CLASP | Issues | Child Welfare

Strengthening Children, Youth and Families

CLASP's child welfare work seeks to prevent child abuse and neglect and to ameliorate the trauma experienced by children who are maltreated. We promote policies that empower parents to care for their children when possible and provide alternative, loving homes for children whose parents cannot care for them.

We use four basic strategies to achieve these goals. First, we promote financing reform that will better align child welfare fiscal structures with the goals of safety, permanency and well-being for all children. Second, we identify mechanisms for integrating multiple service systems that touch the lives of vulnerable children and families. Third, we promote policies and practices that support kinship families who step in to care for children when their parents cannot. Fourth, we promote policies and practices that enhance the child welfare workforce.

In Focus

Children and Families Need More than Child Welfare Waivers – Comprehensive Financing Reform is Necessary

Below are excerpts from Rutledge Q. Hutson 's July 29 testimony before the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcomittee on Income Security and Family Support. The subcomittee hearing focused on the use of child welfare waiver demonstration projects to promote child well-being.

The current child welfare system lacks the capacity to address the needs of children who are abused or neglected, and the vast majority of federal resources to address these needs are available only after a child is removed from his or her home.

For the last decade, between 750,000 to 1 million children have been found to be abused or neglected each year. Data also indicate that nearly 40 percent of the children for whom allegations of abuse or neglect are substantiated get no additional services.

Most of the staff I've known over the years, from the directors and commissioners to the front line workers, have been dedicated and caring and given their all to help children and families. Yet, it is as if they are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. The financing structures that currently exist simply do not provide states, localities or workers with the tools they need to address the challenges children and families face.

In the current economic environment, even the most creative of child welfare leaders cannot find the funds to piece together supports that will keep children safely in their homes. They are facing budget cuts to a range of services that help low-income families-services that can be used to help keep children safely with their families

To turn around the outcomes for children and families, to ensure that fewer children are abused or neglected, and to ensure those who are abused or neglected receive the supports and services they need to heal, the nation must give state and local child welfare agencies the tools needed to do the job.

Children and Families Need More than Child Welfare Waivers – Comprehensive Financing Reform is Necessary

Fostering Connections To Success And Increasing Adoptions Act Resources