. The Helping America's Youth Initiative helps children and youth by emphasizing the importance of family, school and community. The budget provides $50 million for this initiative within a total of $100 million requested for the Compassion Capital Fund. Grants will be awarded to faith-based and community organizations with a demonstrated history of providing services to youth and families in disadvantaged situations. Priority will be given to applicants who plan to serve areas with significant gang activity. Compassion Capital Fund: The Compassion Capital Fund advances the efforts of community and charitable organizations, including faith-based organizations, to increase their effectiveness and enhance their ability to provide social services where needed. A total of $50 million is for grants to intermediary organizations that provide training and technical assistance to grassroots organizations in accessing funding sources, administering programs, expanding services, and replicating promising approaches. These grantees also provide sub-awards to some of the organizations receiving training and technical assistance. In addition, funds support targeted capacity building mini-grants awarded to increase their capacity to deliver services to at-risk youth, the homeless, or those living in rural communities or to provide marriage education. Since the program began in 2002, $148 million has been awarded to more than 3,000 organizations including sub-awards made by intermediary grantees. This includes the targeted capacity building minigrants, which began in the second year of the program with 52 awards and grew to 310 awards in FY 2005. First Lady's Helping America's Youth Initiative On October 27, 2005, Mrs. Laura Bush convened the White House Conference on Helping America's Youth at Howard University in Washington, D.C. More than 500 parents, youth, educators, civic leaders, faith-based and community service providers, foundations, researchers, and experts in child development gathered to discuss various problems facing America's youth and proven solutions in overcoming those challenges. Also, the First Lady unveiled the Community Guide to Helping America's Youth, a web-based guide with up-to-date research on youth development and effective programs. The guide is available at www.helpingamericasyouth.gov. Mentoring Children of Prisoners: The request includes $40 million, a decrease of $9 million, to enable public and private organizations to establish or expand projects that provide one-to-one mentoring for children of incarcerated parents and those recently released from prison. In a recently completed review with the Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART), the program received a rating of Results Not Demonstrated. The program will continue to monitor progress and will assess grantees' abilities to achieve positive youth outcomes and use the analysis to inform program development. Nearly two million children have a parent in a Federal or State correctional facility, a number that more than doubled over the 1990s. Research indicates that children with incarcerated parents are seven times more likely than the general population to become incarcerated themselves and are more likely to display a variety of behavioral, emotional, health, and educational problems. As part of reauthorization, ACF proposes to allow the use of vouchers to provide mentoring services to children of prisoners. Abstinence Education The budget requests a total of $204 million for Abstinence Education activities, an increase of $28 million, and supports increasing funding for abstinence education programs to $270 million by 2009. ACF administers two abstinence education programs - the Community-Based Abstinence Education program and the State Abstinence Education program - which total $191 million. Within the HHS Office of Public Health and Science, the budget also includes $13 million for abstinence education activities as part of the Adolescent Family Life program. ACF's abstinence education programs provide grants to community-based organizations, including faith-based organizations, as well as to States to develop and implement abstinence programs. The Community-Based Abstinence Education program focuses on adolescents, ages 12 through 18, and targets the prevention of teenage pregnancy and premarital sexual activity. The State Abstinence Education program enables States to create or augment existing abstinence education programs and where appropriate, provide mentoring, counseling, and adult supervision to promote abstinence from sexual activity, with a focus on those groups most likely to bear children out-of-wedlock. Within the Community-Based Abstinence Education program, the budget provides up to $10 million to continue a national public awareness campaign designed to help parents communicate with their children about health risks of early sexual activity. The request maintains support for evaluation of abstinence education programs. Refugee Program Refugee and Entrant Assistance: The budget requests $510 million to support services for refugees, asylees, Cubans/Haitians, and victims of torture and trafficking, $17 million more than the FY 2006 level. The increase will maintain access to a full eight months of cash and medical assistance and will continue to support State-administered social services that emphasize employment-related services, such as job preparation, placement, and retention, provided concurrently with English language training. The State Department's funded refugee ceiling for 2007 is 70,000, the same as FY 2006. Refugee Transitional and Medical Services was rated Effective by a recent PART review, the highest rating possible and one that approximately only 15 percent of Federal programs have achieved. The budget includes an additional $5 million for the Victims of Trafficking program, for a total of $15 million, to establish and expand assistance programs for United States citizens or aliens admitted for permanent residence who have been victims of trafficking that occurs at least in part within the United States. The request also includes support for services, including