This American Public Human Services Association and Chapin Hall “Evidence to Impact” tool provides examples of state policy options aligned with peer-reviewed research, organized by the policy levers at agencies’ disposal, including macroeconomic supports (Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, minimum wage, paid family leave, employment and job creation), concrete supports (child care, housing, health care, flexible funds, direct cash transfers), and public assistance programs (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children). Used in concert with meaningful policy and practice improvement efforts, this policy tool allows jurisdictions to assess their current policy landscape and consider future opportunities to expand access to economic and concrete supports as a primary prevention strategy.

Economic and concrete supports are “protective factors”—factors that prevent families from becoming involved in the child welfare system. The evidence indicates that increasing access to these supports may be an effective strategy to prevent child maltreatment, keep families together, and address racial inequities. For families who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), experiencing material hardship (difficulty meeting basic needs) is associated with increased risk for both neglect and physical abuse investigations. This Chapin Hall policy brief highlights how increasing access to TANF decreases the risk of child welfare involvement.

Jurisdictions are increasingly using funding in innovative ways to meet the economic and concrete needs of families as a child welfare prevention strategy. Concrete supports are provided further upstream to families at risk for child welfare involvement. While there is variation in when and how these flexible dollars are used by child welfare agencies to strengthen families, this Chapin Hall policy brief highlights efforts in Kentucky, Indiana, and Wisconsin to integrate and expand flexible funds as a core component of their prevention continuum.

Chapin Hall and the American Public Human Services Association co-hosted a webinar on March 21, 2024 where they presented findings from their national survey of child welfare leaders. Presenters included the team that created and conducted the survey as well as the Acting Commissioner / Executive Deputy Commissioner for the New York State Office of Children and Families, who discussed barriers in aligning across human service agencies to better support families.

Regardless of their size, agencies and organizations need to demonstrate the success of their kinship programs to their funders and other stakeholders. Showing success requires a strategic approach and an understanding of general principles that support effective data collection and evaluation. The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on July 17, 2023 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET which will explore the foundational principles and strategies to demonstrate success. 

This brief, prepared by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and Generations United, identifies kinship practice examples to help jurisdictions change policy and practice to promote kin placement and permanency. The brief is organized into seven main topics: identification, notification, and engagement of kin; placement with kin; financial assistance for kin, including TANF and Title IV-E funding; emergency licensing procedures; kin-specific licensing practices; permanency with kin; and general kin support.

This bulletin from the Children’s Bureau’s Child Welfare Information Gateway highlights supports and services for kinship caregivers, training for caregivers and case workers, and examples of successful State and local kinship programs. It discusses kinship navigator programs and features support services that caseworkers should share with kinship caregivers, including TANF, respite care, and the Guardianship Assistance Program.

In honor of May’s National Foster Care Month, the Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau writes in this blogpost that incorporating family voice into the permanency-planning process and encouraging collaboration between parents and resource parents can help the community, the courts, and related professionals inform a highly supportive child welfare agency culture. The blogpost provides a link to the updated National Foster Care Month website, which includes new resources and outreach tools showing how partnerships between parents and children, agencies, community organizations, and the courts can help support reunification and strengthen family and community connections.

More than half the caseload of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program consists of child-only cases, in which a child receives TANF cash assistance but the parent or caregiver does not. The most common type of child-only case is a nonparent caregiver case, consisting of children being cared for by someone other than their parents, often a grandparent. Research suggests that nonparent caregiver cases are often vulnerable with many unmet needs and that the children in these cases share characteristics with children living in foster care: mental health conditions, school-related problems, and experience with trauma. Kinship navigator programs can be an important tool for supporting these families. Most states are developing or expanding these programs, and the federal government has provided funding in fiscal years 2018 and 2019 to state and eligible tribal child welfare agencies to develop, enhance, or evaluate kinship navigator programs. The Family First Prevention Services Act amended the Social Security Act to allow title IV-E agencies to receive funding for kinship navigator programs that meet certain evidence-based criteria; see ACYF-CB-PI-18-11 for program requirements.

On July 16, 2019, the Office of Family Assistance, in collaboration with the Children’s Bureau, sponsored a webinar that featured kinship navigator programs operating in three states and the services they offer to nonparent caregivers. Arizona Kinship Support Services connects kinship families to government benefits, links them to legal services, and helps them navigate existing community support systems. California’s UWCA-211-iFoster Kinship Navigator Collaborative provides an online, self-service resource portal for kinship families that coordinates public and private resources based on the families’ individual needs and preferences. The New York State Kinship Navigator provides an information and referral network for kinship caregivers statewide. In addition to these three states, the webinar featured a representative from the Children’s Bureau who discussed the federal funding available for kinship navigator programs and a representative from the Assisting Special Populations to Improve Readiness and Engagement (ASPIRE) study team who shared information on TANF child-only cases.

While only a small percentage of TANF families are involved in the child welfare system, a large portion of child welfare families have received or are eligible for TANF benefits. More than half of all foster children come from families who are eligible for TANF, and most of the families that receive in-home child welfare support services are also on welfare. A growing body of research further demonstrates a strong correlation between poverty and child maltreatment. While poverty may not be a predictor of maltreatment, it is one of many interrelated and complex risk factors that increase the likelihood of child welfare system involvement. In this facilitated webinar, presenters:

• provided a descriptive and demographic overview of the intersections of families, funds, and services between TANF and child welfare systems, and 
• discussed specific initiatives that state or local programs have undertaken to increase collaboration between TANF and child welfare systems through strategic partnerships, data integration, coordinated case management, and kinship provider support systems.

This webinar occurred on April 24, 2018 from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EST.