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.
CLASP Submits Statement for Record on Implementation of Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
By Tiffany Conway
On September 15, 2009 the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing on the "Implementation of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act."
The bipartisan Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, signed into law by President Bush on October 7, 2008, represents the most significant federal reforms for abused and neglected children in foster care in more than a decade. The act will help hundreds of thousands of children and youth by promoting permanent families for children in foster care; improving outcomes for children and youth involved with the child welfare system; increasing support for American Indian and Alaska Native children; and improving the quality of staff working with children in the child welfare system.
At the September 15th hearing, witnesses provided testimony on implementation efforts, highlighting progress, opportunities and challenges. Witnesses included representatives from state agencies, the National Congress of American, Indians, the Child Welfare League of America and the American Bar Association's Center of Children and the Law. Margaret "Greta" Anderson, a college student who spent time in foster care, also provided testimony on her experiences.
CLASP submitted a statement for the record that looked at the provisions of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, highlighting some examples of implementation efforts that are underway. CLASP identifies two key opportunities for Congress to help ensure that the promises of the new act are realized: providing leadership in their state to encourage implementation and building on the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act by addressing additional changes needed at the federal level to improve outcomes for children and families.
Fostering Connections To Success And Increasing Adoptions Act Resources
READ MORE »- Rutledge Q. Hutson | Oct 03, 2008 Protecting Children and Strengthening Families
- Tiffany Conway and Rutledge Q. Hutson | Mar 02, 2007 Is Kinship Care Good For Kids?
- Rutledge Q. Hutson | Jan 15, 2003 A Vision for Eliminating Poverty and Family Violence: Transforming Child Welfare and TANF in El Paso County, Colorado
- Oct 05, 2009 Child Welfare: We Can and Must Do Better
- Sep 30, 2009 CLASP Statement for the Record: September 15, 2009 Hearing on the Implementation of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
- CLASP | Sep 01, 2009 Federal Policy Recommendations for 2009 and Beyond
- Tiffany Conway | Jun 01, 2009 Comments to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid on the Proposed Rule on Case Management Services
- Alan W. Houseman and the CLASP Staff | Oct 16, 2008 CLASP Federal Policy Recommendations for 2009 and Beyond