rehabilitation, social, and legal services for those who have experienced torture. The percent of refugees served by the Matching Grant program that enter employment has increased from 51 percent in 2001 to 72 percent in 2004. In FY 2007 the percent of refuges served through this program that enter employment will increase to 77 percent. Unaccompanied Alien Children: The Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program provides a safe and appropriate environment for unaccompanied alien minors who are apprehended in the U.S. by Homeland Security agents, Border Patrol officers or other law enforcement until custody can be transferred to a relative or appropriate guardian or until the child is returned to his or her country of origin. Since the program was transferred from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in 2003, the Office of Refugee Resettlement has increased the use of less restrictive shelter and foster care placements and provided necessary support for improved medical care. The FY 2007 budget for the UAC program of $105 million is $28 million more than the FY 2006 level to meet anticipated increases in the number of minors in care. Current estimates indicate that the number of UAC will increase by over 40 percent from 8,000 in FY 2005 to approximately 11,500 in FY 2007. In FY 2007, the Office of Refugee Resettlement will continue the pro bono legal services program and will undertake more thorough background checks of sponsors prior to the placement of these children. Annual Placements of Unaccompanied Alien Children Since the Unaccompanied Alien Children program was transferred to ACF from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in 2003, the program has provided care and shelter for an increasing number of children each year.
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) The FY 2007 President's Budget requests $1.8 billion for the LIHEAP Block Grant, which provides home energy assistance through grants to States, Tribes and Territories. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 includes $250 million for the LIHEAP Block Grant and $750 million for the Contingency Fund in FY 2007. When considered together, a total of $2.8 billion is available in FY 2007, an increase of $621 million over FY 2006. Amounts in the Contingency Fund are available for release in a heating or cooling emergency such as extreme temperature or high fuel prices or to meet energy needs related to a natural disaster. In FY 2005, HHS released $27 million from the Contingency Fund to States hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina. And, in January 2006, HHS released $100 million from the Contingency Fund to all States to assist with heating and energy costs this winter. For the past several years, almost 5 million households per year received LIHEAP assistance to help them get through the winter months. The program also provides cooling assistance to about 400,000 households, and weatherization assistance to about 90,000 more. Of the households receiving heating assistance, about one-third include a member 60 years or older; about half have at least one person with a disability; and about one-fifth include at least one child five years old or younger. Child Welfare, Adoption and Child Abuse The FY 2007 budget includes $606 million for a range of programs that support child welfare systems, adoption efforts, and child abuse prevention. These efforts support the Secretary's long-term goal that children are protected from abuse and neglect. Child Welfare: The Child Welfare Services program helps State public welfare agencies improve their child welfare services with the goal of keeping families together. Grants are also provided to develop and improve education and training programs and resources for child welfare professionals through the Child Welfare Training program and to prevent the abandonment of infants and young children exposed to HIV/AIDS and drugs through the Abandoned Infants Assistance Program. The budget requests $306 million for these efforts. The budget requests $46 million for the Independent Living Education and Training Vouchers program, which provides up to $5,000 for costs associated with college or vocational training for foster care youth ages 16 to 21. The Promoting Safe and Stable Families program provides funds for each State to operate a coordinated program of family preservation services, community-based family support services, time-limited reunification services, and adoption promotion and support services. The FY 2007 budget includes a total of $434 million, of which $89 million is financed through discretionary resources. Adoption: At the end of FY 2004, there were 518,000 children in foster care, of which 118,000 were waiting to be adopted. The FY 2007 request includes $30 million, an increase of $12 million, for the Adoption Incentives program. States can earn bonus payments by increasing the number of adoptions of children in foster care over previous years. Additional funds will support an expected increase in the number of bonus-earning adoptions. The budget also includes $27 million for the Adoption Opportunities program to support grants that facilitate the elimination of barriers to adoption and $13 million for Adoption Awareness programs that support adoption efforts, including adoption of children with special needs, through training and a public awareness campaign. Child Abuse: The most recent annual HHS Child Maltreatment Report indicates that each year an estimated 906,000 children in the United States are victims of abuse and neglect. The budget includes a total of $95 million for programs to reduce the incidence of child maltreatment and provide services to those who are victims. The Child Abuse State Grant program plays a key role in the prevention of child abuse and neglect including post-investigative services such as individual counseling, case management and parent education. Other programs help complete the continuum of prevention efforts by providing funds for community-based efforts including public awareness and education activities and by supporting research on child