Today’s infants and toddlers have lived virtually their entire lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shaped every aspect of their growth and wellbeing. The pandemic has directly impacted them, through experiences such as delayed screenings for developmental issues, and indirectly impacted them through the circumstances of other members of their households, including increased parental stress, illness, and job loss. This brief examines how decision makers implementing the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) have used COVID relief funding and policy opportunities to lay the groundwork for longer-term, transformative change by equitably supporting infants, toddlers, and their families. The brief also offers guidance for how decision makers can leverage ARPA across myriad programs to support these children and families now and into the future.

Congress passed The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978 to protect American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children and families. ICWA recognized core values and principles of child welfare best practice by requiring active efforts to keep children safely in their homes and connected to their families, communities, and culture. The values and spirit embedded in ICWA are critical to the well-being of AI/AN children, youth, and families and should form the basis of child welfare practice for all. This brief describes four key principles inherent in ICWA, provides examples of these principles in practice, and offers questions for consideration to help agencies further explore how they should apply these principles to support the permanency and well-being of both Native and non-Native children, youth, and families.

This fact sheet summarizes available federal child welfare spending programs, their provisions, and their respective funding levels. It includes funding of the Foster Care, Prevention, Permanency-Title IV-E and Child and Family Services-Title IV-B of the Social Security Act (SSA), as well as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA).

The COVID-19 pandemic required child protection agencies to pivot quickly, identify new ways of working with children and families, and seize opportunities for innovation that previously seemed impossible. Agency leaders leveraged virtual engagement to maintain connection and support the well-being of children and families, and to address their staff’s needs so they could deliver services effectively during such a difficult stretch of time. This brief shares lessons learned and key considerations offered by parents, caseworkers, supervisors, administrators, and resource caregivers, including both foster and relative caregivers, for incorporating virtual engagement into practice in ways that best support children and families.

The Supporting Family Economic Well-Being Through Home Visiting (HomeEc) project seeks nominations of practices to support family economic well-being. Practices can be stand-alone or a component of or add-on to a larger intervention, such as an early childhood home visiting model. HomeEc seeks nominations of practices that:

• Support family economic well-being
• Serve families with young children and/or pregnant women
• Have written protocols, manuals, or other documentation available that describe how to implement or administer the practice
• Are delivered individually or in a group

Submissions are to be sent to HomeEc@mathematica-mpr.com by April 15, 2022.

The National Indian Child Welfare Association will hold its 40th annual conference as a virtual three-day event from April 4-6, 2022, addressing tribal child welfare and well-being. The national conference will share the latest research on the well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native children and the most innovative child welfare and children’s mental health service delivery practices, highlight tactics and strategies for financing and sustaining services that impact children, and showcase strategies for involving youth and families in developing services and policies that lead to systems change.

This Annie E. Casey Foundation brief shares six pivotal strategies for coordinating and funding community efforts to support families at risk of entering the child welfare system: invest in infrastructure at the state and local levels, create funding structures that maximize prevention funds, support community-led planning and design, align programs at the state level to better serve families, invest in evaluation, and leverage private and local dedicated funding streams. Strategies presented in this brief include practices from Colorado, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Washington State, and the District of Columbia.

The Fathers and Continuous Learning in Child Welfare (FCL) project sought to improve placement stability and permanency outcomes for children by engaging their fathers and paternal relatives. FCL implemented a methodology known as the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC), a continuous learning methodology. The last in a three-part series, this podcast discusses strategies in the BSC within Prowers County, Colorado. Topics discussed include:

• The flexibility and innovation small child welfare agencies can have in comparison to larger, more bureaucratic agencies
• The collective accountability child welfare and partner human service agencies shared in Prowers County to engage and involve fathers and paternal families in their casework and prevention efforts
• The "must-haves" necessary to spark and sustain culture change

This comprehensive child welfare resource provides state and national data on child maltreatment, foster care, kinship caregiving, and adoption from foster care. Data profiles are available by state. Also available for download is a companion guide which explains how stakeholders can interpret and use the data.

Providing access to tangible resources can strengthen families and communities by avoiding and de-escalating crises, reducing parental stress, increasing access to safe housing and reliable childcare, and ensuring children have the material items they need to thrive. This brief discusses the impact of community-based strategies, connections, and collaborations that offer economic supports to address families’ basic needs, keeping children safe and families together. These include housing supports, food assistance, financial supports, employment assistance, early care and education services, legal services, and medical and behavioral health care.