ACYF

Lynn Johnson, President Trump’s choice to lead the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the Department of Health and Human Services, is scheduled for next Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.

President Trump has announced that Elizabeth Darling is his choice to serve as the commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), one of the top child welfare jobs at the U.S.

Last week, Congress passed and the President signed into law the Family First Prevention Services Act. It is an encompassing and complex piece of legislation that will take some time for states to figure out in terms of the opportunities, as well as the data collection, reporting, accountability and state plan requirements that accompany those opportunities.

The number of youth living in foster care has increased for a fourth straight year, rising to 437,465 in 2016, according to data released today by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

In June, the Trump administration hired Jerry Milner to lead the federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees federal child welfare funding and policy. The Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) was established in 1977 and oversees the Family and Youth Services Bureau as well as the much larger Children’s Bureau, which was created by President William Howard Taft back in 1912.

The Trump administration has nominated Lynn Johnson, head of the child welfare system in one of Colorado’s largest counties, to lead the Administration on Children and Families (ACF), the branch of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees most spending on family services, foster care and adoption.

With the notable exception of the fate of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, there’s nothing doing yet on youth-related issues and the White House. Jeff Sessions and Tom Price, President Trump’s respective nominees to lead the Justice and Health and Human Services departments, have yet to receive confirmation votes by the full Senate.

Last week, during a reception at a sleek house off of Washington D.C.’s Embassy Row, I found myself in the kitchen talking with Winnie Wechsler. Wechsler, who runs the Pritzker Foster Care Initiative, which funds a slew of child welfare related non-profits including the one I run, was amped up.

Last week, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, posted a request for proposals to establish a new national center focused on improving the quality of services tailored to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth in foster care.