maltreatment and training and technical assistance. Child Care The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program to States, Territories and Tribes provides direct child care assistance payments to low-income families when the parents work or participate in education or training. States have flexibility in developing child care programs and policies that meet the needs of children and parents within each State. CCDBG also supports research and evaluation of innovative child care subsidy policies and web-based access to reports, data, and other research-related information. ACF's most recent data indicates that $4.8 billion in total Federal child care funds, including $2.1 billion in discretionary funds, provide child care assistance to approximately 1.7 million children each month. However, when combined with other Federal and related State funds, child care assistance is available to 2.3 million children, representing an estimated 28 percent of children eligible under State rules. Developmental Disabilities Today, there are nearly four million Americans with developmental disabilities. Developmental disabilities are severe, chronic disabilities attributable to mental and/or physical impairment, which manifest before age 22 and are likely to continue indefinitely. The budget requests $155 million for programs that support partnerships with State governments, local communities, and the private sector to assist people with developmental disabilities to reach their maximum potential through increased independence, productivity, inclusion, and community integration. Disabled Voter Services: The Voting Access for Individuals with Disabilities grant programs provide support to States to make polling places accessible to individuals with disabilities in a manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation, including privacy and independence, as other voters. Grants also provide individuals with disabilities with information about the accessibility of polling places and train election officials, poll workers, and election volunteers on how best to promote the access and participation of individuals with disabilities. The 2007 President's Budget maintains $16 million for these efforts. Native Americans The programs of the Administration for Native Americans promote the goal of self-sufficiency by providing social and economic development opportunities. The budget request includes a total of $44 million for these programs which, through discretionary grants, provide financial assistance, training and technical assistance to eligible Tribes and Native American organizations. Funds support a range of projects from the creation of new jobs and development or expansion of business enterprises and social service initiatives to the formulation of environmental ordinances and training in the use and control of natural resources. Community Services Programs The budget proposes $24 million for the Individual Development Accounts (IDA) program. IDAs are dedicated savings accounts for low-income individuals that can be used for purchasing a first home, paying for post-secondary education, or capitalizing a business. This demonstration program provides grants to agencies that in turn empower low-income individuals to save by providing matching contributions for savings and intensive financial counseling and economic literacy education. The FY 2007 budget continues the policy of not requesting funds for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) and a number of smaller community services programs, a total decrease of $670 million. CSBG lacks national performance measures and does not award funds on a competitive basis. In addition, key CSBG services targeting employment, housing, nutrition, and health care are also provided by other Federal programs. The budget is consistent with a recent PART review, in which the program received a rating of Results Not Demonstrated. In addition, the budget does not fund the Community Economic Development, Rural Community Facilities, and Job Opportunities for Low-Income Individuals programs. Other Children and Families Activities The budget maintains funds for programs that offer safe havens and access to services for victims of domestic violence and runaway and homeless youth. The Family Violence Prevention and Services program provides grants to States and Tribes to prevent incidents of family violence, provide immediate shelter and related assistance for victims of family violence, and support prevention services for perpetrators. The budget also supports a national toll-free hotline to provide information and assistance to victims of domestic violence. The Runaway and Homeless Youth program supports public and private organizations to establish and operate runaway and homeless youth shelters. Also, ACF will begin using vouchers to provide maternity group home services as part of the Runaway and Homeless Youth program. Research/Federal Administration There is continuing interest and need for sound research to help guide efforts to assist low-income families become and remain economically self-sufficient and to strengthen families. The FY 2007 budget includes $6 million in PHS evaluation funds, a decrease of $6 million, for the Social Services Research and Demonstration program which will support cutting-edge research and evaluation projects in areas of critical national interest. The request includes $188 million in FY 2007, an increase of $5 million, to support staffing and maintain activities to administer the programs of ACF. Consistent with the President's Management Agenda, the budget supports efforts to reduce erroneous and improper payments in several key ACF program areas, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and supports a continued focus on the Public Assistance Reporting Information System (PARIS), a voluntary program for States to share public assistance data to maintain program integrity and detect and reduce erroneous payments. The budget includes funding for enhanced single State audits in three to five States in an effort to develop an error rate methodology which will help reduce improper payments.
