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Dollars and Priorities

7/13/2021

With Federal Aid in Hand, New York City Funds Big Boost to Youth Supports

The New York City record budget of nearly $100 billion includes major boosts to programs that could benefit the most vulnerable children.

Youth Services Insider
Web-based Tools Help Claims for Tax Credits, Advance Payments

7/6/2021

New Web-based Tools Process Claims for Tax Credits, Advance Payments

The government has launched a pair of new web portals to help families manage and track advance monthly payments of their child tax credits.

6/30/2016

Richard Wexler: Family First Act Institutionalizes Institutions, Sets Up Prevention to Fail

Now that there finally is a bill, it is clear who has the greatest reason to oppose the so-called Family First Prevention Services Act: environmentalists. That’s because of how many forests will be destroyed to provide the paper for all the new plans, reports and assorted other documents that the bill mandates as a substitute for real change.

6/22/2016

The Family First Prevention Services Act: A Mixed Bag of Reform

Earlier this month, the federal Family First Prevention Services Act (H.R. 5456) was finally introduced after more than a year of hearings and behind-the-scenes work by Congressional staff. The bill has two main purposes: to bolster federal investments to prevent entries into foster care, and to reduce the number of children and youth who are placed in congregate care settings.

6/8/2016

To Prevent Child Abuse: Replace the “Public Health Approach” with a Social Justice Approach

Consider two approaches to working with troubled children and families. Approach #1 is embodied in a paragraph from a column in The Chronicle in which the author cites what she sees as barriers to working with children in foster care: “When foster parents said they could not, and our overworked paraprofessionals were unavailable, I had to take my clients to the doctor, dentist, therapist and for family visits.

6/8/2016

In Support of Prevention Funding, But Not at the Expense of Children in Foster Care

As I mentioned in a prior piece in this series, the federal child welfare advocacy community increasingly seems myopically focused on increasing federal funding for “prevention.” Unfortunately, few, if any, are able to paint a picture of what increased investment in prevention would look like.

    5/4/2016

    Child Abuse: The Not-Really-All-That-Shocking Truth

    Imagine you read an article that began like this: “A reckoning is coming in gerontology. New studies show that when a group of 95-year-olds is followed for five years, a greater proportion die than when they are followed for only one.”

    5/4/2016

    Our Inadequate Response to an Underestimated Problem

    If we found out a public health crisis was three to four times greater than previously known, how quickly would Congress authorize emergency spending to combat it? I certainly hope it would not wait for the next budget debate, or make the response budget neutral.

    4/5/2016

    The $2 Billion Question: Why Haven’t We De-Linked?

    Every time I explain federal child welfare financing to someone for the first time – whether it be a student or a Congressional staffer – I have the same experience. I start by saying that the federal government doesn’t actually run a child welfare system, but instead establishes requirements and standards for state and county-based systems and then provides funding to put those standards into practice.