Many people across the country believe the child welfare system must do more to prevent child abuse and neglect; to provide specialized treatment to families struggling with problems of mental health, substance abuse, or domestic violence; to promote new permanency options for children, including support for grandparents and other relatives who have stepped in to raise children when their parents cannot; and to provide adequate numbers of child welfare workers who are trained to deal with the complex needs of families in crisis. At the heart of the debate lie questions about how best to increase the capacity, in each of these areas, to improve outcomes for children and families—and how to hold federal, state, and local governments more accountable for these outcomes.

As Congress debates various reform proposals, these fact sheets—one for each state and one for the nation—will provide useful background on the current fiscal structure of the child welfare system. They will be helpful in assessing how different financing reform proposals will affect children across the country. Each fact sheet contains sections that:

1. Describe the context for child welfare spending by providing data on abused and neglected children, children in foster care, children who have left foster care, and children living with kin;

2. Identify how much child welfare funding comes from federal, state, and local sources;

3. Describe the major federal funding streams that are used to support child welfare and the amount of child welfare funding that comes from each; and

4. Highlight expenditures and trends within the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Programs, including expenditures for foster care maintenance and adoption assistance payments, administrative and child placement costs, and training.

Data used in the fact sheets are the most recent available that are systematically collected for all states. Generally, this means the most recent data reported by the federal government, although additional data sources are used as well, as indicated in the footnotes on the charts. We recognize that more recent data may be available from individual states, but we prefer to include data that are consistently reported across the states.

We hope that these state fact sheets will help policymakers, advocates, and the public better understand the complex financing structure of child welfare services in their states. We also hope that it will enable them to work effectively toward national, state and local reforms that will help ensure our nation's child welfare system protects children, accurately identifies and addresses their needs—including the needs of their families—and helps all children grow up in safe and loving families.