The Administration for Children and Families serves some of the Nation's most vulnerable populations through entitlement programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Child Care Entitlement to States, Child Support Enforcement (CSE), Foster Care, Adoption Assistance, Independent Living, Promoting Safe and Stable Families, and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). The ACF entitlement outlay estimates for FY 2007 are $33.7 billion, an increase of $164 million in entitlement spending from FY 2006. This overall increase is a combination of a $55 million increase in TANF outlays and typical growth rate increases in Child Support, Foster Care, and Adoption Assistance. This year's budget includes the reauthorization of TANF and related programs, as well as other program modifications included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA). The FY 2007 President's Budget also includes proposals to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ACF entitlements. The budget provides additional funding for TANF. This includes new Family Formation and Healthy Marriage State grants, continuing the Supplemental Grant for Population Increases through 2010, and restoring the TANF Contingency Fund to $2 billion. In the Child Support Enforcement program, the budget includes modifications which increase both financial collections and medical support to families. The budget also includes proposals in Foster Care, including an option for States to receive their foster care funds as a flexible grant. Temporary Assistance For Needy Families TANF provides approximately $16.5 billion annually to States, Territories, and eligible Tribes for the design of creative programs to help families transition from welfare to self-sufficiency. States have tremendous flexibility in determining how to use their TANF dollars. Since welfare reform, through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), States are spending less on cash assistance payments and more on education and training, child care, and other work supports to help families achieve self-sufficiency. In 1998, States spent 63 percent of combined State and Federal funds on cash assistance, and in FY 2004 States spent 32 percent. In addition, States may transfer up to a combined 30 percent of their TANF funding to the Child Care and Development Fund and the SSBG with not more than 10 percent transferred to SSBG. Welfare reform is widely regarded as a success. TANF caseloads continue to decrease. As of June 2005, 4.5 million individuals received TANF benefits - 64 percent fewer than in August 1996. From June 2004 to June 2005 TANF caseloads dropped six percent for individuals and four percent for families. The TANF program expired at the end of FY 2002. Congress continued the program through a series of extensions. The budget assumes passage of DRA, which reauthorized the TANF program through 2010. For more information, see the program developments section. TANF Performance The TANF program achieved success towards its primary goal of moving TANF recipients from welfare to work and self-sufficiency. In FY 2004:
In the 2005 PART assessments, the TANF program received a Moderately Effective rating. The assessment notes that TANF has produced modest, but statistically significant increases in employment and earnings among welfare recipients as well as reduced caseloads, poverty, and welfare dependency. The assessment also emphasized the importance of welfare reform reauthorization and strengthening work requirements. TANF Program Developments The DRA addresses several critical Presidential initiatives affecting TANF, including: (1) reauthorizing the TANF program through FY 2010; (2) strengthening work participation requirements; (3) creating and providing $150 million for a program focused on the promotion of healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood; (4) reinstating authority for the Supplemental Grants for Population Increases; and (5) eliminating funding for both the Bonus to Reward High Performance States and the Bonus to Reward Decreases in Illegitimacy. The DRA strengthens work participation requirements by updating the base year for the caseload reduction credit from 1995 to 2005. With the decreases in TANF caseloads since the enactment of PRWORA, most States have had a zero, or nearly zero, target rate for participating in work activities. Updating the base year for the caseload reduction credit will reestablish a meaningful work participation rate requirement. The DRA also includes $150 million for a program focused on the promotion of healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood - areas the Administration considers vital to the TANF purposes of strengthening families and improving the wellbeing of children. The Budget includes three proposals for TANF that will increase budget authority by $332 million in FY 2007 and by $1,789 million over five years from FY 2007 through FY 2011. The first proposal, Family Formation and Healthy Marriage State Grants, provides $100 million per year for competitive State grants that will be targeted to innovative approaches to promoting healthy marriage and reducing out-of-wedlock births. The grants will require a dollar-for-dollar