CFK Reports From: Ten Years of Leaving Foster Children Behind
Event: Press Conference
Organized By: Child Welfare League of America
Where/When: Murrow Room, National Press Club; July 17, 2006

Report By: Martha Pitts

An outdated eligibility requirement for foster kids to receive federal assistance under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act is leaving out nearly 50,000 children per year, according to a report by the Child Welfare League of America. The release of the report—Ten Years of Leaving Children Behind—was timed to coincide with the ten-year anniversary of Congress’s overhaul of welfare legislation.

The report, which looked at eligibility rates by state from 1998 to 2004, found that 55% of children entering foster care qualified for federal assistance in 1998. In 2004, 45% qualified.

When Congress replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, it didn’t change the eligibility for federal foster care support. Under AFDC, if a child lived in a family that was AFDC eligible, that child was also eligible for food stamps and other services. If a child were removed from a family that was AFDC eligible, that child would qualify for Title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance. Title IV-E provides federal assistance to children placed in foster care.

AFDC eligibility was based on a complex system of requirements involving income tests. Congress decided that foster care and adoption assistance would remain tied to whatever the states had established as their AFDC eligibility when it eliminated the program in 1996. This decision to tie eligibility to the old AFDC program is sometimes called the “look back” provision.

Now, when a child enters foster care under Title IV-E, the federal government will help subsidize a share of the cost only if that child was removed from a family that would have been eligible for the AFDC program.

“A child’s entitlement to safety, permanency, and well-being is being eroded before our very eyes,” said Shay Bilchik, President and CEO of the CWLA.

The CWLA report mentioned that an Urban Institute study on state financing of child welfare services found that the child welfare administrators who were interviewed revealed that the primary reason why more children were not eligible for Title IV-E is the link to outdated AFDC income standards.

In June 2005, CWLA interviewed private, non-profit agencies that are direct service providers to find out the effects of the outdated eligibility requirement. More than 25% of these agencies responded and confirmed that they are experiencing increased pressure to raise millions of dollars annually to make up for dwindling federal support.

“We have seen our fundraising demands grow annually as we are now raising $1.5 million per year to fill in the gap of the costs of providing services,” said Tom Burton, executive director of AGAPE, Inc., a non-profit social services agency that provides Christian-based social services to children and families in crisis.

Resources:

Ten Years of Leaving Children Behind