The Cost of Doing Nothing About Federal Child Welfare Financing

Over the past decade, two key fed­er­al fund­ing sources for child wel­fare agen­cies have been shrink­ing. With­out leg­isla­tive change, these sources will con­tin­ue to decline pre­cip­i­tous­ly over the next 10 years, pro­vid­ing states even less sup­port for the needs of vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and fam­i­lies than they do today.

A new info­graph­ic from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive shows the high cost of doing noth­ing about our fed­er­al financ­ing sys­tem for child wel­fare, and how fund­ing streams from Title IV‑E and Title IV‑B of the Social Secu­ri­ty Act are on a path to sup­port a small­er per­cent­age of chil­dren and few­er ser­vices to pre­serve and sup­port fam­i­lies in the years ahead. These trends mean states will lose dol­lars to sup­port chil­dren in fos­ter care and fed­er­al sup­port for the child wel­fare work­force also will con­tin­ue to decline.

Fed­er­al financ­ing for child wel­fare, how­ev­er, can be restruc­tured to pre­serve fund­ing while pro­vid­ing more incen­tives for best prac­tices that will help more kids grow up in fam­i­lies and increase their odds of becom­ing suc­cess­ful adults. The Casey Foun­da­tion cospon­sored a brief­ing on rec­om­mend­ed best prac­tices on Oct. 23, 2013.

Down­load the Cost of Doing Noth­ing infographic