match and States can use Federal TANF funds to meet the match requirement. These grants expand upon the efforts to support Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood in the DRA ($150 million per year). In addition, the budget proposes legislation to add $232 million in FY 2007 to fully fund the TANF Contingency Fund at the original $2 billion level and modify the fund to make it easier for States to access by changing the definition of maintenance of effort and simplifying the annual reconciliation process. The third proposal continues the authorization for Supplemental Grants for Population Increases through 2010, consistent with the authorization of TANF under DRA. Child Care Entitlement to States The FY 2007 budget includes $2.9 billion for the Child Care Entitlement to States, a component of the Child Care and Development Fund. Beginning in FY 2006, the DRA provides an increase of $200 million from the FY 2005 appropriation. These funds will provide valuable support for working families who are moving from welfare to work. The Child Care Entitlement is composed of mandatory and matching funds. Two percent of the mandatory entitlement funds are reserved for eligible Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations. States are mandated to spend at least 70 percent of the Child Care Entitlement on families receiving TANF, transitioning from TANF, or at risk of becoming eligible for TANF. States must also spend a minimum of four percent of all child care funds to improve the quality and availability of healthy and safe child care for all families. Child Care Performance CCDF helps families to achieve and maintain self-sufficiency by improving access to affordable, high quality child care. The Child Care Bureau collaborates with the Head Start Bureau, Department of Education, and the Health Resources and Services Administration to achieve these goals. In the 2004 PART assessment, CCDF received a Moderately Effective rating. The assessment notes that the program is critical to families transitioning from welfare to work, and that the program is improving how it tracks the availability, accessibility, and affordability of child care for low-income families. Child Support Enforcement The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program is a joint Federal, State, and local partnership that seeks to ensure financial and emotional support for children from both parents by locating non-custodial parents, establishing paternity, and establishing and enforcing child support orders. Child support services, as mandated in Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, are available for all families with a noncustodial parent, regardless of welfare status. In FY 2007, the Federal government will spend an estimated $4.1 billion on Child Support Enforcement efforts. Child support collections play an important role for families transitioning from welfare to self-sufficiency, particularly in light of time limits on receipt of cash assistance. By securing support from non-custodial parents on a consistent and continuing basis, families may avoid the need for public assistance, thus reducing government spending. Families in which a custodial parent has never received cash assistance receive all child support collected on their behalf. Child support collections on behalf of families receiving TANF and some collections on behalf of former TANF recipients are shared between the State and Federal Governments as reimbursement for providing TANF benefits. States have the option to pass through a portion of monthly child support collections to current TANF families. Additionally, States may opt to pass through all child support collections to former TANF families. The Federal Government shares in the financing of this program by providing matching funds for general State administrative costs and paternity testing, as well as the funding of incentive payments. The CSE program also includes a capped entitlement of $10 million annually for grants to States to facilitate non-custodial parents' access to and visitation of their children. Child Support Performance The CSE program continues to make strong gains in child support order and paternity establishment, as well as collections of current and back support. Highlights include:
In its 2003 PART assessment, CSE received a rating of Effective and continues to be one of the highest rated block/formula grants of all reviewed programs Governmentwide. This high rating is due to its strong mission, effective management, and demonstration of measurable progress toward meeting annual and long term performance measures. Child Support Program Developments The DRA includes a series of provisions to strengthen and improve the CSE program. These provisions incorporate several critical Presidential initiatives, including: State options to direct more child support collections to children and families; new efforts to increase collections such as expanding passport denial, mandatory review and adjustment of support orders, improving processes for identifying proceeds from insurance settlements, and requiring States to consider both parents' access to health insurance coverage when establishing child support orders; and an annual user fee of $25 for child support cases with collections to families who have never received TANF assistance. Additionally, the Federal match rate for genetic testing is reduced from 90 percent to 66 percent and States will be prohibited from using incentive payments as a State share of costs for purposes of claiming Federal matching funds. Overall, DRA provisions improve collection of medical child support, strengthen existing collection and enforcement tools, reduce Federal expenditures, and allow States the option to provide additional support to families who need it most. Combined, these provisions generate a net Federal savings of $62 million in FY 2007 and $2.1 billion over five years.
Child Support Legislative Proposals The budget continues to support several child support proposals that have been included in recent budgets. These provisions will enhance automation tools, strengthen existing enforcement tools, further improve the collection of medical child support, and assist families in gaining self-sufficiency. In FY 2007, these proposals will cost $7 million in child support costs and increase the Federal share of collections by $9 million. Over five years, these combined child support proposals will generate a net Federal savings of $17 million while increasing collections to families by almost $1.6 billion. Children's Research and Technical Assistance The FY 2007 President's Budget includes $58 million to support child support enforcement training and technical assistance efforts; operation of the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS), which assists States in locating absent parents; and welfare research. Of this amount, $37 million will be devoted to: 1) Child Support Enforcement training and technical assistance ($12 million) and 2) FPLS operations ($25 million). The DRA specifies that funds for these activities be equal to the greater of one percent and two percent respectively of the total amount paid to the Federal Government for its share of child support collections for the preceding year or the amount appropriated for these activities in FY 2002. The remaining $21 million will fund welfare research ($15 million) and continue the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being ($6 million), a longitudinal study of the well-being of children who come into contact with the child welfare system. Child Support Enforcement Legislative Proposals
Foster Care, Adoption Assistance, and Independent Living Programs The FY 2007 budget request for the Foster Care, Adoption Assistance, and Independent Living programs is $6.9 billion. These programs, authorized by Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, provide essential services to vulnerable children by supporting safe living environments and preparing for independence older foster youth who are likely to age out of the system. Of the total request, $4.8 billion will support the Foster Care program. This is a $101 million increase from last year's appropriation and includes the effects of the legislative proposals and program developments described in the following sections. The funds will be used for maintenance payments and administrative costs for approximately 231,000 children per average month in 2007, a 0.5 percent decrease from 2006. In addition, States may use the funds for training and for the operation and development of the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (SACWIS), a computer-based data and information collection system. The budget includes $2.0 billion for the Adoption Assistance program, which supports families that adopt special-needs children. This is an increase of $164 million over the FY 2006 appropriation. These funds will be used to provide maintenance payments to adoptive families, administrative payments for the costs associated with placing a child in an adoptive home, and training for professionals and adoptive parents. The proposed level of funding will support approximately 420,000 children each month. The budget also contains $140 million for the Independent Living Program, the same as the FY 2006 appropriation. This program funds a variety of services to ease the transition from foster care for youth who will likely remain in foster care until they turn the age of 18 and for former foster children between the ages of 18 and 21. Foster Care, Adoption Assistance, and Independent Living Performance The Foster Care, Adoption Assistance, and Independent Living programs demonstrated success in improving safety, permanency, and well-being of children in FY 2004. Working with the States, these programs met the goal of minimizing disruptions to the continuity of family and other relationships for children in foster care by decreasing the number of placement settings per year for a child in care. The programs also met goals to provide children in foster care with permanency and stability in their living situations by improving the timeliness of reunification, if possible, and promoting guardianship or adoption when reunification is not possible. The Adoption Assistance program received a rating of Moderately Effective in the 2005 PART assessment. The PART found that the program increases permanent placement of foster care children, leading to both improved child well-being and reduced Federal and State spending. In the 2004 PART assessment, ILP received a Results Not Demonstrated rating because the program needs to develop a data system to track program participation and outcomes. The Foster Care program received a rating of Adequate from the 2003 PART. This is an improvement over the Results Not Demonstrated rating received in 2002. The program received a higher rating due to new program performance measures, progress towards program goals, an initiative to develop an error rate, and improved program management. The proposed alternative financing system for Foster Care, discussed in the next section, would address PART findings to further improve the program. Foster Care Program Developments The DRA includes two provisions to clarify policies for Foster Care and related programs. The first provision clarifies federal matching of foster care administrative costs by specifying that claims for Federal matching funds for administrative costs for "candidates" for Federal foster care benefits involving children placed in the home of a relative who is not a licensed foster care provider are limited to no longer than 12 months. The second provision clarifies and reinforces the current law rule that a child is eligible for Federal foster care or adoption assistance based solely on the AFDC-eligibility of the original home from which he or she was removed (in response to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Rosales v. Thompson). Foster Care Legislative Proposals The FY 2007 President's Budget includes two legislative proposals for Foster Care and related programs. The alternative funding proposal, detailed in the Child Welfare Program Option box (see right), would allow States the option to receive their foster care funding as a flexible grant over five years to support a continuum of services to families in crisis and children at risk. This proposal will increase budget authority by $25 million in FY 2007 and it is budget neutral over five years. The second proposal aligns the Foster Care and Adoption Assistance matching rate for the District of Columbia with the District's matching rate in Medicaid and SCHIP. This would increase the Federal matching rate for the District of Columbia from 50 percent to 70 percent. This proposal will cost the Federal Government $7 million in FY 2007 and $30 million over five years. Child Welfare Program Option ProposalStates That Choose the Program Option Could Use the Funds for:
Under the Flexible Funding Plan States Will Be Required to:
The proposal provides access to the TANF Contingency Fund from which States may receive additional funding under certain circumstances if a severe foster care crisis were to arise. A $30 million set-aside will be available for Federally recognized Indian Tribes, and a one-third of one percent set-aside will be available for monitoring and technical assistance of State foster care programs. Promoting Safe and Stable Families The Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program is a capped entitlement program designed to assist States in coordinating services related to child abuse prevention and family preservation. These services include community-based family support, family preservation, time-limited reunification services, and adoption promotion and support services. States generally must spend at least 20 percent of their funds on each of the above four categories. The Adoption and Safe Family Act of 1997 established that a child's health and safety must be of paramount concern in any efforts made by a State to preserve or reunify a child's family. The FY 2007 request for PSSF includes $365 million in mandatory funds provided by formula to States. Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program Developments The DRA adds a new $20 million provision for Strengthening Courts through the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program. In addition, DRA increased budget authority by $40 million for FY 2006 from $305 million to $345 million. The budget proposes to maintain this new level of mandatory funding, $365 million, in the straightline reauthorization of this program. Social Services Block Grant The Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), a capped entitlement, provides funds to States for delivering social services and allows States substantial discretion in allocating funds in order to best suit their specific needs. Programs or services that are frequently supported by SSBG funds include child care, child welfare, home-based services, employment services, case management, adult protective services, prevention and intervention programs, and special services for people with disabilities. SSBG is funded at $1.2 billion for FY 2007, a reduction of $500 million from FY 2006. The 2005 PART identified several weaknesses of the block grant, noting that the flexibility of the SSBG makes it difficult to measure performance and that the breadth of services provided by SSBG funds can overlap with other categorical and flexible Federal social service programs.
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Last revised: February 20, 2006
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